A close-up look at the greatest Porsche modifier in the world
By Nick Kurczewski Email
Date posted: 10-19-2006
With the engine growling behind me, my hands tighten on the leather-wrapped steering wheel. The scenery goes blurring past at 110, 120, 130 mph. Acceleration is still building and the car is pulling even harder when my bravery finally cracks at 140 mph on the narrow German country roads. A jab on the almighty brakes throws me against the seatbelts. In the time it takes to utter one well-chosen profanity, everything comes to a sudden and surreal stop.
Until a few weeks ago my experience with the insanely high-performance Ruf Porsches was limited to power-sliding them across a racetrack, pushing them to the absolute limit and occasionally stuffing them into an unforgiving tire wall. Thankfully for me and Ruf's accountants, these moments of glory and ineptitude came courtesy of my PlayStation, during adrenaline-fueled sessions of Gran Turismo.
Now I'm experiencing two days of the real thing, driving bona fide Rufs on the sinuous roads surrounding the company's headquarters in Southern Germany. However, before jumping straight into the driver seat and doing my best to ignore the butterflies doing dive-bombs in my stomach, a brief history lesson is in order. After all, Ruf's story extends far beyond cameo roles in computer games, and well before the company's latest Porsche-based creation — the 650-horsepower Rt 12 I'm set to drive — achieved over 220 mph during high-speed testing.
The past — a banker's villa and a car called Yellowbird
It was in 1939 when Alois Ruf Sr. converted what had previously been a banker's villa into a full-service garage. Located at 21 Mindelheimer Street, at the entrance to the sleepy Bavarian town of Pfaffenhausen, Auto Ruf had barely opened its doors when the nightmare of WWII began. The company struggled through the war and its bleak aftermath. By 1949, life was returning to normal. A gas station was added to the garage. Six years later, Alois Sr. began building and marketing his own tour buses throughout Germany.
Yet it took until 1963 before Ruf and Porsche finally crossed paths — quite literally, as it turns out. With Alois Sr. at the wheel of one of his buses, a red Porsche 356 coupe attempted to pass him. Suddenly, the Porsche driver lost control. The car spun off the road and rolled over twice. Stopping to help, Alois Sr. found the driver remarkably unhurt, except for a few bumps and scratches. The same could not be said for the crumpled Porsche. Seeing potential amongst the mechanical carnage, Alois Sr. bought the battered car from its hapless owner and set about repairing it. The subsequent restoration of that Porsche 356 laid the foundation for Ruf's relationship with Porsche and ignited the sports car passion within Alois' son.
Alois Ruf Jr. had joined his father's company only a few years before that mangled 356 arrived at the factory. The restoration of that car, along with a brief glimpse of an early 911 prototype as it blasted past on the autobahn, firmly hooked Alois Jr. on the rear-engine sports cars from Stuttgart. With his father still at the helm, the garage began servicing more and more Porsches and quickly earned a reputation for high quality and expert engineering. The death of Alois Sr. in 1974 meant Alois Jr. had to step into the role of company leader. His first and most important decision was to focus all efforts on Porsches. The gas station and tour bus business were pushed to the side. The factory was expanded and, as the headquarters grew, so did Ruf's technical daring.
More and more performance modifications were being carried out on cars, rather than just standard service and repair work. By 1975, the company had built its first 911 variant, based on the Carrera RS 3.0. Two years later, the first complete and turbocharged Ruf appeared, using the then-new 911 Turbo as an even more potent base to build upon. In 1981, the extent of changes the company was carrying out on Porsche vehicles won Ruf Automobile GmbH recognition from the German government as being an automobile manufacturer in its own right.
But the car that forever placed Ruf in the record books (and on the walls of innumerable adolescent males) arrived in 1987. Known as the CTR — and usually referred to as the "Yellowbird" due to a lurid yellow paint job the car sported in a Road & Track article — its performance humbled the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. A top speed of 213.75 mph made the CTR Yellowbird the fastest production car of its day. That same year also marked Ruf's entry into the lucrative American market. The word was out: If you wanted an intelligently engineered and mind-numbingly fast sports car, you called Ruf.
The Present — changes, choices and classics
As Porsche's lineup has evolved with the times, Ruf's has followed suit. By far the most popular Rufs continue to be a core of 911-based models like the R Kompressor, 3800 S and Rt 12. However, there are now also high-performance variants of the Boxster roadster. Even Porsche's Cayenne sport-utility has spawned a Ruf edition, called the Dakara.
While they might often look a lot like their Porsche counterparts, each Ruf vehicle has its own VIN. Bare Porsche body shells arrive in Pfaffenhausen and Ruf's team of engineers and mechanics quickly set about adding a chassis-stiffening roll cage, bigger engines, stronger brakes and all manner of high-performance hardware. On average, only three-dozen Ruf-badged cars are built each year. In 2006, about 20 of these will be Rt 12 super-Porsches.
Ruf also adds performance modifications to existing Porsches. The factory was buzzing with activity during my visit. In one corner, a gorgeous white Carrera GT (yes, as in the over-$400,000 supercar) was being fitted with an adjustable suspension. Engines were roaring to life in the two dyno rooms, while a steady stream of customers were waiting their turn in the reception area at the front of the factory. Across the street is Ruf's recently expanded classic car restoration service. Vintage Porsches rule the roost, though the service is technically open to all makes and models.
The Future — new digs in Bahrain and the arrival of Godzilla
In 2007, Ruf will expand further still. A new factory/showroom/research and development center is being built in Bahrain, next door to the Sakhir Formula 1 circuit. When complete, it will employ about 70 people — roughly the same as in Pfaffenhausen — and cater to clients in Middle Eastern and Asian markets.
New Ruf models are also on the way. A silver Porsche Cayman test mule sat idle in the factory parking lot during my visit, still wearing its standard body and interior. The finished product should be ready within weeks, and will be motivated by a 3.4-liter supercharged engine capable of at least 400 hp. Another new Cayman-based addition is the sleek RK Coupe, which made its debut in August at Pebble Beach. The RK marks the second collaboration between the Italian design house of Studio Torino and Ruf. The first arrived last year, in the form of the raucous RK Spyder.
Also in the works is the long-rumored, though seldom seen, R50 supercar. Its nickname of "Godzilla" speaks volumes about its performance potential. Ruf remains coy about technical details, including when and where the car will appear in finished form. Using a unique platform and Ruf's own exterior design, this future range-topper has to be faster and more expensive than the current king-of-the-hill, $250,000-and-up Rt 12. A midengine layout, plenty of lightweight carbon-fiber and an engine with more than 700 hp are likely. An educated guess is that the car will appear sometime in 2007, possibly at the grand opening of the Bahrain facility. A price around $400,000 sounds like a nice round figure.
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Video:
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Ruf: Past, Present and Future
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