In case you are not familiar with it, the KTM X-Bow is a purpose-built street-legal track car which is extremely good fun to drive on the track, but a nightmare to drive on the roads! Since its launch in 2008 they have sold around 500 units of it, and now they’ve decided that for 2011 it needs a refresh in form of the X-Bow R.

That letter “R” gives a clue that this car is more powerful than its predecessor. It gets a new engine belonging to the Audi A3. At 300 bhp it’s 60 bhp stronger than the regular X-Bows and since as it only weighs 790 kg, it will offer an exhilarating driving experience.

But if you want more, you can customize it as KTM offers two optional equipment packages. The road legal and homologated “Sport” package, as well as the “Race” package, which is optimised for track use.

The packages each include a vast number of completely new developed parts, which increase the performance of the car dramatically. Many of these parts will be also available separately in the PowerParts program, so all current KTM X-BOW owners will enjoy the benefit of the new developments.

Sales of the X-Bow R will begin next year when they are done with the tests.