Alois Ruf Jr needs no introduction to Porsche cognoscenti, but, since we’re reviewing a very special RUF product here, just to get everyone up to speed, here’s a little background. Based in Pfaffenhausen, three hours east of Stuttgart and an hour north of Munich, RUF Automobile is the world’s leading Porsche tuner, an accolade bolstered by RUF being a registered German manufacturer, an official Porsche agent and the simple fact the Stuttgart brand closely observes what Alois Jr and his team are doing to extract wild power from Porsche engines. RUF’s speciality is deconstructing brand-new Porsches, before reconstructing them to individual customers requirements, incorporating RUF’s own heady blend of built-in roll cages, reupholstered cabins and massively tuned running gear. In 1981, the official German sanctioning body, the TÜV, granted RUF Automobile GmbH manufacturing status, and the first car to bear an actual RUF chassis number was the turbocharged 3.4-litre RUF BTR (the letters shorthand for Gruppe B Turbo RUF), hand-built in 1983, delivering 374bhp and available in wide 911 Turbo (930) or narrow Carrera 3.2 bodywork.
The BTR was based on the 930, RUF taking the 3.3-litre turbocharged flat-six and upping the bores to 3.4-litres, employing larger pistons, bigger turbochargers and matching intercoolers to ramp up power to 375bhp. The ventilated cross-drilled brakes were increased in size and benefited from four-piston calipers, the suspension was stiffened, the ride height lowered and the exhaust system revised. All modifications were dependent on the customer’s specification, but within reason, anything was possible. Inevitably, these upgrades utilised lighter, stronger, and
