Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Ruf has come quite a long way from its roots as a tuner of Porsches. The German company (no doubt familiar to those of us in the Playstation Generation as Gran Turismo 2‘s workaround because someone else owned the video game rights to the real 911) has evolved past that stage and now builds cars of its own design. And today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, it fired up a brand-new engine for the first time in public.
In fact, the German authorities have considered Ruf a distinct manufacturer (as opposed to a tuner) for some time—the BTR in 1983 was the first to carry a Ruf vehicle identification number rather than the one that Porsche originally stamped on the chassis. Then in 2007, it revealed the CTR3. The Porsche DNA was clear, but the CTR3 was mid-engined, unlike the rear-engined 911, and featured a frame chassis developed by Ruf together with Multimatic.
More recently, it has been building its own all-carbon monocoque chassis for cars like the SCR and Rodeo, which otherwise look like 964-era Porsche 911s. Those still use horizontally opposed six-cylinder engines, but for its next generation of cars it seems Ruf wanted something a little different.
The B8 mounted inside the mule. Ruf The B8’s lead engineer, Marc Brunner, and Alois Ruf Jr. Ruf The B8’s lead engineer, Marc Brunner, and Alois Ruf Jr. Ruf The B8 mounted inside the mule. Ruf The B8’s lead engineer, Marc Brunner, and Alois Ruf Jr. Ruf The new engine is called the B8, and it’s fitted to a lengthened CTR3 mule called the “Erprober” (German for tester), which will carry the engine up the hill at Goodwood (driven by one of the nicest guys in racing, Tanner Faust).
Full technical specs on the new engine are not available yet, and unfortunately Ars isn’t at Goodwood to follow up, but we do know the 4.8 L engine generates more than 1,000 hp (745 kW) and 737 lb-ft (1,000 Nm).
