If you already know about Ruf in any respect, it’s possible that you just both encountered the model in Gran Turismo and thought it was a bootleg Porsche otherwise you noticed Stefan Roser driving the unique CTR Yellowbird inside an inch of its life in “Faszination On The Nurburgring.”

The CTR Yellowbird is arguably Ruf’s most well-known mannequin, and rightfully so; it dominated efficiency automotive comparisons within the Eighties and continues to be a automotive individuals obsess over. It’s so ingrained with the spirit of Ruf that when the corporate made the leap to utilizing its personal bespoke chassis and our bodies quite than Porsche’s, the primary automotive it made was a yellow CTR. I drove it a couple of years in the past. It was mind-bending.

Right here’s the factor, although, Ruf builds different automobiles, and it does so in a tiny city in rural Bavaria as a household enterprise. The corporate was began in 1939 by Alois Ruf Sr as a storage and repair heart, then obtained into manufacturing by designing a tour bus that was bought round Germany. The bus firm was spun off, after which in 1960, Alois Ruf Jr. obtained into restoring and servicing Porsches. Jr. took management of the corporate when his dad died in 1974. Since then, Ruf Vehicle has centered on restoring, modifying, and, most lately, manufacturing its personal Porsche-based and Porsche-inspired automobiles.

Ruf’s headquarters aren’t what you may anticipate from an organization recognized for making a number of the most unimaginable German automobiles in historical past. It’s tiny and sits on a visitors circle. The household’s gasoline station continues to be in operation and is connected to the principle constructing. Ruf runs a licensed Porsche service heart reverse the principle facility on the opposite facet of the circle. It’s bizarre seeing one and not using a dealership connected, however who has time to promote new Porsches if you’re constructing million-dollar carbon-fiber-bodied sports activities automobiles?

Coming into the Ruf showroom and foyer, I’m greeted by a number of automobiles. One is a Ruf inexperienced SCR, and the opposite is a Ruf-modified 911 Turbo Cabriolet. There’s an engine on a stand and many journal article clippings and photographs framed and on the wall. It’s small and quiet, a minimum of till Ruf’s CEO, Estonia Ruf, comes into the room.

When you’ve by no means met Estonia, she is a power of nature. Virtually extra so than Alois Jr., she’s the charming, smiling and bombastic face of the corporate. She has this reward of creating you’re feeling nearly instantly welcome, and after we sit all the way down to have a espresso, there’s additionally this sense of getting her undivided consideration. That is regardless of my go to coming simply a few weeks earlier than they have been set to debut three fashions at The Quail in Monterey, when every thing was unbelievably busy. It’s straightforward to see why Ruf homeowners really feel such a connection to the model and, extra importantly, to the household.

We chit-chat for a couple of minutes, I thank her for taking the day trip of her schedule to indicate me round, and we begin our tour, which begins throughout the road within the service heart. Right here, they do work on Porsches and on Ruf fashions. In addition they do some sub-assembly of their halo fashions – particularly, assembling the carbon chassis and carbon physique for SCR and CTR. That is carried out by a few dudes working with rivet weapons and panel-bond in a room with a chassis jig. It takes round two weeks to totally assemble the chassis and physique, that are manufactured off-site by a carbon specialist. The service heart can also be a warehouse for components for automotive builds, and it’s surreal simply seeing Ruf engines sitting wrapped in plastic on pallets ready for a automotive. It’s a Porsche nerd’s dream.

Shifting again throughout the road and into the previous constructing, issues get even wilder. On one of many a number of lifts, a brand new SCR (which might go on to be the Tribute automotive that debuted on the Quail) is being constructed with its engine out and cantilevered suspension and large brakes simply having been put in. Subsequent to that may be a traditional Ruf turbo getting a full restoration for a really devoted proprietor. Subsequent to that, a 356 is preparing for an alignment on an old-school alignment rack. It’s rather a lot to course of in case you’re me.

All through our stroll on this important storage space, Estonia is greeting staff, young and old, by identify and with a giant smile. As we stroll, she tells me that most of the extra senior staff have been with the corporate for many years. New staff are available by way of the nation’s tremendous sturdy apprenticeship program that has them splitting time nearly evenly between on-the-job schooling and classroom schooling.

We stroll to the again of the principle workshop, the place a brilliant blue CTR3 is being assembled. I didn’t know this then, however this automotive was additionally set to get its grand public debut on the Quail, adopted by supply to its expectant proprietor. The automotive is a whole shell with most of an inside and an put in engine, however with a wiring harness that wasn’t in all the best way and no wheels and tires.

Shifting right into a again nook, there’s a person assembling engines. The setting is much from the hospital-like clear room setting I’d anticipated. Nonetheless, issues are fairly organized, and whereas the strategies could look just a little alarming, it’s definitely powerful to argue with the outcomes. Across the store are previous commercials and calendars with scantily clad girls. A large, pale picture of the unique Yellowbird stands guard over the hallway to the engine dyno cells. It looks like an area out of time, and I adore it.

Within the beforehand talked about hallway, there are two dyno cells. One for newer water-cooled engines like the present CTR and SCR fashions have and one other for the older air-cooled motors. The dyno items are painted in Ruf’s traditional inexperienced and white, and the partitions are manufactured from bricks with air flow holes in them. Staff are on the brink of check a water-cooled turbo motor, however we’re a few hours too early to listen to it wail. Right here Estonia explains that each one the engines get run in and measured for energy earlier than going into automobiles. Consistency from automotive to automotive is vital, notably for an organization that went from tuner to producer.

After this, we make our approach by way of a small physique half storage space and into the physique store correct. Right here, half a dozen males are fettling the our bodies of the subsequent crop of Ruf automobiles to be assembled and shipped out. The older workers are instructing the youthful staff as they go, and even on the unfinished shells we see there, the standard of labor is obvious. Ruf has its personal paint sales space in the back of the physique store the place homeowners can get any coloration they need utilized to their new delight and pleasure.

All through the tour, I’m consistently impressed by how hands-on and people-driven Ruf is, even in 2023. There aren’t any robots to be seen, simply individuals in overalls constructing a number of the most unimaginable automobiles on this planet with their palms. It’s additionally very clear that this manner of constructing automobiles is extraordinarily essential to the Ruf household. Many of those staff have been with them for lengthy sufficient to turn out to be one thing like prolonged household themselves.

This manner of working has its limitations, too, although. If Ruf needed to make quite a lot of dozen automobiles per yr, it must transfer to automation, and it might need to outgrow its quaint rural environs, however doing so would take one thing away from the automobiles and, possible, the connection that homeowners have with the corporate. That relationship retains individuals returning, as many Ruf homeowners have for a number of fashions.

To spherical out my expertise in Pfaffenhausen, Estonia palms me off to Michael, their gross sales director, for a drive within the SCR. Now, I’ll preface this by saying that whereas driving the prototype new CTR in 2018 looms so massive on my all-time biggest issues to occur to me as a journalist, the SCR is one thing that’s a fair larger deal to me as a result of I really like a naturally aspirated sports activities automotive and I really like a naturally aspirated, rear-engined 911-shaped sports activities automotive greater than nearly anything.

The SCR is a borderline holy relic for 911 nerds with its carbon physique, carbon monocoque, 9,000-rpm 503-hp 4.0-liter flat-six and completely notchy guide gearbox. It’s additionally round one million bones, or clams or no matter you name them, so it’s unlikely that I’ll get one other probability to drive it. Entering into the motive force’s seat as soon as the automotive is warmed up and being advised to have enjoyable, roughly, was actually fairly goddamned emotional. I wavered between being nearly maniacally glad, choked up and just a little misty-eyed after which simply misplaced for phrases. It’s the very best automotive I’ve ever pushed, and I’d been driving one among Porsche’s personal museum assortment 959s simply the day earlier than.

The touchpoints contained in the SCR are all acquainted. The automotive’s conduct is acquainted, too, nevertheless it’s simply amplified. The steering is gentle at pace however direct and stuffed with really feel that transfers by way of the small diameter carbon fiber wheel. The throttle is crisp and ultra-responsive. The gearbox is direct with a clutch that’s weighty however not oppressively heavy. The suspension is agency however surprisingly supple, and my god, the sound the engine makes by way of the customized exhaust and the best way it vibrates by way of the carbon tub ought to be labeled a Class A drug.

We persist with the agricultural backroads round Pfaffenhausen, the place my passenger is aware of the secure locations to open the automotive up, and I can’t bear in mind what number of second-to-third gear pulls I find yourself doing simply to listen to that engine sing, nevertheless it’s rather a lot.

After round half an hour, we make our approach again to Ruf’s headquarters and park. I would like a minute to settle my nerves earlier than getting out and heading again into the foyer. Estonia is there, as is a barely under-the-weather Alois, and each appear happy with my response to the automotive. I shake palms, provide many, many thanks, and after trying to pay for a Ruf hat (they very kindly wouldn’t let me), we alternate goodbyes and make plans to say hello at The Quail, which, at this level, was developing in a couple of weeks.

On the two-hour drive again to Stuttgart, I’ve numerous time to suppose. I get to course of the afternoon and marvel if I discovered what I needed to, and I believe I did. I discovered that Ruf in 2023 isn’t that totally different from Ruf in 2003 or 1993, or 1983 and that that’s a part of its attraction.

It’s an organization that does issues its personal approach and which, whereas often idiosyncratic or odd, continues to attraction to lovers of sports activities automobiles and Porsche followers. It’s a approach of working that appeals to me, and, if I may be trustworthy with you, ought to I ever win the lottery or possibly spend the night time within the haunted mansion to try to win the inheritance of a distant, beforehand unknown however fabulously rich relative, I do know precisely who’s getting my first telephone name.