Two Porsches carrying a very young Alois Ruf Jr. raced by, determined the fate of the boss of the company of the same name. This moment created a lifelong connection between Ruf and one of the most famous sports car brands in the world. It’s a two-way relationship, because you could say that tuner Ruf helped save the Porsche 911 from extinction. A little.
“We started out repairing and servicing Porsches,” says Ruf Jr. to TopGear, “and we’ve built a reputation for it. It was through word of mouth, and more and more people started coming to us. That’s how we became known as a Porsche specialist.’ At the time, Ruf Jr.’s father was still the boss of the company.
The oil crisis made things difficult for Ruf and Porsche
Ruff Jr. continues: ‘That was in the ’60s, and all this continued into the ’70s. The big blow to us was the oil crisis [in de jaren ’70]. It was very difficult for us. Then my father passed away [in 1974] – he was only 62 years old, and I had to survive with the company.’ Ruff Jr. was only 24 years old at the time.
At that time, Porsche was of course thinking about the future of its model range. “Porsche announced that the 911 was coming to an end and that the company’s future lay with the 928,” says Ruf Jr. That said, all our customers and friends – car enthusiasts like us! – stood behind the 911. It had already established its image, and no one wanted to give that up for a front-engine car.’
Ruf invested in the Porsche 911
“So I knew I had to go ahead with the 911. I had to bet my money on that. We made beautiful special versions of the 911, the press loved these cars and wrote great stories that really contributed to the company’s success. This was fuel for our future,” he says. So, did Ruf help save the 911? “In a way you can say that we helped to save the model,” concludes Ruf.
What motivated Ruf to try to make the Elf into something even better? “The factory version of the 911 Turbo was missing a gear,” says Ruf Jr. “The car came with a four-speed gearbox, and that four-speed gearbox took the fun out of the engine. He begged for a fifth gear. So the first step was to install a five-speed gearbox.’
One thing led to another, you could say, ‘Then we came up with a more powerful engine. We worked on the suspension, gave the car a little more feel with the road, then the steering… and suddenly it was a different car.” The German government even saw Ruf as a separate car manufacturer, because the cars were so radically changed.
Why Porsches needed modifications
At the time, Porsche believed that they had to compete with Mercedes-Benz, that the car needed more comfort. Many people, especially the Turbo drivers, are older men – because you have to be able to afford the car – but they still felt young, and they still wanted to feel like young sports car drivers. So we focused on the other [sportieve] side. That worked very well.
‘I’ve always believed that what I like will also be liked by some other people. Someone described it nicely: ‘Alois Ruf builds cars for his friends!'” He compares his approach to that of the original makers of the 911. “If they did this [de 911 modificeren/verbeteren]what would the interventions be? I’ve always followed that course and never did anything dishonorable to the 911.”
Ruf already did personalization
“This was so important – that we just strengthened the image of the 911, to make the car more individual,” he said. A very diplomatic way of saying ‘I ever built the fastest car in the world’, although the top speed – at least for Ruf Jr. – surprisingly, is not the end goal.
“Top speed is a byproduct for me,” he says. “It’s always nice to know, but when it comes to speeds like our CTR – 360 km/h – there’s no point in reaching that speed. It’s an academic number. But that wonderful acceleration at any speed is nice to have.’
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