Hey Cool Car Fans,
This weekend I was at a party in Cherry Creek with Becky and I met a guy named Patrick who lives in Castle Rock and he owns a Porsche RUF. Patrick is a former professional driver and driver trainer who actually raced in the 24 hour Daytona. I hope to get pictures of his Porsche for CoolCarGuy.com along with a few his stories because he had some great one’s that he told me the other night.
For those of you who are not familiar with 24 Hours at Daytona, according to Wikipedia The Last House on the Left dvd , it is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is held on a 3.56-mile (5.73 km) combined road course, utilizing portions of the NASCAR tri-oval and an infield road course. Since its inception, it has been held the last weekend of January or first weekend of February, part of Speedweeks, and it is the first major automobile race of the year in the United States.
The Porsche RUF is a race car. It’s an amazing piece of machinery designed by a company called RUF that sells automobiles and performs conversions that transforms a current Porsche with RUF powerkits, suspensions, wheels and aerokits.
They have been doing conversions and enhancements to Porsche’s for more than 60 years. The name of RUF for people who own a Porsche has meant superior quality and craftsmanship. RUF started in 1939 when Alois Ruf, Sr. first formed his company, “AUTO RUF”, as a general service garage. The company is still in operation today at its original location on Mindelheimer Street in the small town of Pfaffenhausen, situated in southern Germany’s Allgau region.
While Ruf Sr. continued to strengthen and expand the company, his son, Alois Ruf Jr., was developing his own interests and passions for “l’art-pour-idee” in automobiles, the true sports car. It was during the 1960’s that the Jr. Ruf, who was driven by his own interests and apprenticed to his father, started focusing on his passion of servicing and restoring Porsches.
The first RUF enhanced Porsche model made its debut in 1975. Two years later, the turbo charged 911 engine, which was enlarged to 3.3 liters by RUF through the use of larger pistons, had a distinct performance increase compared to the standard Porsche Turbo model. This was followed in 1978 by the development of a 217 bhp 3.2 liter version of the six cylinder naturally aspirated 3.0 liter engine Porsche offered (which was far below its true performance potential). This conversion was favorably received by sports car enthusiasts worldwide and resulted in numerous orders.
The rest is history. Alois Ruf enjoys his cars as much as his customers, recognizing that powerful and sporty cars require extra skill behind the wheel not only for safety, but to be also able to enjoy the car’s true potential. In 1978, RUF started to offer his customers regular driver training events on race tracks such as Germany’s Hockenheimring and the Salzburgring in Austria.
And that’s why you’ve got to see in this video that was posted on YouTube. I watched this 8 minute video earlier today of a guy driving on a what appears to be a closed race trac, similar to what RUF offers their customers and I was blown away. This video is incredible. If you like to drive as much as I do, you will get a major kick out of watching this video. There are a few times where you think for sure this dude is going to lose it and he’s passing people on this track and just flying passed them in his yellow Porsche RUF.
I’m giving it a five star Cool Car Guy rating of: ***** Extremely Cool
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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant with JFR & Associates in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com