The battle for supremacy in the "naked" sports/track car segment continues, though devotees have chosen their horses, be they Ariel, Lotus, KTM, or other. But now it looks like the awesome but impractical segment may crack into the real-car realm through Abarth, as we first reported back at the beginning of August.

So what is this KTM X-Bow-based Abarth going to look like? We have no idea. We expect it to be powered by a 1.8-liter MultiAir turbocharged four-pot generating something in the neighborhood of 190 horsepower. Sound like an Elise fighter? We hope so too.

Of course, "real car" is, like "hybrid" or "EV" a term defined differently by different groups. Being built on what is essentially a very large go-kart, the Abarth coupe probably won't be one to take the kiddies to violin practice. But it might work as a canyon-carving solo commuter.

It'll be a small-time seller, with figures not expected to crack 2,000 cars per year. That's probably a realistic mark with the anticipated $80,000 MSRP.

[Road & Track via Autoblog]