PORSCHE RUF
The PORSCHE RUF
Simply the finest Porsches on planet earth. If you have ever seen the video of their road tester, Stefan, and the 469bhp CTR 'Yellow Bird' at the Nurburg Ring, then this video alone shows why.
If you wish to own the Ruf 3.8 BTR, a standard non turbo body 415bhp 398lb ft of torque 199mph projectile or a Carrera Targa 3.4 CRC let us know. We can find it for you.
The Ruf family has been in the motor trade since 1939. Herr Ruf ran a general garage on a corner location in the quaintly titled southern German town of Pfaffenhausen.
Nowadays, Alois Ruf is continuing where his father left off, in exactly the same location but in rather a different line of business. Instead of buses, the vehicles lining up for attention in the garage now are Porsche 911s.
Alois Ruf's love affair with Porsches began in 1963 when a 356 found its way into his father's workshop. Herr Ruf then held A BMW concession, when the range consisted of unaffordable V8s, Isetta bubble cars and nothing in-between. As soon as the Porsche came in, teenager Alois begged to be allowed to work on it. He was hooked. "There was a fascination with the car and the sound it made," he told us. "Then the 911 came out and that sounded even better."
Ruf has since become the most experienced 911 tuner and builder anywhere. His most famous creation is the 469bhp CTR 'Yellow Bird', a 1988 3.4 litre twin turbo 911 which crushed the opposition in a top speed shootout against the world's fastest road cars, including a factory 959 Sport. The passage of five years has done little to dilute the CTR's fearsome reputation; the figures - 213 mph top end, 0-60mph in 3.7 sec, 0-100mph in 7.3sec - are still awesome. Hunched quietly in Ruf's workshop, everything bar a '666' sign on the roof, this unclean beast exudes raw power.
Article 2
Beneath the tranquil surface of Ruf's workshops in deepest Bavaria, development engineers beaver away to hone the Porsche 911 to even greater heights ofperfection. With the EKS six-speed transmission now a recommendedperformance option, Ruf has announced two new models, the Carrera 4 - based BR4 Turbo Look and the 415bhp BTR 2. Story by Ian Kuah
Since I tested the Fichtel & Sachs SEKS (Electronische Kupplung System) 'electric foot' system on a Ruf BR2 last year (Sept/Oct issue), sales of this system in Ruf 911 Turbos have taken off like the proverbial rocket. Alois Ruf recently told me that almost every car he sells now goes out with this option. You only have to drive a car so equipped for a few miles to reallse that the combination of extra horses, six-speed gearbox and no clutch makes a lot of sense from the point of view of performance, economy, wear and fun!
Driving right-hand drive cars all the time, most of us cannot drive a left-hooker one hundred percent as well, so I was particularly interested when Alois Ruf asked me to try the first RHD Ruf BR4. It would mean one less thing to think about and arguably give me another look at the EKS system from within a more familiar context.
While the BR2 I drove last year was based on a narrow body Carrera 2 shell, this BR4 started life as a new Turbo 2. As all the post 1990 964/965 cars have the same floorpan with the necessary space for the 4WD transmission provided for even in a Carrera 2, it was simply a matter of installing this hardware in the wide-body car and mating it to the Ruf six-speed and EKS system. The EKS hydraulic actuator sits on whichever side of the car the pedal box is, so in this case you would find it by lifting the luggage compartment carpet on the offside.
Just to recap, Ruf refers to his transmission as 'the electric foot' as it does away with the need to operate a clutch with your left foot. But you still operate the gear lever as you would with a manual car which will appeal to the enthusiast driver who wants to select his own gears but resents getting a sore left foot in city driving. The system is electrohydraulic. This means that when you move the gear lever, an electric signal is sent to the EKS control unit in the front of the car. This then hydraulically operates the clutch in the normal way but without any legwork on the part of the driver.
The fact that the clutch is as per a manual car means that there are no transmission losses through a torque convertor as in an automatic, so you have the performance and economy of a manual but an edge in acceleration because of the speed of the electric signal which will change gears as fast as you can move your hand. Another advantage is less clutch wear as the system will always optimise the engagement of the clutch mechanism and not abuse it in the way that an inept driver might.
The engine in this car was to Ruf BR2/4 specification which means that while the factory 3.3 Turbo offers 320bhp at 5750rpm and 332 lb ft of torque at 4500rpm, the Ruf engine ups that to 360bhp at 5750rpm and 351 lb ft of torque at 5000m. This is achieved within the limitations of the standard turbo and intercooler, but gives the car much better mid-range and overall driveability. The extra gear which gives the intermediate ratios a closer spacing also helps.
Cosmetically, the car wears Ruf 17-inch wheels which clean up the appearance. Suspension was uprated with new springs, specially valved Bilstein dampers and upgraded antiroll bars. This suspension kit does little damage to the ride but makes the car feel even safer in fast turns.
Inside, the latest Ruf seats have been trimmed in light grey leather with black piping to match the rest of the interior. A full complement of Ruf instruments and steering wheel add the finishing touches. Ruf will always make small but significant cosmetic changes to separate his cars from the ordinary, if any Porsche can be termed ordinary!
The latest piece of cosmetic innovation is the body coloured rear panel between the tail-lights and the green tinted fog-light lenses with Ruf logos in black. In fact, this car was destined for a market where rear fog lights are not required, so the green tint would not be legal in Europe, but the colour-coded centre panel certainly gives the rear aspect a different look.
The RHD steering made acclimatising to this car simply a matter of remembering to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. Driving an EKS car is always a novel experience if you come to it from a manual. When you have selected first, you simply step on the throttle, but the engine revs seem to rise and nothing happens at around the point when a manual car with clutch engaging at this rpm would be starting to move. And then it goes, but it is a strange sensation till you are used to it.
That familiarisation takes just minutes and then you drive the car normally, perhaps with your left foot tucked away behind you right leg to prevent your subconscious operating an imaginary clutch pedal. The EKS brain will also match engine rpm to clutch speed when you change down, so the selection of a lower ratio is smoothened out. That is not to say that you cannot refine it further by heeling and toeing as you would in a manual car. I do that whenever I drive an EKS car and find this an added edge to smoothness.
The BR2/4 cars are not just 30bhp more powerful than stock 911 Turbo 2s. The response pattern of the engine is better too. It is sweeter and has a sharper edge and this results in a car that is significantly easier to drive quickly on unfamiliar roads. With the level of grip and handling available from the 4WD chassis coupled to such big tyres, the BR4 is literally a poor man's 959!
Every time I drive a Carrera 2/4, 1 cannot help but think just how good a job Porsche have made of the power steering system. It is perfectly weighted and judged in turn-in rate to the chassis response and the grip is simply phenomenal. It felt as if it could use much more than the 360 available horses coming out of a bend. The car simply digs in on the line you set it and resolutely sticks to the tarmac like a leech as you give it every ounce of acceleration the engine can muster. When you need to use them, the Turbo brakes are simply phenomenal. They haul the car down from speed time and time again without hint of fade or complaint. This combination of grip, acceleration and braking gives the driver a huge confidence window.
Driving this RHD BR4 had given me an even clearer insight into the new concept that Ruf is heavily promoting. It is patently obvious that the EKS system is the transmission of the future. As traffic becomes more dense, having a system that takes a lot of strenuous effort away can only be good. The fact that it makes gearchanges quicker and cleaner and thus enhances performance is a bonus. Married to a car of such phenomenal chassis ability and engine power puts the whole thing in perspective. The Ruf BR4 is the ultimate practical supercar.
While the Turbo-bodied 911 had captured the imagination of Porsche enthusiasts around the world, Alois Ruf himself is a proponent of the narrow body 911 which offers much less air resistance and thus better straight-line performance potential from an engine of a given power.
That superb performance from a car that looked not unlike a stock 3.2 Carrera and could be driven to the shops certainly put Alois Ruf in front of the world as a household name in 911 tuning. To this day, his company is still making CTRcopies from existing 3.2 Carreras for enthusiastic clients.
But as far as new cars are concerned, the day of the CTR has passed; current emission regulations require a reappraisal of the ways in which cars are tuned. Ruf realised that this new era was coming some years ago and, as far back as 1986, was already developing new hardware to tackle the future problem of power, driveability and low emissions.
Alois Ruf looks at this positively: "Most people have the idea that it is power versus emissions and that you cannot have the best of both worlds. In fact, a more efficient engine is a cleaner one and we have been working with Bosch for several years now on a Motronic system for our turbocharged cars that will allow us to get good numbers in power, emissions and economy within the framework of a closed-loop catalyst system."
In 1989, when I first drove the Ruf CTR which uses a bespoke Motronic system with two rows of injectors, I also drove a prototype of the Motronic equipped Ruf BTR that Ruf was developing with forthcoming emission laws in mind. This car felt much smoother with less turbo lag than the factory car and was less 'fierce' than a normal K-Jetronicequipped BTR, even though it was actually more powerful.
Forced aspiration is normally used to get more power out of a smaller engine without compromising fuel consumption too much in normal driving. This is certainly the case with normal road cars like, say, a Saab Turbo where driveability, economy and perhaps engine capacity tax laws in some countries have a bearing on engine size. In motorsport too, engine size is governed by the 1.4 multiplication factor for turbo cars.
But for modified road cars, such factors are irrelevant, and as the saying goes, 'a good big 'un is always better than a good little 'un.' So just as the factory announced its Turbo 3.6, Ruf asked me to come and try his 3.8-litre Turbo!
As his technicians wheeled out the baby blue 911, the man who has turned Porsche tuning from an engineering exercise into an art form explained the philosophy behind his latest masterpiece. Asked first about the colour, Ruf explained: "We started a trend in 1988 with the CTR 'Yellow Bird'. Since then, we have seen a profusion of yellow sports cars and decided to look for another trend setting colour. This car is painted in a shade of blue I saw on a Korean Airlines plane while I was waiting at the airport one day. We call this car the 'Blue Bird"'
br> "We have been working on the Motronic Turbo concept since our early successes with the CTR and BTR 3 which were both non-catalyst engines," Ruf continued. The problem has been developing a Motronic variant that will work with both our high flow turbos and a suitable catalytic convertor system. The Motronic system that Porsche use on production cars has an air mass flow sensor which cannot be used on a forced aspiration car. This is part of the reason Porsche have stuck with the old-fashioned K-Jetronic system."
The Ruf Motronic system uses a hot film device to measure airflow, and this is compatible with forced aspiration. Once that hurdle was passed, the rest was relatively straightforward. The new style 3.6litre 964 engine crankcase allows the use of 102mm bore Mahle pistons and barrels. Married to the standard 7.6.4mm throw crank and rods this increases capacity to 3746cc.
Thanks to twin-ignition and a very efficient knock sensor in the Motronic ignition/fuel system, an atmospheric 964 engine can run with an 11.3:1 compression ratio, while the relatively crude stock Turbo engine has to make do with just 7.0:1. But with Motronic engine management, the Ruf Turbo 3.8 can run at 8.5:1. This not only helps power, but also driveability and economy. Significantly, Ruf does not use twin-plugs on any of his cars, not even the CTR, so you will only have to replace six spark plugs when you service your 3.8 Turbo!
With a three-way catalytic convertor, the 3.8 produces 415bhp at 6000rpm and 406 lb ft (55ONm) of torque at 4800rpm. By way of comparison, a Turbo 3.3 produces 320bhp at 5750rpm and 325 lb ft of torque at 45OOrpm, while the latest 3.6 litre factory car boasts of 360bhp at 5500rpm and 376 lb ft at 4200rpm. Thus, the 3.8 Turbo offers a specific output of 110.8 bhp/L against 97 bhp/L and 100 bhp/L for the two stock Turbos.
But specific outputs only tell half the story of the Ruf Turbo's superiority. Weight is the enemy of speed and indeed grip and handling. Tipping the scales at 3234 lb (1470kg), the factory Turbos carry significantly more weight than the 200kg lighter Ruf car.
"When we are looking for optimum performance, we always start with the narrow body," Ruf explained, and in this case, we stripped out all the unnecessary parts like electric windows, sunroof, power seats and so on. In fact, we saved 14 kg just in the wiring harness alone, to the point where there is no warning light for the fuel gauge and no wires leading to the heated rear window elements!" With its leather faced racing Recaros and lightweight door panels, the stripped out interior of this car is totally functional.
br> Also helping acceleration is the now familiar Ruf EKS 'electric foot' system, and six-speed manual gearbox, a combination which offers a faster change and more ratios than the factory five-speed. Latest addition to this package is a vertically reading indicator in the lower half of the speedometer which tells you which gear you are in. With a final drive ratio of 3.444:1, the car is geared to run 47.1 km/h per 1000rpm in sixth and allows a top speed of 177mph at peak power, although the car will run past this point.
Look at the Turbo 3.8 from dead astern and you notice just how wide the rear wheels and tyres are in terms of inset, although they look normal from the outside. They are the latest Ruf Speedline 18-inch diameter wheels, 8.5 and 9.5 inches wide front-to-rear with 235/40ZR18 and 265/35ZR18 Dunlop rubber. If you have this engine in the Turbo body, then the wheels become 8.5 and 10J x 18 with 245/40ZR18 and 285/35ZR18 tyres. Suspension is suitably tricked with uprated springs, specially valved Bilsteins and thicker anti-roll bars. The factory ABS braking system is linked to the very effective Ruf discs and calipers.
The beauty of the EKS system is that you can have the best of both worlds; no more left foot in traffic and yet a manual gearlever to play with on the open road. But, with six close ratios and no clutch lag time, drag starts are a fraction faster than even an experienced driver can man age. With the vast torque on tap from the 3.8-litre engine, this car will get to 60mph in 4.0 sec and to 100mph less than 6.0 sec later.
Such acceleration is to be expected, but what is more impressive is the way the engine feels just like a big lazy naturally aspirated lump. It may not have the razor sharp throttle response of a high compression atmospheric engine; no turbocharged motor ever can, but there is so much torque on tap low down that you can be much lazier with your gearchanging than usual and get away with it. When all is said and done, the motor is still not as linear in its power delivery as an atmospheric engine; there is still a power step over 4000rpm when the car really takes off like a scalded cat. But compared to a stock Turbo, the difference is that instead of going from a canter to a gallop, this car goes from a gallop to a full-blooded charge.
If you insist on playing dragsters,you will find yourself changing gears all the time, so fast does this smooth engine scream round to its red line. But the real strength of the car is on the open road where you don't have to be in the right gear and at the right revs as you would normally to see some action. Just press the loud pedal and as long as you have at least 1800rpm on the clock, the car will provide a healthy dose of acceleration that quickly grows into a rush of raw power as solid boost builds up.
This same torque makes exiting corners all the more dramatic. Building up boost through a bend, the familiar push in the back is there, but there is now much more of it and it is also easier to meter. In the dry, there is plenty of traction as one has come to expect of a 911, but I suspect that this could be a very hairy beast in the wet with so much low speed torque to play with.
If you can imagine the effect of dropping a tuned 5.7-litre V8 into a 911 and then paring 440 lb off the weight too, the resulting performance might approximate that of the Ruf 3.8 Turbo. But there is much more to the Ruf 911 than just that. It is a total package with better handling, brakes, seats, steering wheel and, of course, the EKS system. Normally, tuners just add power and upgrade the suspension and brakes. But then Ruf is a manufacturer, not a tuner. This gives him the advantage of starting with a bare shell which, to this master of the art, is as good as a blank canvas.nt engineers beaver away to hone the Porsche 911 to even greater heights ofperfection. With the EKS six-speed transmission now a recommendedperformance option, Ruf has announced two new models, the Carrera 4 - based BR4 Turbo Look and the 415bhp BTR 2. Story by Ian Kuah
Since I tested the Fichtel & Sachs SEKS (Electronische Kupplung System) 'electric foot' system on a Ruf BR2 last year (Sept/Oct issue), sales of this system in Ruf 911 Turbos have taken off like the proverbial rocket. Alois Ruf recently told me that almost every car he sells now goes out with this option. You only have to drive a car so equipped for a few miles to reallse that the combination of extra horses, six-speed gearbox and no clutch makes a lot of sense from the point of view of performance, economy, wear and fun!
Driving right-hand drive cars all the time, most of us cannot drive a left-hooker one hundred percent as well, so I was particularly interested when Alois Ruf asked me to try the first RHD Ruf BR4. It would mean one less thing to think about and arguably give me another look at the EKS system from within a more familiar context.
While the BR2 I drove last year was based on a narrow body Carrera 2 shell, this BR4 started life as a new Turbo 2. As all the post 1990 964/965 cars have the same floorpan with the necessary space for the 4WD transmission provided for even in a Carrera 2, it was simply a matter of installing this hardware in the wide-body car and mating it to the Ruf six-speed and EKS system. The EKS hydraulic actuator sits on whichever side of the car the pedal box is, so in this case you would find it by lifting the luggage compartment carpet on the offside.
Just to recap, Ruf refers to his transmission as 'the electric foot' as it does away with the need to operate a clutch with your left foot. But you still operate the gear lever as you would with a manual car which will appeal to the enthusiast driver who wants to select his own gears but resents getting a sore left foot in city driving. The system is electrohydraulic. This means that when you move the gear lever, an electric signal is sent to the EKS control unit in the front of the car. This then hydraulically operates the clutch in the normal way but without any legwork on the part of the driver.
The fact that the clutch is as per a manual car means that there are no transmission losses through a torque convertor as in an automatic, so you have the performance and economy of a manual but an edge in acceleration because of the speed of the electric signal which will change gears as fast as you can move your hand. Another advantage is less clutch wear as the system will always optimise the engagement of the clutch mechanism and not abuse it in the way that an inept driver might.
The engine in this car was to Ruf BR2/4 specification which means that while the factory 3.3 Turbo offers 320bhp at 5750rpm and 332 lb ft of torque at 4500rpm, the Ruf engine ups that to 360bhp at 5750rpm and 351 lb ft of torque at 5000m. This is achieved within the limitations of the standard turbo and intercooler, but gives the car much better mid-range and overall driveability. The extra gear which gives the intermediate ratios a closer spacing also helps.
Cosmetically, the car wears Ruf 17-inch wheels which clean up the appearance. Suspension was uprated with new springs, specially valved Bilstein dampers and upgraded antiroll bars. This suspension kit does little damage to the ride but makes the car feel even safer in fast turns.
Inside, the latest Ruf seats have been trimmed in light grey leather with black piping to match the rest of the interior. A full complement of Ruf instruments and steering wheel add the finishing touches. Ruf will always make small but significant cosmetic changes to separate his cars from the ordinary, if any Porsche can be termed ordinary!
The latest piece of cosmetic innovation is the body coloured rear panel between the tail-lights and the green tinted fog-light lenses with Ruf logos in black. In fact, this car was destined for a market where rear fog lights are not required, so the green tint would not be legal in Europe, but the colour-coded centre panel certainly gives the rear aspect a different look.
The RHD steering made acclimatising to this car simply a matter of remembering to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. Driving an EKS car is always a novel experience if you come to it from a manual. When you have selected first, you simply step on the throttle, but the engine revs seem to rise and nothing happens at around the point when a manual car with clutch engaging at this rpm would be starting to move. And then it goes, but it is a strange sensation till you are used to it.
That familiarisation takes just minutes and then you drive the car normally, perhaps with your left foot tucked away behind you right leg to prevent your subconscious operating an imaginary clutch pedal. The EKS brain will also match engine rpm to clutch speed when you change down, so the selection of a lower ratio is smoothened out. That is not to say that you cannot refine it further by heeling and toeing as you would in a manual car. I do that whenever I drive an EKS car and find this an added edge to smoothness.
The BR2/4 cars are not just 30bhp more powerful than stock 911 Turbo 2s. The response pattern of the engine is better too. It is sweeter and has a sharper edge and this results in a car that is significantly easier to drive quickly on unfamiliar roads. With the level of grip and handling available from the 4WD chassis coupled to such big tyres, the BR4 is literally a poor man's 959!
Every time I drive a Carrera 2/4, 1 cannot help but think just how good a job Porsche have made of the power steering system. It is perfectly weighted and judged in turn-in rate to the chassis response and the grip is simply phenomenal. It felt as if it could use much more than the 360 available horses coming out of a bend. The car simply digs in on the line you set it and resolutely sticks to the tarmac like a leech as you give it every ounce of acceleration the engine can muster. When you need to use them, the Turbo brakes are simply phenomenal. They haul the car down from speed time and time again without hint of fade or complaint. This combination of grip, acceleration and braking gives the driver a huge confidence window.
Driving this RHD BR4 had given me an even clearer insight into the new concept that Ruf is heavily promoting. It is patently obvious that the EKS system is the transmission of the future. As traffic becomes more dense, having a system that takes a lot of strenuous effort away can only be good. The fact that it makes gearchanges quicker and cleaner and thus enhances performance is a bonus. Married to a car of such phenomenal chassis ability and engine power puts the whole thing in perspective. The Ruf BR4 is the ultimate practical supercar.
While the Turbo-bodied 911 had captured the imagination of Porsche enthusiasts around the world, Alois Ruf himself is a proponent of the narrow body 911 which offers much less air resistance and thus better straight-line performance potential from an engine of a given power.
That superb performance from a car that looked not unlike a stock 3.2 Carrera and could be driven to the shops certainly put Alois Ruf in front of the world as a household name in 911 tuning. To this day, his company is still making CTRcopies from existing 3.2 Carreras for enthusiastic clients.
But as far as new cars are concerned, the day of the CTR has passed; current emission regulations require a reappraisal of the ways in which cars are tuned. Ruf realised that this new era was coming some years ago and, as far back as 1986, was already developing new hardware to tackle the future problem of power, driveability and low emissions.
Alois Ruf looks at this positively: "Most people have the idea that it is power versus emissions and that you cannot have the best of both worlds. In fact, a more efficient engine is a cleaner one and we have been working with Bosch for several years now on a Motronic system for our turbocharged cars that will allow us to get good numbers in power, emissions and economy within the framework of a closed-loop catalyst system."
In 1989, when I first drove the Ruf CTR which uses a bespoke Motronic system with two rows of injectors, I also drove a prototype of the Motronic equipped Ruf BTR that Ruf was developing with forthcoming emission laws in mind. This car felt much smoother with less turbo lag than the factory car and was less 'fierce' than a normal K-Jetronicequipped BTR, even though it was actually more powerful.
Forced aspiration is normally used to get more power out of a smaller engine without compromising fuel consumption too much in normal driving. This is certainly the case with normal road cars like, say, a Saab Turbo where driveability, economy and perhaps engine capacity tax laws in some countries have a bearing on engine size. In motorsport too, engine size is governed by the 1.4 multiplication factor for turbo cars.
But for modified road cars, such factors are irrelevant, and as the saying goes, 'a good big 'un is always better than a good little 'un.' So just as the factory announced its Turbo 3.6, Ruf asked me to come and try his 3.8-litre Turbo!
As his technicians wheeled out the baby blue 911, the man who has turned Porsche tuning from an engineering exercise into an art form explained the philosophy behind his latest masterpiece. Asked first about the colour, Ruf explained: "We started a trend in 1988 with the CTR 'Yellow Bird'. Since then, we have seen a profusion of yellow sports cars and decided to look for another trend setting colour. This car is painted in a shade of blue I saw on a Korean Airlines plane while I was waiting at the airport one day. We call this car the 'Blue Bird"'
br> "We have been working on the Motronic Turbo concept since our early successes with the CTR and BTR 3 which were both non-catalyst engines," Ruf continued. The problem has been developing a Motronic variant that will work with both our high flow turbos and a suitable catalytic convertor system. The Motronic system that Porsche use on production cars has an air mass flow sensor which cannot be used on a forced aspiration car. This is part of the reason Porsche have stuck with the old-fashioned K-Jetronic system."
The Ruf Motronic system uses a hot film device to measure airflow, and this is compatible with forced aspiration. Once that hurdle was passed, the rest was relatively straightforward. The new style 3.6litre 964 engine crankcase allows the use of 102mm bore Mahle pistons and barrels. Married to the standard 7.6.4mm throw crank and rods this increases capacity to 3746cc.
Thanks to twin-ignition and a very efficient knock sensor in the Motronic ignition/fuel system, an atmospheric 964 engine can run with an 11.3:1 compression ratio, while the relatively crude stock Turbo engine has to make do with just 7.0:1. But with Motronic engine management, the Ruf Turbo 3.8 can run at 8.5:1. This not only helps power, but also driveability and economy. Significantly, Ruf does not use twin-plugs on any of his cars, not even the CTR, so you will only have to replace six spark plugs when you service your 3.8 Turbo!
With a three-way catalytic convertor, the 3.8 produces 415bhp at 6000rpm and 406 lb ft (55ONm) of torque at 4800rpm. By way of comparison, a Turbo 3.3 produces 320bhp at 5750rpm and 325 lb ft of torque at 45OOrpm, while the latest 3.6 litre factory car boasts of 360bhp at 5500rpm and 376 lb ft at 4200rpm. Thus, the 3.8 Turbo offers a specific output of 110.8 bhp/L against 97 bhp/L and 100 bhp/L for the two stock Turbos.
But specific outputs only tell half the story of the Ruf Turbo's superiority. Weight is the enemy of speed and indeed grip and handling. Tipping the scales at 3234 lb (1470kg), the factory Turbos carry significantly more weight than the 200kg lighter Ruf car.
"When we are looking for optimum performance, we always start with the narrow body," Ruf explained, and in this case, we stripped out all the unnecessary parts like electric windows, sunroof, power seats and so on. In fact, we saved 14 kg just in the wiring harness alone, to the point where there is no warning light for the fuel gauge and no wires leading to the heated rear window elements!" With its leather faced racing Recaros and lightweight door panels, the stripped out interior of this car is totally functional.
br> Also helping acceleration is the now familiar Ruf EKS 'electric foot' system, and six-speed manual gearbox, a combination which offers a faster change and more ratios than the factory five-speed. Latest addition to this package is a vertically reading indicator in the lower half of the speedometer which tells you which gear you are in. With a final drive ratio of 3.444:1, the car is geared to run 47.1 km/h per 1000rpm in sixth and allows a top speed of 177mph at peak power, although the car will run past this point.
Look at the Turbo 3.8 from dead astern and you notice just how wide the rear wheels and tyres are in terms of inset, although they look normal from the outside. They are the latest Ruf Speedline 18-inch diameter wheels, 8.5 and 9.5 inches wide front-to-rear with 235/40ZR18 and 265/35ZR18 Dunlop rubber. If you have this engine in the Turbo body, then the wheels become 8.5 and 10J x 18 with 245/40ZR18 and 285/35ZR18 tyres. Suspension is suitably tricked with uprated springs, specially valved Bilsteins and thicker anti-roll bars. The factory ABS braking system is linked to the very effective Ruf discs and calipers.
The beauty of the EKS system is that you can have the best of both worlds; no more left foot in traffic and yet a manual gearlever to play with on the open road. But, with six close ratios and no clutch lag time, drag starts are a fraction faster than even an experienced driver can man age. With the vast torque on tap from the 3.8-litre engine, this car will get to 60mph in 4.0 sec and to 100mph less than 6.0 sec later.
Such acceleration is to be expected, but what is more impressive is the way the engine feels just like a big lazy naturally aspirated lump. It may not have the razor sharp throttle response of a high compression atmospheric engine; no turbocharged motor ever can, but there is so much torque on tap low down that you can be much lazier with your gearchanging than usual and get away with it. When all is said and done, the motor is still not as linear in its power delivery as an atmospheric engine; there is still a power step over 4000rpm when the car really takes off like a scalded cat. But compared to a stock Turbo, the difference is that instead of going from a canter to a gallop, this car goes from a gallop to a full-blooded charge.
If you insist on playing dragsters,you will find yourself changing gears all the time, so fast does this smooth engine scream round to its red line. But the real strength of the car is on the open road where you don't have to be in the right gear and at the right revs as you would normally to see some action. Just press the loud pedal and as long as you have at least 1800rpm on the clock, the car will provide a healthy dose of acceleration that quickly grows into a rush of raw power as solid boost builds up.
This same torque makes exiting corners all the more dramatic. Building up boost through a bend, the familiar push in the back is there, but there is now much more of it and it is also easier to meter. In the dry, there is plenty of traction as one has come to expect of a 911, but I suspect that this could be a very hairy beast in the wet with so much low speed torque to play with.
If you can imagine the effect of dropping a tuned 5.7-litre V8 into a 911 and then paring 440 lb off the weight too, the resulting performance might approximate that of the Ruf 3.8 Turbo. But there is much more to the Ruf 911 than just that. It is a total package with better handling, brakes, seats, steering wheel and, of course, the EKS system. Normally, tuners just add power and upgrade the suspension and brakes. But then Ruf is a manufacturer, not a tuner. This gives him the advantage of starting with a bare shell which, to this master of the art, is as good as a blank canvas
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