KTM has been spied testing a road-legal version of the RC-8C track-only sports bike, answering the prayers of KTM fans the world over.

Back in July 2021, KTM caused quite a stir when they revealed the track-only RC-8C, a thinly disguised Moto2 bike, albeit with KTM's own 889cc parallel twin engine as found in the 890 Duke in place of the Triumph three-cylinder control-spec Moto2 engine.

Only 100 were built and sold out in less than five minutes. It was properly bespoke, too, with a frame that was much closer to the race bikes than the road 890 Duke and, with 128bhp and weighing in at only 140kg, a power-to-weight ratio of nearly 1:1.

Wails of anguish could be heard, however, from every red-blooded KTM fan as they realised that their favourite Austrian manufacturer wasn't about to replace the fabled - and flawed - RC8 road bike of 2008 to 2015. No road-legal faired sports bike for them!

KTM are nothing if not sensitive to their fans' emotions, however and in answer to their dreams, a road-legal RC-8C has been spied testing and the good news is that it doesn't look as if KTM has just slapped bodywork on an 890 Duke R.

Now, for copyright reasons, we can't publish the spy shots that appeared in German magazine Motorrad but you'll be able to find them online somewhere.

The black-on-black body colour hides many of the details of the ultimate shape and the headlights are lifted directly from the RC390 and look terrible but they are most likely a stop-gap measure rather than a final specification.

All of that doesn't matter, however. The only thing that is important here is that a faired sports KTM is looking likely to be on its way and that isn't something you can say every day....or year, for that matter.