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I didn't know Australia made cars that were worth buying overseas (for us in the Northern Hemisphere)
Is KTM on the Brink of Withdrawal from MotoGP?
- Thread starter mylexicon
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Many developed economies are in a similar situation with rising imports for durable goods manufactured by "domestic" brands. For the last 30-40 years, the easiest way to build a golden parachute was to sell manufacturing facilities to foreign countries, and then cement their perpetual import status by securing foreign investment from the host country. Nothing wrong with imports per se, but this genre of commercial artifice is exhausting its consumers.
Anyway, BMW might be the best fit to take over KTM, assuming BMW are willing and Bajaj and Austria are onboard. BMW would get a MotoGP apparatus. BMW makes cruisers; KTM does not. BMW makes Superbikes; KTM does not. KTM makes dirt bikes; BMW does not. KTM makes Supersport bikes; BMW does not. The obvious clash would be in the adventure segment, but maybe BMW goes even more upmarket.
Probably won't happen. BMW doesn't like to integrate similar operations. They buy nameplates that make niche products. KTM is probably too expensive to play in the dirt.
How about this angle:
CFMoto has been very adept at copying many Kawasaki models, in some cases pretty much identical, perhaps CFMoto and Kawasaki could team up and take over the KTM MotoGP effort if it comes up on the chopping block.
Kawasaki has been stating they would like to get back in to MotoGP at some point and this would be a great opportunity if the moon and the stars align.
CFMoto has been very adept at copying many Kawasaki models, in some cases pretty much identical, perhaps CFMoto and Kawasaki could team up and take over the KTM MotoGP effort if it comes up on the chopping block.
Kawasaki has been stating they would like to get back in to MotoGP at some point and this would be a great opportunity if the moon and the stars align.
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Not doubting you, but where did you read that? All reports I've read said he got an RS-GP24.
Also, from Davide Brivio today:
"“In 2024, we had already a big expectation. But he had the change of the bike during the season, and then he was not really confident on that [2024] one."
Aprilia: “We expect a lot from Raul” | "We needed to be tough sometimes"
Also, from Davide Brivio today:
"“In 2024, we had already a big expectation. But he had the change of the bike during the season, and then he was not really confident on that [2024] one."
Aprilia: “We expect a lot from Raul” | "We needed to be tough sometimes"
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I'm going to get told off for going off topic too often, but ....
This is labelled as a Vauxhall, but it's a Holden.
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Nowadays you need to sell 1/2 million cars a model to be profitable, which is difficult in a country with a small population.
The engines are set at the beginning of the year, so unless they got a special exemption then they must be running 23 engines for the full year. Trackhouse requested Aprilia to provide them 24 bikes but Aprilia was only able to obtain enough parts for 3 riders by the engine freeze date
Interesting article, I didn't know that Raul scored less points on the updated bike than the previous bike, thanks for posting. Perhaps it shows the improvements throughout the grid were greater than the improvements that Raul got.
The engines are set at the beginning of the year, so unless they got a special exemption then they must be running 23 engines for the full year. Trackhouse requested Aprilia to provide them 24 bikes but Aprilia was only able to obtain enough parts for 3 riders by the engine freeze date
An all time classic that is sadly out of reach for most people now.
When I was very young, a person on the next street over had one of these. To me as a child riding around bikes, it looked (and sounded) very cool indeed.
A friend of mine had one up until a few years ago but couldn't justify keeping it given how much he could sell it for and that it would pay off his mortgage. Fair call in the end but a shame that cars this awesome are basically unaffordable and with the price point, unjustifiable IMO.
In all honesty, our cars were IMO behind in the international market. The Monaro, that was sold in the US as a GTO was cool but lasted only a couple of years and of course our ute culture and v8 utes were second to none but in general, were not great cars compared to overseas offering.
Most of Holden's manufacturing was done in Australia (As was Ford Australia's and Toyota Australia's) but the costs were too high and the product was substandard compared to, not just products in the price range but products below the price range in a lot of cases.
