| | | | Road Test: KTM RC8 1190 launch Road – Orange torpedo! |  Written: 07/03/2008 : 11:40. Read 7124 times (113/day). | | The integrality of this filed article is for Premium Members. | Ronda, Spain February 25th 2008– KTM firmly places itself into the history books with its first ever superbike! It’s orange, its fast and its right straight out of the crate. KTM really managed to impress both Jeremy McWilliams and myself both on Ascari and on the road. The 1148cc V-twin from Mattighofen takes on the world.
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(vidéos at the end of the article)
KTM showed us the very first concept version of the RC8 at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2003. The Austrians are aggressive in their marketing strategy and choosing Tokyo was a nice little intimidating stunt aimed at the Japanese big four. KTM wants to make a big statement with the RC8. It says in big bold orange letters that if we can beat you at offroad we can beat you on the road too.
The RC8 started out as a 999cc V-twin, and then it became a 990cc V4. KTM then scrapped everything done before and developed a brand new V75 1148cc twin from scratch in 30 months. In the last two years KTM have lobbied with Ducati to get the current WSB regulation changes through to allow the 1200cc super twins to compete.
The real competition right now is first and foremost the Ducati 1098 where the RC8 1190 is aimed directly at the 1098S at a lower price than the standard 1098. As a matter of fact, Mattighofen engineers have aimed very precisely and the RC8 1190 makes exactly the same rear wheel horsepower as the 1098S. A source also told me exclusively that KTM have purchased not one, but two brand new Ducati 1098R’s for study (this is not unusual as every manufacturer study their competition). But in the corridors lurk both a BMW and an Aprilia 4-cylinder superbike too. World superbike racing will be extremely interesting in 2009.
Arriving at Ascari I can see around 50 spanking new RC8’s lined up waiting for the world press. Half of the bikes have got number plates and mirrors, the other half are primed for the track test.
Following Jeremy McWilliams advice I opt to do the road ride first thing in the morning to allow the sun to warm up the very long Ascari race circuit. It’s February and the weather conditions are not always very warm or dry in this part of Spain. Ronda is high up in the mountains and it was cold this morning.
Twisting the ignition key for the first time the orange instrument panel fires up very fast. I push the starter button and cherish the moment which will go into motorcycle history. The RC8 with its extremely distinct styling is alread ...
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