Ruf. Long before the word restomod was coined, and years before a Porsche 911 had been altered by Singer or RWB or Theon or Gunther Werks, there was Ruf. It is a name known the world over, thanks initially to a certain video with a Yellowbird on the Nürburgring and then thanks to that same canary-coloured CTR’s inclusion in the Gran Turismo video game on the Sony PlayStation. But what is the company up to now? Henry Catchpole takes a visit to the factory in Pfaffenhausen to find out, where he discovers the SCR.
Before driving the latest (glorious sounding!) Ruf SCR, we sat down with the head of the family company, Alois Ruf. In a wide-ranging interview he talked about how it all came into existence, the stories behind the famous Nordschleife shoot, and the company’s relationship with Porsche. Alois is a fascinating man, full of humour and great tales, and hopefully you’ll enjoy hearing what he has to say.
We then had a tour of the factory (including the fabulous dyno rooms) to see what goes into the cars that Ruf creates, before jumping behind the wheel of the SCR. This is one of Ruf’s latest models that looks – at first glance – like a very polished 964 but actually has a bespoke carbon fibre tub, inboard suspension, and a carbon fibre body, which is so light even Henry’s skinny arms can lift it up!
The SCR is very similar to the modern CTR, but where that car has a turbocharged engine (like the original Yellowbird CTR), the SCR has a naturally aspirated flat-six that revs to 9000rpm. It also has a six-speed manual gearbox. And although it sounds like something that might only come out of the garage on high days and holidays, it actually feels surprisingly usable.
