The Ruf CTR2 (Group C, Turbo Ruf, 2nd generation) was a 2-door

sports car 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 ...

built by German automobile manufacturer

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 ...

as the successor to the CTR Yellowbird, but based on

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

's Type 993 generation 911.

History

Ruf came into the public eye in 1987 when they released their

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

Carrera 3.2-based CTR, an extremely limited-production model which for several years held the title of world's fastest production vehicle. Wanting an ultra-high performance model to remain among the company offerings, Alois Ruf Jr., the company owner, followed up the original with a CTR2 in 1995, another production model made in limited quantities, based on the then-new 993-chassis 911 Turbo. Originally offered at a retail Price of $315,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

, the CTR2 featured either the standard rear-wheel drive or an optional all-wheel-drive,

Recaro Recaro Holding, as the parent company of the Recaro Group, owns the Recaro brand and the independently operating companies Recaro Aircraft Seating (aircraft seats) based in Schwäbisch Hall and Recaro eGaming (gaming seats) based in Stuttgart, Germ ...

racing seats with Simpson five-point belts, enlarged brakes, an integrated roll-cage, a Ruf manufactured coil-over suspension system, an integrated bi-functional rear wing (for downforce, and air induction to 2 intercoolers, one on each side) and a kevlar body with lightweight glass; power came from a race derived air-cooled Porsche 3.6 litre,

twin-turbocharged Twin-turbo (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...

Flat-six engine A flat-six engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-six, is a six-cylinder piston engine with three cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. The most common type of flat-six engine is the boxer-six engine, where each pair of opposed c ...

, based on the engine used in the Porsche 962 Le Mans Group C car (hence the name CTR2) but tuned by Ruf to produce and 505 ft lb (685 N·m) of torque. The car's engine was revised later to bump the power output to . Capable of accelerating from in under 3.5 seconds and achieving a top speed in excess of - actual recorded top speed was - in 1995 the CTR2 was the fastest production sports car in the world; it outperformed Ferrari's F50 (204 mph),

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

's XJ220 (213 mph), and performed on par with

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

's R390 GT1 (another 220 mph supercar). The

McLaren F1 The McLaren F1 is a sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Cars, and powered by the BMW S70/2 V12 engine. The original concept was conceived by Gordon Murray. Murray was able to convince Ron Dennis to b ...

was the only other production car at the time that broke the CTR2's record, by clocking a top speed of 241 mph in 1998, which then made the Ruf CTR2 the 2nd fastest production car of the decade.

Motorsport

In 1997, Alois Ruf intended to prove the new car's ability and entered two special wide-body 'CTR2 Yellowbird' prototype 'Sport' versions, code-named 'CTR2sport' with in the 1997

Pikes Peak Hillclimb The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile Hillclimbing, hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, USA. The track measures and has over 156 turns, climbing ...

race. These cars were built to both FIA and Pikes Peak regulations, and driven by brothers Steve Beddor and David Beddor. Unlike other competitors, both cars were race modified, while also being road registered, street legal cars. As demonstration of the Ruf's flexibility, they were street driven to and from the Pikes Peak racecourse. In the event, the Ruf CTR2sport driven by Steve Beddor placed 1st in overall qualifying and finished 2nd overall in the race, while his brother David in the second Ruf finished 4th overall. Steve Beddor's 'Pikes Peak' prototype Ruf CTR2sport, went on to win the Virginia City Hill Climb 3 times, as well as finishing 1st-place in 20 other races nationwide, making it arguably one of the most important 'non-Zuffenhausen' Porsche racecars of the 1990s.

Production

16 standard CTR2s were produced, alongside 12 CTR2 "Sport" versions.

Specifications

1997 RUF CTR2 - Flickr - The Car Spy (6)

*Weight: *Tyres: 245/35ZR-19 front, 285/30ZR-19 rear *Power: at 5800 rpm (1995-'96) ; 580 hp (433 kw) at 5900 rpm (1997) *Torque: at 4800 rpm *Specific output: approx. per litre *Power-to-weight ratio: 382 hp per

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

(at 5800 rpm); 427 hp per tonne (at 5900 rpm) **0-: 3.6 seconds **0-: 7.6 seconds **Top Speed: *Power (CTR2sport Pikes Peak Racecar - motor # 36011): at 7300 rpm *Torque (CTR2sport Pikes Peak Racecar): at 5500 rpm

Test results

A 520 hp CTR2 was tested by Dennis Simanitis for the February 1997 issue of ''

Road & Track ''Road & Track'' (stylized as ''R&T'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. It is owned by Hearst Magazines and is published 6 times per year. The editorial offices are located in New York, New York. History ''Road & Track'' (often ab ...

'' with the following results: *0-: 3.6 seconds *0-: 5.6 seconds *0-: 7.9 seconds *0-: 9.0 seconds *Quarter mile: 11.4 seconds at The tester noted that he suspected that the magazine's Road Test Editor would be even "a couple of tenths quicker" to 60 mph and that "there’s every reason to believe the Silver Flash is capable of an honest 350 km/h (217 mph) or more".

February 1997 A test of another 520 hp CTR2 in a March 1997 issue of ''

Auto, Motor und Sport ''Auto Motor und Sport'', often stylized as auto motor und sport and abbreviated AMS or AMuS, is a German automobile magazine. It is published fortnightly by Motor Presse Netzwerk's subsidiary Motor Presse Stuttgart, a specialist magazine publish ...

'' yielded:

6/1997 (March 7, 1997) *0-: 3.6 seconds *0-: 7.6 seconds *Standing kilometer: 20.8 seconds

References

External links

* *http://auto-specs.zercustoms.com/r/ruf/1997-ruf-ctr-2-specifications.html ZerCustoms about the Ruf 911 CTR2 {{Ruf Coupés Sports cars Rear-engined vehicles All-wheel-drive vehicles CTR2 Cars introduced in 1995