Alois Ruf Jr., head of German efficiency marque Ruf nonetheless owns his first Porsche, a 901 nicknamed Fast Blue that he was gifted at age 19. However his connection to the automobile might return even additional.

Ruf Vehicle was based by Alois Ruf Sr. in 1939, initially as an peculiar storage in Pfaffenhausen, Germany, close to Munich.

A permanent connection to Porsche would start in 1963 with the restore of a broken 356, and later that yr Ruf Jr. would catch a glimpse of a blue 901 on a rain-soaked autobahn close to Günzburg, about midway between Munich and Stuttgart. That transient glimpse created a long-lasting impression.

The 901 had solely just lately been launched because the substitute for the 356, which the Ruf storage had already begun to specialise in. A trademark dispute with Peugeot would quickly result in a title change to 911, setting the stage for the sports activities automobile we all know at this time.

1963 Porsche 901 owned by Alois Ruf Jr.

In 1969, Alois Ruf Sr. gave his son a kind of earlier 901 fashions as a nineteenth birthday current, so he’d have one thing to work on as soon as he obtained his driver’s license. The unique flat-6 had been changed by the flat-4 from a Porsche 912, however Ruf Jr. fortunately drove the 901 for a few years. A deliberate restoration was frequently delay as Ruf Jr. centered on rising the household firm right into a efficiency powerhouse full with its personal line of supercars.

When the time lastly got here, in 2019, analysis confirmed that Ruf’s automobile was the sixth 901 constructed. Beforehand thought to have been misplaced, it was the primary 901 with 5 spherical devices, and was painted Enamel Blue on the manufacturing unit. So, given how few 901s had been in circulation on the time, there is a good likelihood this was the very automobile Ruf Jr. noticed rushing down the autobahn in 1964.

The automobile—chassis quantity 13326—was inbuilt September 1963 and made its public debut on the Earls Courtroom auto present in London on Oct. 16 of that yr, after which appeared on the 1964 Geneva auto present the next March.

Alois Ruf Jr.

A dummy engine was put in for the present appearances, however chassis 13326 was then handed over to Porsche’s improvement division, which put in an actual engine and examined the automobile at Germany’s Hockenheimring. The blue 901 was then used as an organization automobile by future Volkswagen Group boss Ferdinand Piëch earlier than being bought to legendary Porsche engine designer Hans Mezger. He in flip bought the automobile to a businessman, who bought it to Ruf Sr. after it was broken in an on-track incident.

With its full historical past now in focus, the automobile was restored to its preliminary look on the Geneva present, albeit with a working engine donated by a vocational faculty. As Ruf continues to broaden, together with establishing store within the U.S., the resurrected Fast Blue is a quaint reminder of the corporate’s humble origins.