KTM’s MotoGP engine should be taking its first bench tests in a week or two, with engineers agog to hear the exhaust for the first time – and hopefully to see the right numbers on the dyno.
The complete bike will not be ready for another six months, when former MotoGP rider Alex Hofmann will perform the prototype’s first roll-out tests. This was confirmed by Mike Leitner – until last year the long-serving crew chief to Dani Pedrosa – who was in The Netherlands as KTM’s representative at the important MSMA meeting on the eve of the race. Leitner, himself a former GP racer, could give few details: the project was still at an early stage, and next year will be devoted to private testing prior to the full-time return in 2017.
The Austrian marque has achieved serial success in 125cc and Moto3; however, an entry into MotoGP in 2005 with a 990cc V4 engine supplied to Team Roberts proved short-lived, with KTM pulling out before the end of the season.
This article appears in AMCN Vol 65 No 01