Meet the Mintbird!

[Mintbird]

Hoi everyone!

Figured Id Share a super-high milage RUF CTR I bought recently. The car was delivered originally as a guards red 89 3.2 , 2 years later it was taken to Pfaffenhausen and converted to a RUF CTR - also known as a yellowbird - and given a RUF Mint green color.
Its done 120.000 Miles, and the gearbox had a rebuild last year.

So indeed not all Yellowbirds are that - yellow!

Edited by Mintbird on Tuesday 24th November 15:32

[Mintbird]

[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/yUKQfrFH[/url]

[Mintbird]

Ive been following JBL930`s threads for many years and dreaming about a 930 ( Rest in Peace JBL930) - and realised rather than spending 50 grand on a 930 to get it to 500 bhp - might as well just start with a CTR and be done with it.

Performance should be ample, road and track measured 60-125 mph in 6.5 seconds in 1987.

That will do thanks!

[Mintbird]

its a 89! Well technically as the CTR conversion is a defacto re-shell and new car, a 91...

[Mintbird]

Come to the oldtimer grand prix this summer and you just might

[Mintbird]

Correct - car was bought on auction in japan. It went from Germany to japan in 1993.
Gearbox was sent back to RUF Pfaffenhausen last year for an overhaul, so it looks like its been looked somewhat after.

Not a minter, but some patina is part of the charm imo.

[Mintbird]

89 3.2 , all CTR are based on carrera 3.2`s and lightened to around 1170 kiloes.

[Mintbird]

should be for the oil ÖLKLAPPE!

[Mintbird]

9e 28 said:

There were a few CTRs based on 964 C2 too.

Are you sure? Ive seen some 964 CTR`s but they look like special comissions to me.
Live and learn I guess.

[Mintbird]

9e 28 said:

Mintbird said:

9e 28 said:

There were a few CTRs based on 964 C2 too.

Are you sure? Ive seen some 964 CTR`s but they look like special comissions to me.
Live and learn I guess.

Not sure TBH. Sure i read somewhere that a few CTR factory cars were based on 964 but may be completely wrong. I know the Ruf factory vin CTRs are unicorns. less than 30 cars worldwide

They ran out of body in whites after #29 , at which point they started using 3.2 donor cars. Only 14 of the 29 cars have a RUF VIN though for various reasons, rest have a Porsche VIN. Still a complete reshell mind, there are zero technical differences between conversions and ruf-VIN cars.

Supposedly there are around 25 conversions on top of the 29 original cars, but rumour has it there are less than 20 left on the road. Might be bks though, who knows.

[Mintbird]

Toby I know you were not the biggest fan of your CTR, stinked of fuel but went quite well

Care to share your views on this model? Be gentle please

[Mintbird]

TB993tt said:

Mintbird said:

Care to share your views on this model? Be gentle please

The CTR is an icon for a lot of us. I have the article in my drawer where it out ran all the hypercars in the late 80s. 213mph !!!!! this id pretty nuts today but in 1987 was enough to give petrol heads convulsions, I worshipped this car and have most everything ever produced about it.

I like to have fast cars which can be daily driven and assumed that a CTR would be an ultimate DDer so I bought a used one in the mid 90s, it was one of the retrofitted ones but still had all the bits including CF bonnet and doors. Unfortunately because in the late 80s the only way to control 500hp was to make the chassis really stiff resulted in the CTR having a very choppy ride which was OK on those flat sweepers round Pfaffenshausen but unacceptable on UK roads. The engine mapping as you mention in your post above also was quite rudimentary MAP based tuning which combined with inadequate intercooling resulted in a very rich running engine which did always stink of petrol (wait until you try and MOT it !) and did about 10mpg whate ever you did.

The last bit which makes the CTR difficult as a DD is the cost of all the R parts. Ruf does it correctly as a manufacturer and has part numbers for all those lovely bespoke bits but the downside is when you come to buy them......ouch. Rear silencer £10K, I was looking at your pics and was thinking new brake discs, shockers etc etc..... bloody big bills if you wanted to actually use that thing.

Having said all the above I refer to my first sentence and applaud you for buying one and look forward to hearing your thoughts and trials and tribulations with this wonderful thing

Thanks for a great reply. So basically, running a CTR require deep pockets when things needs to be replaced. Arent the discs just brembo 330`s, and the shocks just revalved bilsteins? how expensive can it be.... >.< ( famous last words)

Are we talking "I think i need a lay-down" quotations whenever there is something wrong with it?

[Mintbird]

I just got the papers from RUF confirming the conversion in July 1991, and completed in october the same year.

Havent driven it yet no, as for the VIN debacle, only 14 of the 29 cars have a proper VIN number - in my opinion its not a big deal as the entire conversion is a complete reshell anyway.

[Mintbird]

Bump for help from the lovely PH pack!

I am trying to track down history on my car, and I found this old photo on google - its clearly a Mint CTR so it might very well be my car!

Now the plates read MN PV 911, but I cant tell whether it says I or F ( Italy or France) on the blue tag on the side of the plate.

Can someone help identifying the nationality of this plate?

[Mintbird]

eli-minator 111 said:

Hi,

I just did some googling and found a post on pistonhead forum from the previous owner here: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/9...

Additionally, if you use google photo search with the key words "RUF mintgruen" you will find several pics of the car when it was on offer at Auto-Salon-Singen, a famous German car dealer. Chances are that they ay have some forther infos.

Stunning car

Schönen Tag
Andreas

The car was always in my possession also when it was at Singen. I considered selling it, however decided to pull it and its no longer for sale Time to hit the hedges!

[Mintbird]

NBTBRV8 said:

Why don't you contact RUF in Germany for any details on it. Plus you can request the previous registered keepers in Japan if you know the licence plate number.

Another option will be to contact the 2 or 3 RUF dealers in Japan and see if they can help you.

Ruf has no info on it ,unfortunately. Was exported to Japan in 1993. The RUF dealer believed to have serviced the car shut up shop in 2011...

[Mintbird]

anyone going to Le Mans / Oldtimer GP / Spa this year? figure Id give the old girl a proper blat... clean out those rads

[Mintbird]

Im in Norway mate, minus 10 celsius here, the peppermint pig will lie dormant until april at the earliest

Obscene amounts of road salt too...

[Mintbird]

mm yes but I always try to repair original panels rather than new ones... call me a luddite

[Mintbird]

if its one thing Ive come to realise with old porsches, it is that perfect finish is something you can forget about

watch the movies from the factory fitting the doors in the 80s, they are hanging and pulling them like crazy to make em fit!

and dont get me started on RUF, they slapped em together with some filler here and there and jobs`a good`un - its factory finish and this is coming from Meek who have worked on several on them - including CHOPPING off a roof because it was delivered with a sunroof.

This old myth about original cars being picture perfect must die , wasnt just the dagenham factory who left cheese sandwiches under the paint