KTM’s all-new 2014 450 Rally bike is set to make its first competitive appearance at the OilLibya Rally of Morocco, the final round of the 2013 FIM World Cross Countries Rally Championship, on 13-19 October.

The team, already in Morocco to conduct final tests and settings refinements, will first test the bike under race conditions in the opening stage on Monday.

On board the latest version of the new bike will be multi-time Dakar Rally winner Marc Coma, American Kurt Caselli, who made his Dakar debut in 2013, and factory team stalwart Ruben Faria.


The KTM 450 Rally bike is the result of dedicated work by KTM’s MSP and R&D and engineering experts, who designed and built a completely new version from the ground up.

The Morocco Rally represents the KTM factory team’s final tests ahead of the 2014 Dakar Rally and will also decide the 2013 world champion. KTM’s Coma is the title holder and starts with a narrow three-point lead over rival Paolo Goncalves.

Joining Coma, Caselli and Faria will be the fourth member of the official factory line-up, Francisco Lopez, who will ride the 2013 version of the KTM 450 Rally bike.

Also on the 2013 version in Morocco will be KTM’s three official supported riders for Dakar 2014 including KTM Australia’s Ben Grabham, Broadlink KTM Riaan van Niekerk of South Africa and ORLEN KTM Jakub Przygonski of Poland.


The OilLibya Morocco Rally 2013 takes a field of 74 riders over 1517 km of selective sections and 534 km of liaison in six stages of challenging desert and sand dune conditions.

KTM has won the past 12 Dakar events, including the past three since organisers reduced the engine capacity to 450cc.