Ruf Ultimate (964)
Discussion
Hi all,
Rarely ever post here, more of a lurker. Just thought i'd share this though, as it was a rather special experience.
Just got back from a trip to Germany last month with some friends. Did the usual 'Ring tourist drive, and finally popped my Spa Francorchamps cherry. What an awesome track.
Anyway, along the way we visited Alois and Estonia Ruf and got to see the Ruf Ultimate up close and personal.
I was hoping Alois would let me ride shotgun. But no, he handed me the keys and let me have a go!
Sorry for the poor pics, these were lifted from my video camera (haven't gotten around to editing all my videos).
Needless to say i wasn't about to test all those 590 horses in damp conditions. WTH, even if the road was bone dry and the car was on slicks, i wouldn't dare.
Still what a privilege to get a shot at driving such a wonderful thing. What a car!
Rarely ever post here, more of a lurker. Just thought i'd share this though, as it was a rather special experience.
Just got back from a trip to Germany last month with some friends. Did the usual 'Ring tourist drive, and finally popped my Spa Francorchamps cherry. What an awesome track.
Anyway, along the way we visited Alois and Estonia Ruf and got to see the Ruf Ultimate up close and personal.
I was hoping Alois would let me ride shotgun. But no, he handed me the keys and let me have a go!
Sorry for the poor pics, these were lifted from my video camera (haven't gotten around to editing all my videos).
Needless to say i wasn't about to test all those 590 horses in damp conditions. WTH, even if the road was bone dry and the car was on slicks, i wouldn't dare.
Still what a privilege to get a shot at driving such a wonderful thing. What a car!
DISCLAIMER: i am not an "air cooled guy". I don't own any air cooled Porsches, and have relatively limited experience with these cars. I've had brief test drives in a 930 Turbo, as well several 993 Carreras and Turbos, and a tuned 993 Turbo S. And was once on track riding shotgun in a friend's original 993 GT2 when we had a spin and i was screaming like a girl-- not out of fear for my life, but horrified at the thought of any damage to such a gorgeous car. and this was 10 years ago, before GT2's appreciated stratospherically! My 964 exposure has been limited to a friend's 3.6 Turbo S, Alois Ruf's personal 964 RCT (the green one with the red interior seen in many magazines,) and finally, this Ruf Ultimate.
So if it sounds like i don't really know my air cooled cars, that wouldn't be far from the truth. Having said that, i've always loved them, and my appreciation has grown as the cars get older and their character is further emphasized as modern cars become fatter and more digitized. i hope to own a Ruf RCT one day. Failing that, a basic 993 Carrera would hit the spot too...
What's the Ultimate like to drive? Well for starters, I had a longer drive in Alois' RCT-- steel body, steel brakes, and about 450hp, so i'll build on those impressions. the enduring and amazing thing about the RCT is it has all the charm of air cooled 911's, with the sense of solidity and power delivery of more modern cars. the RCT has none of the spikey-ness in power delivery of say, the 3.6 Turbo S, but feels more like a large displacement normally aspirated motor. just a lovely seam of power and torque that grows in proportion to the angle of your right foot. the bodyshell also felt rock solid, this latter point being difficult to overemphasize.
The Ultimate then felt like an RCT, simply ratcheted up several notches. it's a light car, around 2,800 lbs if i'm not mistaken, so it's nimble and feels very alive. i need not say much about the power-- with 590hp, there's obviously a lot of it-- and i wasn't going to tempt fate on the damp narrow farm roads of Pfaffenhausen. there was one stretch where Alois said to go for it and overtake what looked like a slow moving Audi sedan. i squirted past at what i thought was a brisk pace for a two-lane country road, and then Alois said the Audi was travelling at around 100mph, so we were clearly going a lot quicker than i realized. the point simply being that the car piles on speed absolutely effortlessly.
a friend of mine also tested the Ultimate earlier in the day, and as he is an avid Porsche collector, with every generation of 911 in his garage, is far better qualified to render an opinion on the car. he said that it feels like his 4.0 GT3RS in how light and alive and exciting it is, with the personality and character of his air cooled cars, but with the shove in the back of a modern tuned Turbo.
final word on that solidity i mentioned. this friend also tested on the same day another RCT, but one that was converted from a Porsche VIN 964 RS; that is, it was not a Ruf VIN car from birth, and hence did not have the IRC (integrated roll cage). he said that you could really feel the difference in solidity between the non-caged car and the caged Ultimate.
It's an impression i'm familiar with from my own 997's, as I have an RT12 and a 997.1 GT3 both acquired back in 2006. Both cars have been tracked, and the Ruf has almost 2x the mileage of the GT3. Yet the GT3 now feels noticeably less "solid" (relatively speaking of course) than the RT12. as they are both 997's of the same vintage, i can only conclude that welded in cage really makes a difference.
Fit and finish of the Ultimate (and regular RCT) is of course very good, i'd say at least on a par with OE Porsche, based on my admittedly limited exposure to well maintained and preserved air cooled cars. Another friend of mine who was along for the visit has also been to the Singer factory. There may be more of a fastidious attention to interior detail with the Singers-- they have tons of bespoke parts-- and maybe even better fit and finish. I wouldn't know for certain, as I haven't seen a Singer in person, but am simply conveying what my friend told me.
Looks... all a matter of personal preference. I have to say that the car looks far better in person. it looked nice enough in pictures, but in the metal (or rather, carbon,) it is stunning. maybe it's the color, i don't know. again, this bit is highly subjective anyway.
thanks for reading!
So if it sounds like i don't really know my air cooled cars, that wouldn't be far from the truth. Having said that, i've always loved them, and my appreciation has grown as the cars get older and their character is further emphasized as modern cars become fatter and more digitized. i hope to own a Ruf RCT one day. Failing that, a basic 993 Carrera would hit the spot too...
What's the Ultimate like to drive? Well for starters, I had a longer drive in Alois' RCT-- steel body, steel brakes, and about 450hp, so i'll build on those impressions. the enduring and amazing thing about the RCT is it has all the charm of air cooled 911's, with the sense of solidity and power delivery of more modern cars. the RCT has none of the spikey-ness in power delivery of say, the 3.6 Turbo S, but feels more like a large displacement normally aspirated motor. just a lovely seam of power and torque that grows in proportion to the angle of your right foot. the bodyshell also felt rock solid, this latter point being difficult to overemphasize.
The Ultimate then felt like an RCT, simply ratcheted up several notches. it's a light car, around 2,800 lbs if i'm not mistaken, so it's nimble and feels very alive. i need not say much about the power-- with 590hp, there's obviously a lot of it-- and i wasn't going to tempt fate on the damp narrow farm roads of Pfaffenhausen. there was one stretch where Alois said to go for it and overtake what looked like a slow moving Audi sedan. i squirted past at what i thought was a brisk pace for a two-lane country road, and then Alois said the Audi was travelling at around 100mph, so we were clearly going a lot quicker than i realized. the point simply being that the car piles on speed absolutely effortlessly.
a friend of mine also tested the Ultimate earlier in the day, and as he is an avid Porsche collector, with every generation of 911 in his garage, is far better qualified to render an opinion on the car. he said that it feels like his 4.0 GT3RS in how light and alive and exciting it is, with the personality and character of his air cooled cars, but with the shove in the back of a modern tuned Turbo.
final word on that solidity i mentioned. this friend also tested on the same day another RCT, but one that was converted from a Porsche VIN 964 RS; that is, it was not a Ruf VIN car from birth, and hence did not have the IRC (integrated roll cage). he said that you could really feel the difference in solidity between the non-caged car and the caged Ultimate.
It's an impression i'm familiar with from my own 997's, as I have an RT12 and a 997.1 GT3 both acquired back in 2006. Both cars have been tracked, and the Ruf has almost 2x the mileage of the GT3. Yet the GT3 now feels noticeably less "solid" (relatively speaking of course) than the RT12. as they are both 997's of the same vintage, i can only conclude that welded in cage really makes a difference.
Fit and finish of the Ultimate (and regular RCT) is of course very good, i'd say at least on a par with OE Porsche, based on my admittedly limited exposure to well maintained and preserved air cooled cars. Another friend of mine who was along for the visit has also been to the Singer factory. There may be more of a fastidious attention to interior detail with the Singers-- they have tons of bespoke parts-- and maybe even better fit and finish. I wouldn't know for certain, as I haven't seen a Singer in person, but am simply conveying what my friend told me.
Looks... all a matter of personal preference. I have to say that the car looks far better in person. it looked nice enough in pictures, but in the metal (or rather, carbon,) it is stunning. maybe it's the color, i don't know. again, this bit is highly subjective anyway.
thanks for reading!
BillyB said:
Great to read first hand experiences.
ma444ttb - what is the base car for the RUF Ultimate then?
My understanding from the magazine article is that there isn't a base car as such. It's a ground up carbon chassis with a RUF VIN. So you don't need a donor and, I'd presume, you'd end up with a 65-plate or whatever is current at the time in the UK. In contrast the SCR4.2 requires a donor 993 that receives a longer wheelbase and carbon 964-style bodywork.ma444ttb - what is the base car for the RUF Ultimate then?
This car was £65k way back when.
I've shamelessly cut and pasted from a thread I added to about 9 years ago
[quote=stuttgartmetal]
![]()
[pic]http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/stuttgartmetal/Ruf%20Viper/Ruf02.jpg/[pic]
This car was awesome
Ended up bought by a ruf dealer in Scandinavia somewhere.
I've shamelessly cut and pasted from a thread I added to about 9 years ago
[quote=stuttgartmetal]
[pic]http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n48/stuttgartmetal/Ruf%20Viper/Ruf02.jpg/[pic]
This car was awesome
Ended up bought by a ruf dealer in Scandinavia somewhere.
Edited by stuttgartmetal on Thursday 27th October 23:15
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