Ruffer than Ruf
It’s never been done before but late-April I managed to get together the full set of Ruf CTRs – the Bavarian master’s hottest icons. The CTR-1, a sibling of the original Yellowbird that forged Alois Ruf’s reputation as a giant killer (211mph in a supercar shoot-out in 1986) belongs to a friend in Antwerp. He and Kobus Cantrain brought it over to Bruntingthorpe proving ground in Leicestershire, where there’s a 2-mile straight on the airfield circuit where it seemed 200mph might be feasible. The CTR-2 and CTR-3 belong to publisher and classic racer Simon Draper. The CTR-2′s a mid-’90s car based on the Porsche 993 Turbo, while the CTR-3 is a mid-engined 700bhp road rocket conceptually similar to the 911 GT1 Le Mans car and the Carrera GT. Simon’s CTR-3 is the first right-hooker. editor of 911 & Porsche World Steve Bennett installed timing-gear and Jamie Lipman took the pics. Top speeds actually fell during the morning as a headwind got up, but eventually I did see 200mph on the CTR-3. The sensation of speed along an aircraft runway is muted by the width and length of the track, though the end of the straight rushes up at you incredibly smartish.