2019 K TM 790 DUKE
FIRST TEST
P62
KTM engineers began work on creating the
LC8c motor back in 2012, since then the 250
people engaged with the project in the R&D
department invested 111,111 man-hours with 60 of
them working full time on it, covering 375,692
miles of intensive dyno testing and over 560,000
on the open road. KTM doesn't do things by
halves, but even so, the fact that they invested so
much time and money in getting this platform right
is an indication of the importance of the project to
the company's future growth strategy.
First, though, they spent two years considering
whether to produce a downsized middleweight
version of their larger capacity 75° V-twin family
of engines, before settling on a DOHC eight-valve
parallel-twin. "We had to get this right, because it
will be such an important platform for us for many
years to come," says Torsten Gaul, the Austrian
firm's head of engine R&D. "But after spending
lots of time assessing the two formats, it was
pretty clear that the V-twin configuration would not
work for us, because our main goal was to get the
