KTM is best known here in the states for rip-snorting dirt bikes and the go-anywhere, do-anything Adventure motorcycle, but the Austrian firm also builds a 240-horsepower tarmac-terrorizing car that it now plans to bring to America – and make street legal.

It's an about-face for the company, which had long said it would offer the X-Bow only in Europe and Asia and only as a track day weapon that couldn't (legally) be driven on the street. "We will do whatever is possible to bring the car to the United States – that I promise," says Hubert Trunkenpolz, managing director of U.S. sales and service, according to Dealer News.

There's already a long line of people waiting to get one.

Dealer News says 600 people have expressed interest in buying one of the cars, which feature the same 240-horsepower (Hell for Leather says it's 237, but what's a couple of horsepower here or there?) 2.0-liter turbocharged engine used in the Volkswagen GTi.

"We need the support of the VW/Audi Group and we need to overcome some legal hurdles regarding licensing, but at the end of the day we want to see this vehicle on the streets of America," Trunkenpolz says.

So do we, because the X-Bow (Crossbow) is supposed to be a blast to drive. With a carbon-fiber monocoque and minimal accoutrements, the X-bow weighs 1,543 pounds – about 500 pounds less than the Lotus Elise SC. The chassis was developed with help from Italian race-car builders Dallara and Loris Bicocchi, who had a hand in making the Bugatti Veyron and other superexotics handle so beautifully. The chassis produces enough downforce to achieve 1.5-g cornering loads, and the X-Bow accelerates from zero to 62 mph (100 kph) in 3.92 seconds. That's just a few ticks shy of the Ferrari Enzo. Evo magazine put an X-Bow through its paces and called it "terrific."

KTM plans to build 1,000 X-Bows a year at a plant in Graz, Austria. No word on when it'll arrive in the states, but Hell for Leather predicts we'll see it in 2010. It remains to be seen what they'll cost, but they go for about $70,000 in Europe.