KTM X-BOW GT4 2017 Review

We’ve all done it. As motorsport enthusiasts and amateur racers, we are guilty of watching from the couch and thinking what it might be like to drive a REAL race car. Or even in a more serious armchair racer moment yelled: “Put me in that car. I can do better than that w@#%^$”.

As a middle-aged, underfunded self-professed gentleman racer, I recently had the opportunity to put my skills as a driver to the test and drive a ‘real’ race car at one the world’s best circuits, Phillip Island.

What do I mean by real race car? Although I have driven plenty of cars over the years in amateur motorsport, such is the nature of this level of competition that the machinery used is almost always at a similar level.

HQ Holdens, modern tarmac rally cars and more recently club racing in a Mazda MX-5. Save for some time in Formula Vee and Formula Fords, all of my previous drives have been production-based racers. By definition, they are not in the true sense, pukka, downforce-generating, single-focus race cars.

The recent growth of GT racing in Australia has been incredible. The Bathurst 12 Hour has evolved into an event that has world and local prominence – and it seems not a month has gone by in the past 18 months without the news of yet another factory-built GT3 weapon arriving to join the ranks of the Australian GT Championship. And now, the next formula to hit and potentially gain prominence is GT4.

May I then now introduce to you the KTM X-BOW GT4 -- lots of letters but with all the makings of a serious race car. And my chance at the big time?

Hello X-BOW
Built by Reiter Engineering in Kirchanschöring, Bavaria for the burgeoning GT4 class, the Reiter GT4 is, as you’d surmise, a full race version of the already very capable KTM X-BOW street sportster.

The X-BOW itself is infamous for its extreme nature. Open, little in the way of comfort – and built to do just one thing; scare the hell out of supercars at a fraction of the price and environmental footprint.

All of the ‘unobtainium’ you expect from a proper racer is here. Full carbon-fibre chassis, tick; massive brakes and slick race rubber, tick; downforce-generating aero aids, Hollinger paddle-shift gearbox, 250kW, shedloads of torque and only 1000kg, tick, tick, tick, tick and tick.

The Australian connections for the Reiter X-BOW, Justin McMillan and the team at M Motorsport know their way around GT cars. After a long-standing relationship with Reiter, which also builds a GT3 versions of the Lamborghini Gallardo and Chevrolet Camaro, the arrival of GT4 racing Down Under makes the KTM a logical addition to the local M Motorsport line-up.

A limited access test day at Phillip Island was just the chance yours truly was looking for. Although on the way I’ll admit I had more questions than answers…

Could I race a car like this? Would I even get close to reaching its limits? Would I fit?

Track time
After negotiating the roll cage and strapping into the cockpit, the first impression of the X-BOW GT4 is very plain -- this is definitely a ‘real’ race car. Carbon-fibre as far as the eye can see, tiny Alcantara wheel with shift paddles and a flood of buttons and dials ahead – a Motec digital display and screen for the rear camera…

After a quick chat with the car’s engineer, I’m on the pit speed-limiter rolling past Phillip Island’s garages and heading down the lane. The view from the cockpit is like that from a fighter (the whole single-piece canopy raises to allow you in and out) and as I accelerate out onto the circuit proper I am greeted with one of the best views in motorsport, the Island’s main straight seemingly disappearing into Bass Strait.

Lap one and two is about getting tyres and brakes up to temp and the squeal from the massive brakes is deafening. Now, as the pace increases I’m getting used to co-ordinating braking and paddle-shift down-changes and then letting the gearbox do its own auto upshifts.

At last I’m starting to get a sense of what the X-BOW GT4 is really like to drive.

So, how fast is it? The acceleration is awesome and just keeps going. That 250kW might not sound like a lot these days, but given it's propelling a car that weighs less than an MX-5, the effect is notable.

The engine itself is based on Audi’s 2.0 TFSI turbo four but gets uprated internals for endurance racing. It’s understressed and by all accounts very reliable.

Reiter option kits for the X-BOW include data-logging, upgraded aero and more. Endurance versions get anti-lock brakes and other aids and a 120-litre fuel cell. Like most racers, the sky’s the limit in terms of fine tuning – although the overall performance is controlled under the GT4 rules.

Back on the track, with plenty of real estate to gather speed and the Island layout’s famous long, flowing corners, it’s not the top speed that surprises rather the mid-corner pace.

Having only driven a car on slicks a few times it takes a few laps for me to really test the grip and push the car. Six-eight laps into my session and the cornering grip provided by the now sticky tyres and aero downforce at higher speeds is making the steering unbelievably heavy. My arms are starting to burn but the car just grips, so I hang on.

This might sound like Captain Obvious, but as the speeds build through the fast, flowing Phillip Island corners, so does the need to slow the car for corners like MG and Honda. After pushing through the long, fast, fifth-gear Stoner Corner and at well over 210km/h, I go super deep in the braking area and still can’t believe the pure, brutal stopping power. And still I find myself having to release the brake pressure to roll into the corner.

“Brake later next lap,” I tell myself…

“It’s not your car and it costs over $250,000,” the other half of my brain reminds me!

It’s on lap 10 and 11 that I start to get a proper appreciation of what it feels like to drive one of these incredible GT cars. Sure I can’t feel my arms and my neck is starting to twinge, but I am savouring every lap, braking later, getting back on the power earlier and each time hoping I don’t see the chequered flag signalling the end of the session.

If this is what driving a real race is like, sign me up.

2017 Reiter Engineering KTM X-BOW GT4 pricing and specifications:
Price: $250,000 (approx)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four-cylinder petrol
Transmission: Six-speed sequential Hollinger
Output: 250kW/???Nm
Fuel: You’re kidding, right?
CO2: See above
Safety rating: Please don’t mention Mustang