KTM X-Bow, Red Bull Ring (South Circuit)

KTM X-Bow driving experience on the Red Bull ring, South Circuit.

The car has zero driver aids is no ABS, TCS, ESC, Brake booster, fully manual etc so its just you with 330bhp under your right foot and some powerful brakes to go with it that needs 40-45kg of pedal force to get working properly. It's very responsive to weight transfer so light trail braking helps to get the nose turned in but there's a fine line before the rear wants to get out of shape. Having driven mostly single seaters with very stiff setups, it was a nice change driving something on the softer side that needed a different driving style.

For some reason, the car kept popping out of gear and was tough at times to select the gear with the stick. Nevertheless, it was still a great track session. Braking distances into T1 was around 100-125m when I had the brakes warm and confidence was high and into the penultimate corner was around 80m. Throttle application out of the final corner was crucial as it was easy to light up the rears and lose time all the way down the straight.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a single clean lap in terms of traffic or gearbox issues. The quickest lap came in around the 11 minute mark and was around a 1min03sec which could have easily been below the 1min mark with a clean lap. At the end of the day, it was a driving experience and not a timed track day so cannot complain at all about traffic.

Strange to drive the real circuit after having so many sim races at the circuit. Felt it helped a lot with confidence. Awesome to think how many racing legends have been on the same patch of track.

Overall, I'd recommend it but make sure you elect for the 10 lap experience to allow you to get your confidence level up and get in some quicker laps.