It seems like Benelli’s new sister brand
QJ Motor is following an aggressive strategy. The Chinese company launched its
first product, the QJ SRK 600 in its home country earlier this month. The
fully-faired QJ SRG 600, which was previously referred to as the Benelli Q600,
has also been spotted several times in the past. And now, Benelli TRK 502-based
QJ SRT 500 has been revealed via leaked images.
It can be seen in the leaked images that
the QJ SRT 500 features a much cleaner design compared to that of the Benelli
TRK 502. Its body panels, front beak, and overall proportions appear to be more
in sync with each other. Perhaps, that’s one of the reasons why the SRT 500
looks more compact than the TRK 502 even after having the same dimensions. In
fact, it has been reported that the QJ will be around 10 kg lighter than the
Benelli.
The QJ SRT 500 is expected to be offered
in at least 3 variants. Out of which, one will be road-biased and have alloy
wheels, Marzocchi forks and an aluminium swingarm. The other two variants will
be more off-road focussed and feature spoke wheels, steel swingarm and
different suspension setup. One of the two off-road biased variants of the SRT
500 will be equipped with high-end Brembo brakes.
In terms of specs, the QJ SRT 500 will be
powered by the same 500cc twin-cylinder engine which we have seen in the
Benelli TRK 502. However, there will be a slight difference in power output.
While the TRK 502 has 47 bhp of maximum power, the upcoming SRT 500 will have
48 bhp. The QJ SRT 500 is likely to be a China-only model, just like the QJ SRK
600.
In other news, the new 2020 Benelli TRK
502 and TRK 502X are expected to be equipped with a fully-digital and
full-colour LCD instrument cluster.
