The Ruf RK Coupe and RK Spyder are

mid-engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

sports cars A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

made by

Ruf Automobile Ruf Automobile GmbH (stylized as RUF) is a German car manufacturer. Formerly using Porsche bodies in white to build cars, today they build vehicles on their own bodies and chassis. They also manufacture performance parts for various Porsche mo ...

in collaboration with Italian design house Studiotorino. The RK Spyder was introduced in 2005 in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and the RK Coupe was introduced the following year in 2006 in California.

Development and production

The RK is a result of a collaboration between German automaker Ruf and Italian carozzeria Studiotorino, the RK Coupe and Spyder are based on the

Porsche 987 The Porsche 987 is the internal designation for the second generation Porsche Boxster sports car. It made its debut at the 2004 Paris Motor Show alongside the 911 (997) and went on sale in 2005. In 2005, it was joined in the range by the new C ...

Cayman and Boxster. The carrozzeria consulted with

Aldo Brovarone Aldo Brovarone (24 June 1926 – 12 October 2020) was an Italian automobile designer and the chief stylist with Carrozzeria Pininfarina (1974-1988) – widely known for a prominent range of work including the Dino 206 GT, Lancia Gamma Coup ...

on the designs, with the RK taking cues from the Ferrari Dino 246 GT, the

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, and the

Porsche 904 The Porsche 904 is an automobile which was produced by Porsche in Germany in 1964 and 1965. It was officially called Porsche Carrera GTS due to the same naming rights problem that required renaming the Porsche 901 to Porsche 911. History After ...

. Both the Coupe and Spyder feature revised bodywork by Studiotorino, including redesigned front and rear fascias, redesigned vents afront the rear wheels, integrated door handles with electronic door latches, forged aluminum exhaust and filler cap, custom wheels. Revisions to the Coupe include a redesigned roofline removing the rear quarter windows and adding a new rear hatch to replace the sloping rear glass with a smaller upright piece and adding "flying" buttresses based on the existing pillars. Initially, 49 RK Coupes and 49 RK Spyders were to be produced. However, according to Studiotorino, only three RK Spyders, two RK Coupes, and one R Spyder, a naturally-aspirated variant of the RK Spyder, were produced between 2005 and 2007.

Performance

Power comes from a 3.8 litre

flat-6 A flat-six engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-six, is a six-cylinder Internal combustion engine#Reciprocating engines, piston engine with three cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. The most common type of flat-six engine is th ...

engine from the Porsche 997 911 which has been supercharged in both models (the RK stands for ''Ruf Kompressor''), with the RK Spyder rated at and of torque and the RK Coupe rated at at 7,000 rpm and of torque at 5,500 rpm. This allows the RK Spyder to accelerate from 0-62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.5 seconds, with a top speed of . The RK Coupe, the better performer of the two, has a top speed of 314 km/h (190 mph), and can accelerate from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.1 seconds and from 0-97 km/h (60 mph) in 3.8 seconds. Ruf also produced a naturally aspirated version of the RK Spyder, called the R Spyder, whose engine is rated at at 6,600 rpm and of torque at 4,600 rpm, propelling the car from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.7 seconds and on to a top speed of .

References

External links

Autoblog.comRoad and Track
{{Ruf Coupés Ruf vehicles Sports cars Cars powered by boxer engines Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 2005 Cars introduced in 2006