As you may, or may not know, Alois Ruf made his name and fortune by building hardcore Porsche-based tuner machines. Probably the best work he ever did was back in 1987 when his RUF CTR “Yellow Bird” jumped into the supercar competition in a Road & Track top speed shootout with what was than an awesome unit – 470 HP twin-turbo monster that based its look on than ongoing Porsche 911. On that speed shootout the “Yellow Bird” managed to achieve 211 MPH and it did that under precision guidance of Le Mans legend Paul Frere.
At this year’s Geneva Motor Show RUF decided to pay a tribute to the 1987 “Yellow Bird” with the 2017 RUF CTR which is first ever brand-new, rear-engine speed monster completely built on a specially made chassis instead on a production Porsche platform (as it was so far). But do not think that a lot has changed regarding the styling, it is still right out of the Porsche’s history books. As I already mentioned this is first ever vehicle built by the RUF from the ground up and this is done in order to pay a tribute to the to the original CTR. This monster of a vehicle is powered by a twin-turbo dry sump water-cooled 3.6 L flat-six engine capable of churning out 700 horsepower and 649 lb-ft of torque, which is basically enough to glue your eyes to the back of the head the moment you put your foot on the gas pedal. To make the tribute to the original “Yellow Bird” true, this one as well is only available with six-speed manual transmission and a rear wheel drive. According to the people at RUF it is capable of sprinting from 0-62 MPH in just 3.5 seconds and it can achieve the top speed of 225 MPH.
As for the body of this magnificent vehicle it has a unique carbon fiber monocoque chassis that hosts lightweight steel crash structures and an integrated steel roll cage that all together add the weight up to 2640 lbs. The company made sure to design, by themselves, the pushrod suspension system and slapped on the 245 front and 305 rear tires on the very sharp looking 19 inch wheels to make sure that their beast stays glued to the road during high speed corners. The carbon fiber body that you can see on the images are a clear tribute to the 930-generation Porsche 911 Turbo on which the 1987 CTR was based around. The interior, on the other hand, is a totally different story. It is very sparse with purpose two-seat interior that is clearly complementing the early works from RUF way back when they used round-face analog gauges and a three-spoke racing-style steering wheel.
On the topic of the 2017 RUF CTR, Estonia Ruf stated – “We began development on the new CTR five years ago with the goal of creating a thrilling, analog driving experience that combines an amazing power-to-weight ratio, manual transmission and modern racing technology”. We also found out that the company plans to produce around 30 examples of the 2017 RUF CTR’s, but we could not find anything regarding the price department. Guess we will have to wait some time until we actually know how much a monster ride like this will go for. Another great news is the possibility of seeing this masterpiece on US shores since RUF is recognized by the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency as a vehicle manufacturer. Only down side is that not everybody will be able to afford this limited-production masterpiece.
