The KTM X-Bow is the first car to be developed by Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM, in partnership with Kiska Design, Audi, and Dallara. The X-Bow uses a turbocharged direct injected TFSI engine manufactured by Volkswagen Group, which produces 177 kilowatts (237 hp) at 5,500 rpm and 310 newton metres (230 lb·ft) of torque between 2,200 and 5,500 rpm.

The X-Bow (say ‘crossbow’) is quite unlike any other small sports car because it is built around a carbonfibre tub. It’s a beautifully finished tub too, the ordered weave on show beneath a clear matt lacquer, while its curves and angles have been designed and developed by renowned race chassis experts Dallara. Adding to the cachet and Italian feel are brakes by Brembo, seats, such as they are, by Recaro, and ride and handling refined by Dallara and Loris Bicocchi, the chassis ace whose credits include the Bugatti Veyron, Pagani Zonda and Koenigsegg.

Yet this is an Austrian car built in Graz by a company that until now has been known principally for its off-road motorbikes. This diversification of its business is, it says, a response to dwindling numbers of motorcycle licence holders in Europe, and it’s a project of ambitious scale: KTM plans to build 500 cars this year but hopes to grow production to 1500 to 2000 per annum. For reference, Caterham makes around 500 cars per year.

For the concept of the KTM brand’s first automobile, Kiska incorporated many characteristics that are more closely associated with motorcycles than cars. Every part of the X-Bow fulfils a function, the technology remains transparent, the form is noticeably simple. The few, orange-coloured body panels are “floating elements”, like those of motorcycles, and suggest lightness and simplicity.

The deliberate reduction in all things even includes the lights: simple headlamps, embedded indicators flush with the car’s contours and round lights at the rear forego superficial, showy effects. Instead, the carbon structure also takes on design duties, meaning that components which are frequently hidden in cars, such as the silencer, suddenly serve an aesthetic purpose in addition to their usual functions.