SPORTING GESTURE: 2022 KTM RC 8C
It’s been more than five years since you could buy a proper sportsbike from KTM. The Austrian nonsense-mongers dropped the ugly-but-awesome RC8 superbike back in 2015, and since then we’ve yearned for a proper full-fat sportsbike in vain. Okay – the Super Duke 1290 and even the Super Adventure 1290 are both properly crackers, and we’re definitely all over them. But perhaps surprisingly for a firm which won four MotoGP rounds last year with its pure-sex RC16 race bike, there’s been little sign of a new, orange, track-ready machine.
Until now, that is. Say hello to the RC 8C
– a limited edition track-only weapon of a bike, powered by the 890R Duke engine and built by KTM’s close partner, Krämer Motorcycles. Krämer has been making sweet, sweet race bikes powered by KTM’s single and twin-cylinder engines for the past decade or so, and this is the fanciest one yet, based on the Krämer GP2 890R. Markus Krämer, boss of Krämer, used to work for the KTM R&D department, and KTM was more than happy to support the project with production engine supply.
The engine is stock but makes 128bhp thanks to some trick intake and exhaust mods. There is a knock sensor, so it will run better on 100-octane fuel, and a 98dB exhaust is available if required for ‘quiet’ race tracks.
But it’s the chassis that is the real source of sauce, of course. The frame is a bespoke steel tube trellis design and is reportedly super-stiff. It’s massively adjustable, with steering angle, fork offset, rear ride height and seat position all able to be tweaked to suit your needs. Handlebars, footpegs and levers are also fully adjustable.
The suspension is from KTM’s in-house WP suspension firm and is top-notch track kit. The Apex Pro 7543 fork is gaspressurised and fully adjustable, and the Apex Pro 7746 rear shock is also totally tweakable. Add in a WP steering damper and you have an impressive set of suspenders all round.
Wheels are no-messing forged aluminium Dymags, shod with Pirelli SBK slicks with a 120/60 17 front and 180/60 17 rear (though you can fit up to a 200/55 at the back if you fancy). Brakes are by Brembo, with Stylema calipers up front, working on 290mm discs, with a Brembo RCS adjustable master cylinder.
The fuel tank lives under the seat, and the dash is a top-end AIM MXS 1.2 RACE unit and comes with full datalogging capabilities. Finally there’s a honking great set of carbonio wings up front, which are so outlandish they’re more like a piece of modern art than an aero device. Our man at the factory tells us the overall result is a super-stiff missile of a bike that gets better and better the harder you push it. Nice.
It apparently takes 40 hours to produce one, with 25 being built each month from September to December, and that’s it – production is limited to just 100 bikes, priced at £31k, and they all sold out in under five minutes. That’s a shame – but there might be a silver lining to the fast sell-out.
KTM looks to be dipping a toe back in the serious production sportsbike water, and the massive sales success of the RC 8C might be all the encouragement it needs. Fingers crossed…