MID-SIZED MAESTRO 2023 KTM RC 8C

The second-generation KTM RC 8C took all of two minutes to sell out its 200-unit production run. Cathcart was not lucky enough to have bought one, but he bagged another golden ticket – to try one out for size around Valencia.

- ALAN CATHCART

It had been quite a while since I last rode a multicylinder KTM on a racetrack – all the way back to 2011 and the Red Bull-sponsored factory RC8R 1200cc V-twin on which Martin Bauer was victorious in that year’s IDM German Superbike Championship, with teammate Stefan Nebel third. That was a key moment in the Austrian dirtbike specialist’s climb up the ladder to equal status, with the likes of Honda and Ducati in the road racing pantheon, and showed that orange was a colour to be reckoned with on-road as well as off it.

So, the chance to be one of only two fortunate journalists invited to join the 30 privileged owners of the new KTM RC 8C Version 2.0 in lapping the Valencia GP circuit on their first acquaintance with the blind dates they’d paid serious money for six months earlier meant going back to the future, as KTM rediscovers its road racing mojo and once again devotes a small slice of its massive R&D capability to developing customer road racers – albeit at this stage for just a few lucky customers with high-speed internet connections who could grab their chance with both hands to own this iconic piece of Austrian moto art.

It was also the chance to finally square the circle by riding a Krämer Motorcycles product, for after visiting Markus Krämer’s workshop 12 years ago in the humble converted cowshed where his Supermono R&D project was taking shape in between his day job working for KTM R&D, I’d never yet been able to take up any of his many invitations to ride one of his bikes. Was it worth waiting for? You betcha...