Yorkshire-Based Darkside Developments Becomes Official UK Dealer for KTM X-BOW
Darkside Developments, based in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has become the official UK dealer for the KTM X-BOW, a road-legal track day toy from Austrian motorbike manufacturer KTM.
While KTM might be a very well-known name in motorbike circles, chances are that — unless you play a lot of racing games — the four-wheeled X-BOW might have passed you by.
The X-BOW, pronounced “crossbow”, is an interesting piece of kit. It combines a carbon fibre chassis, developed by KTM with F2 chassis supplier Dallara, with a turbocharged Audi engine.
Despite being relatively spartan, it’s a good deal heavier than some similar rivals but it still doesn’t come close to troubling a tonne on the scales. Combined with power options up to 360hp, it’s extremely quick.
However, until now, the car’s dealer network in the UK has been a little haphazard. The X-BOW has been available in the UK since 2008 but, even accounting for the near-six figure prices, they’re still a vanishingly rare sight.
Darkside Developments itself is a specialist tuner for Volkswagen Group cars. It’s well known in racing and drag circles, with the “world’s fastest FWD diesel” — a 150mph SEAT Arosa — and won the MSV Track Day Championships in 2019.
This specialism means that the company — based in a unit in Grimethorpe, on the former site of the Grimethorpe Colliery — is ideally suited to servicing the X-BOW’s Audi-sourced powerplant.
As the sole official UK dealer, Darkside will be selling new and used examples of the X-BOW GT, X-BOW R, and X-BOW RR, as well as operating a service centre.
