RE: KTM X-Bow Production Halted
Discussion
Frimley111R said:
Plus the 2-11 out handled it for less money too and there's the Atom which is a similar price to the 2-11 but even more bonkers in a straight line (although not round the corners).
Have you ever driven an Atom round a corner?Quotes like that piss me off, it'll go faster round a corner than anything else once you know how to make it. For my first year of ownership I tried to avoid corners, they scared me, but now I almost know what I'm doing
Bruntingthorpe
Spa
Goodwood
Cadwell
Not me, but looks lots of fun
RTH said:
It's so desirable they have 80 unsold new cars and have had to halt production( having only sold a total of 23 in the UK since they started ).
The plan build was 1000 per year that was scaled back to 200 due to lack of demand , currently they are making none - to be reviewed next year, at the earliest.
to be fair caterham scaled down production this year too admitidly they are now desperately expanding their production to match demand klm are notThe plan build was 1000 per year that was scaled back to 200 due to lack of demand , currently they are making none - to be reviewed next year, at the earliest.
Edited by RTH on Tuesday 25th August 18:45
ctallchris said:
RTH said:
It's so desirable they have 80 unsold new cars and have had to halt production( having only sold a total of 23 in the UK since they started ).
The plan build was 1000 per year that was scaled back to 200 due to lack of demand , currently they are making none - to be reviewed next year, at the earliest.
to be fair caterham scaled down production this year too admitidly they are now desperately expanding their production to match demand klm are notThe plan build was 1000 per year that was scaled back to 200 due to lack of demand , currently they are making none - to be reviewed next year, at the earliest.
Edited by RTH on Tuesday 25th August 18:45
The X-bow should be faster round a corner than an Atom, it has aero the Atom doesn't.
Regarding the comment on keyboard warriors, the main comment has been the car is too expensive, one does not have to have driven one to have an opinion on this. When it was first proposed at around £30k it looked like an Atom competitor, at around twice this not so much
Ben
Regarding the comment on keyboard warriors, the main comment has been the car is too expensive, one does not have to have driven one to have an opinion on this. When it was first proposed at around £30k it looked like an Atom competitor, at around twice this not so much
Ben
RTH said:
It's so desirable they have 80 unsold new cars and have had to halt production( having only sold a total of 23 in the UK since they started ).
The plan build was 1000 per year that was scaled back to 200 due to lack of demand , currently they are making none - to be reviewed next year, at the earliest.
The original article is not accurate. Circa 500 cars sold, 40 cars in the UK. A further production run of 80 cars built ahead of demand to satisfy the market until production resumes in Jan 2010. 12 of the 80 are RHD cars.The plan build was 1000 per year that was scaled back to 200 due to lack of demand , currently they are making none - to be reviewed next year, at the earliest.
There is a great sales/service channel in place in the UK now + an enthusiastic and growing band of owners.
Hopefully KTM will use their time wisely over the next few months to broaden the appeal of the X-Bow by decreasing the price, increasing the performance and improving their sales and marketing.
Back in 2004 I met the Ariel Atom and fell in love with it and then raced it for a year. The car was light years above the Caterham in development, quality and design. The guys at Ariel REALLY know how to market a product and fair play to them as they really are a success story and the car is great.
In 2008 I met the Xbow and thought it was a bit ugly. Then I got close and realised the design that went in to it. It really is beautiful. Having stripped all 3 cars (Caterham, Atom and Xbow) down to their bare bones I can gaurantee that you really do get your monies worth with the Xbow and the Atom come to that. But the Xbow really is worth the extra money. I just wish they could do what the guys at Ariel have done marketing it and it would definately be a success.
I'm glad its slow out of the box as we have had great fun making it go faster and we have a 500bhp upgrade in the wings. Not being tied in to KTM we can do what we like with the car. KTM however are very limited by what Audi say they can do with their engines so hence the state of tune the car comes with as standard.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, yes we are running a series for the Atoms and Xbows next year so the truth will unveil for sure.
See you there;-)
regards
Mark BDM
In 2008 I met the Xbow and thought it was a bit ugly. Then I got close and realised the design that went in to it. It really is beautiful. Having stripped all 3 cars (Caterham, Atom and Xbow) down to their bare bones I can gaurantee that you really do get your monies worth with the Xbow and the Atom come to that. But the Xbow really is worth the extra money. I just wish they could do what the guys at Ariel have done marketing it and it would definately be a success.
I'm glad its slow out of the box as we have had great fun making it go faster and we have a 500bhp upgrade in the wings. Not being tied in to KTM we can do what we like with the car. KTM however are very limited by what Audi say they can do with their engines so hence the state of tune the car comes with as standard.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, yes we are running a series for the Atoms and Xbows next year so the truth will unveil for sure.
See you there;-)
regards
Mark BDM
Backdraft said:
Back in 2004 I met the Ariel Atom and fell in love with it and then raced it for a year. The car was light years above the Caterham in development, quality and design. The guys at Ariel REALLY know how to market a product and fair play to them as they really are a success story and the car is great.
In 2008 I met the Xbow and thought it was a bit ugly. Then I got close and realised the design that went in to it. It really is beautiful. Having stripped all 3 cars (Caterham, Atom and Xbow) down to their bare bones I can gaurantee that you really do get your monies worth with the Xbow and the Atom come to that. But the Xbow really is worth the extra money. I just wish they could do what the guys at Ariel have done marketing it and it would definately be a success.
I'm glad its slow out of the box as we have had great fun making it go faster and we have a 500bhp upgrade in the wings. Not being tied in to KTM we can do what we like with the car. KTM however are very limited by what Audi say they can do with their engines so hence the state of tune the car comes with as standard.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, yes we are running a series for the Atoms and Xbows next year so the truth will unveil for sure.
See you there;-)
regards
Mark BDM
Wow Atom and an Xbow series that sounds good! keep us updated.In 2008 I met the Xbow and thought it was a bit ugly. Then I got close and realised the design that went in to it. It really is beautiful. Having stripped all 3 cars (Caterham, Atom and Xbow) down to their bare bones I can gaurantee that you really do get your monies worth with the Xbow and the Atom come to that. But the Xbow really is worth the extra money. I just wish they could do what the guys at Ariel have done marketing it and it would definately be a success.
I'm glad its slow out of the box as we have had great fun making it go faster and we have a 500bhp upgrade in the wings. Not being tied in to KTM we can do what we like with the car. KTM however are very limited by what Audi say they can do with their engines so hence the state of tune the car comes with as standard.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, yes we are running a series for the Atoms and Xbows next year so the truth will unveil for sure.
See you there;-)
regards
Mark BDM
ScottL said:
So put it all together and what do you get. If you scratch just below the surface, the car that appears to be too heavy, too slow and too expensive is in fact ultimately the quickest, safest, highest quality, most reliable, most exclusive, best value of the lot.
KTM "the most reliable of the lot" - yeah, that's what I thought today as we all filed into the pits under a red flag so the broken down KTM could be recovered...Atom120 said:
ScottL said:
So put it all together and what do you get. If you scratch just below the surface, the car that appears to be too heavy, too slow and too expensive is in fact ultimately the quickest, safest, highest quality, most reliable, most exclusive, best value of the lot.
KTM "the most reliable of the lot" - yeah, that's what I thought today as we all filed into the pits under a red flag so the broken down KTM could be recovered...Not sure how you come to that conclusion. The radical is non road legal out and out racing car in an extreme state of tune with life'd components as opposed to service intervals.
Anyone looking to acquire a Atom 3 300 would need to budget £40k and I hear it's not hard to add another £10k or more in cost options. £50K will buy you an upgraded X-Bow.
So really not much of a gap is it.
Anyone looking to acquire a Atom 3 300 would need to budget £40k and I hear it's not hard to add another £10k or more in cost options. £50K will buy you an upgraded X-Bow.
So really not much of a gap is it.
I have driven one on both the roads and at Silverstone. My thoughts prior to potentially putting a deposit down were:
1) I love the looks but there are Marmite
2) I'm fairly tall (6'2" and all my height is in my legs) and my other half's Caterham just doesn't fit so the X-bow was a refreshing potential alternative
3) I like lightweight cars a lot
4) I bought into the whole ethos of it
5) Original price seemed reasonable for what we would potential get as custoemrs
After I drove it
1) Still love the looks
2) It understeered massively on normal set-up and to have the fully adjustable was going to mean more ££££
3) The steering rack was too long, so it took too large an input for an agile move
4) The track set-up one was much better so it flawed the standard
5) Not enough noise and drama from the engine / exhaust
6) The car I was willing to pay for was about £15 - £20k more than the original price
In the end I'd love one for the looks still, but having driven it, it needed a few good revisions to be the car I wanted and it needed to be far far closer to the original price
1) I love the looks but there are Marmite
2) I'm fairly tall (6'2" and all my height is in my legs) and my other half's Caterham just doesn't fit so the X-bow was a refreshing potential alternative
3) I like lightweight cars a lot
4) I bought into the whole ethos of it
5) Original price seemed reasonable for what we would potential get as custoemrs
After I drove it
1) Still love the looks
2) It understeered massively on normal set-up and to have the fully adjustable was going to mean more ££££
3) The steering rack was too long, so it took too large an input for an agile move
4) The track set-up one was much better so it flawed the standard
5) Not enough noise and drama from the engine / exhaust
6) The car I was willing to pay for was about £15 - £20k more than the original price
In the end I'd love one for the looks still, but having driven it, it needed a few good revisions to be the car I wanted and it needed to be far far closer to the original price
kelk said:
I have driven one on both the roads and at Silverstone. My thoughts prior to potentially putting a deposit down were:
1) I love the looks but there are Marmite
2) I'm fairly tall (6'2" and all my height is in my legs) and my other half's Caterham just doesn't fit so the X-bow was a refreshing potential alternative
3) I like lightweight cars a lot
4) I bought into the whole ethos of it
5) Original price seemed reasonable for what we would potential get as custoemrs
After I drove it
1) Still love the looks
2) It understeered massively on normal set-up and to have the fully adjustable was going to mean more ££££
3) The steering rack was too long, so it took too large an input for an agile move
4) The track set-up one was much better so it flawed the standard
5) Not enough noise and drama from the engine / exhaust
6) The car I was willing to pay for was about £15 - £20k more than the original price
In the end I'd love one for the looks still, but having driven it, it needed a few good revisions to be the car I wanted and it needed to be far far closer to the original price
It doesn't come with fully adjustable suspension as standard?!1) I love the looks but there are Marmite
2) I'm fairly tall (6'2" and all my height is in my legs) and my other half's Caterham just doesn't fit so the X-bow was a refreshing potential alternative
3) I like lightweight cars a lot
4) I bought into the whole ethos of it
5) Original price seemed reasonable for what we would potential get as custoemrs
After I drove it
1) Still love the looks
2) It understeered massively on normal set-up and to have the fully adjustable was going to mean more ££££
3) The steering rack was too long, so it took too large an input for an agile move
4) The track set-up one was much better so it flawed the standard
5) Not enough noise and drama from the engine / exhaust
6) The car I was willing to pay for was about £15 - £20k more than the original price
In the end I'd love one for the looks still, but having driven it, it needed a few good revisions to be the car I wanted and it needed to be far far closer to the original price
Yes the suspension is 3 way adjustable ( low speed bump, high speed bump and rebound). You can see two bump adjusters in this picture.
There is also a very innovate feature that allows you to quickly adjust the ride height (+/-30mm). KTM call it the pre-load adjuster. You can see it in the picture below - it's the little anodised orange nut you can just about make out beneath the panel the nearest helmet is resting on.
I works simply by moving the spring platform. Takes 2 minutes with a speedbrace trackside to drop the ride height and maximise the aero. If you want to drop it further KTM sell adjustable pushrods from the GT4 spec car.
What's amazing about the X-Bow is that even at road practical ride heights it still generates way more downforce than anything else with number plates (eg 200kgs at 120 mph). If you drop it right down it doubles the downforce.
As a comparison the new 2010 Lotus Exige Cup and the 997 GT3 Mk II generate less than 25% of the downforce even though they run lower ride heights. Only the new 458 Italia gets close - it has around 70% of the X-Bow's downforce.
There is also a very innovate feature that allows you to quickly adjust the ride height (+/-30mm). KTM call it the pre-load adjuster. You can see it in the picture below - it's the little anodised orange nut you can just about make out beneath the panel the nearest helmet is resting on.
I works simply by moving the spring platform. Takes 2 minutes with a speedbrace trackside to drop the ride height and maximise the aero. If you want to drop it further KTM sell adjustable pushrods from the GT4 spec car.
What's amazing about the X-Bow is that even at road practical ride heights it still generates way more downforce than anything else with number plates (eg 200kgs at 120 mph). If you drop it right down it doubles the downforce.
As a comparison the new 2010 Lotus Exige Cup and the 997 GT3 Mk II generate less than 25% of the downforce even though they run lower ride heights. Only the new 458 Italia gets close - it has around 70% of the X-Bow's downforce.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff