The KTM RC8 is a piece of relatively recent but somehow old-feeling motorcycling history. Its twin-cylinder engine can trick you into thinking this is a normal product from the Austrian brand, but its fairing tells you otherwise. In 2023, you can pick up an example of this ‘time machine’ for as little as £5,000.
It’s generally not a good idea to buy the cheapest example of a particular bike out there, though, so we’ve found a nice-looking example for a very specific £6,491. For that, you get a 1,195cc V-twin engine, just 4,700 miles on the clock, and one of the oddest sports bikes in history.
Ordinarily, a brand’s flagship sports bike will be the craziest looking of its bunch, but the RC8 certainly doesn’t tick that box for KTM, and it kind of didn’t even back in its days of production. Sure, the lines are fairly sharp, and its vertical headlight surrounded by black had a ‘Vader-ish look about it, but take a look around KTM’s roster - old and new - you’ll find many more mad visual creations.
2023 has seen KTM expand two of its engines. The LC8c parallel twin has been beefed up to 947cc to go in a new 990 range, headlined by the 2024 KTM 990 Duke. Back when KTM was making the RC8, it was also making the old 990 Duke, which then had a 999cc V-twin pumping out 123bhp. The new 990 almost matches that at 121bhp, but what has changed since then is that the 2012 990 Duke was labelled the Super Duke, and that tag is now owned by the 1390 Super Duke, which runs a 1,350cc version of the 1,195cc LC8 KTM was putting in its RC8 from 2009.
A 2012 RC8 would put out 173bhp, but the new 1390 Super Duke R Evo - the top-spec version of the new 1390 - blows that out of the water with a huge 190bhp.
This is an indication of the direction KTM has gone in, and how it has managed to create a brand identity which embraces a bit of engineering madness without building a sports bike - because it just puts supersport powerplants in bikes without a fairing. Easy.
The RC8, then, is a look into a fleeting moment KTM’s past, one when it saw a future for faired bikes outside the world of MotoGP it now challenges in. It is also a slice of KTM history, as a chapter in the story of the LC8 and, as a sports bike, a very unique one, at that.
