Media | Articles
The Six-Million-Dollar Porsche That RUF Built
Better, stronger, faster. That’s what they said about Steve Austin, but it also applies to the 1989 RUF CTR ‘Yellowbird’ which is going under the hammer at Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island Auctions in March.
Just like the android astronaut played by Lee Majors the RUF is going to cost someone a cool six million dollars—maybe even more.
It’s one of just 29 examples made by the German tuner, and one of nine finished in Blutengelb (Blossom Yellow). It’s fitted with the optional six-speed RUF transmission, upgraded Brembo disc brakes and suspension. Under the whale tail rear wing sits a 3367 cc flat-six motor, to which RUF added Bosch Motronic fuel injection and twin KKK turbochargers to give it 469 horsepower.
RUF opted for the standard-bodied 911 Carrera 3.2 to minimise mass and drag when building the CTR. Replacing the doors, hood and engine cover with aluminum RUF was able to strip out 400 pounds from the Porsche. Deleting the rain gutters aided the aero, along with sleek mirrors and composite front and rear bumpers, while the wheel arches were subtly widened to accommodate 17-inch Speedline alloy wheels.
Buyers could specify luxuries such as leather upholstery and air conditioning but this example is in Leichtbau trim, with cloth Recaro race seats, a wrapped roll cage and built-in fire extinguisher. That helped it to weight in at just over 2500 pounds and deliver a 0-60 mph run in just 3.65 seconds, taking only seven seconds to reach 100 mph.
Marketplace
Buy and sell classics with confidence
In Road & Track’s 1987 World’s Fastest Car shoot-out a CTR hit 211 mph on VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany, besting rivals from Lamborghini, Ferrari and AMG in the process. U.S. F1 champ Phil Hill commented, “I must say, it’s pretty extraordinary to take a car you can drive on the street and go this fast.”
It was also during this road test that the CTR was christened Yellowbird by Road & Track photographers, but it’s the RUF’s Faszination auf dem Nürburgring film, showcasing the car being hustled and muscled round the Nürburgring by test driver Stefan Roser that’s probably it’s most memorable moment.
Chassis number 26 was bought new by a German collector in 1989 and never road registered. In 2020 it was sold to a U.S. enthusiast and has only covered 1673 km (1040 miles) in all the years since. Gooding & Company calls it “a definitive example of this landmark model presented in pristine original condition.”
If it does top the six million-dollar mark that would make it one of the most expensive road-going Porsches ever sold at auction, eclipsing the price of a 1953 550 Rennsport Spyder, which sold for $6 M at Bonhams in 2018, and a 911 GT1 Straßenversion which went for $5.65 M at Amelia Island in 2017.
Ruf models are always attractive to me. His cars are properly crazy.