1987 RUF CTR “Yellowbird”
There was a time when Porsche leadership lost interest in the 911. By the mid-Seventies, the heads of the company found the froglike sports car outdated. The future was in the front-engine, water-cooled, V-8-powered 928, an on-trend car to rocket Porsche into the gleaming Eighties. Development on the 911 dragged to a halt.
That was an opportunity for Alois Ruf. In 1974, he took over his father’s repair shop in Pfaffenhausen, creating a specialty operation focused on 911s. It became an external engineering department, evolving and refining the model that Porsche had all but abandoned.
When Stuttgart refused to upgrade the 911 Turbo’s ancient four-speed transmission, Ruf made his own five-speed. As Porsche slimmed down the 911 lineup to just the naturally aspirated SC and the Turbo, RUF Automobile…