The Most Extreme Porsche 911 Ever Built Packs Eight Cylinders And Hypercar Ambitions
RUF is a company that many outside of Porsche and German car enthusiast circles may not be aware of. The company’s history stretches back to the late 1930s, though its introduction into the wider world of performance came in the 1980s, when the legendary “Yellowbird” took to the Nürburgring to show just how crazy a Porsche can get. Since then, the firm has made a name for itself as a premier manufacturing and tuning house that specializes in upgrading Porsche models. Now, it plans to reinvent an area in which Porsche helped pioneer: Boxer engines.
RUF’s Eight-Cylinder Boxer Engine Sends Horsepower Into The Four-Digits
The flat, or boxer, engine is something Porsche knows better than most companies out there, considering the flat-six is its literal calling card. That said, there hasn’t been much push towards going bigger. While automotive history has a few examples of a flat-eight — even Porsche tried the format out a few times — it is very uncommon to encounter a flat-eight engine.
Known internally as the “Erprober” or “Tester,” RUF’s Boxer 8 (B8) made its debut at Goodwood, standing as a living, fire-breathing unit that challenges the limits of high-performance engineering. The twin-turbo 4.8-liter Boxer 8 is said to develop over 1,000 horsepower and 1,000 Nm of torque (~738 pound-feet). Housed in an elongated RUF CTR3 (a modified Porsche 911), the B8 engine serves as a testbed, a proof of concept, that RUF says will shape the future of its vehicles. This means that we could actually see more B8 engines in the future.
There are moments in a company’s history that define the future, for RUF, the Boxer 8 is one of those moments. A boxer-eight has never been part of our story, or anyone else’s in this form, so we decided to write a new chapter in automotive history. We look forward to letting the engine speak for itself at Goodwood.
The CTR3, packing the B8 engine, will take on the Supercar Run twice per day, from Friday, July 10th, to Sunday, July 12th, with legend Tanner Foust behind the wheel. The vehicle will be on display in the Supercar Paddock, for attendees interested in popping by and checking it out.
This Automotive Milestone Has Been Hiding, And Testing, In Plain Sight
RUF prefers to let its engineering do the talking, which is why the company chose the CTR3 as the B8 testing shell. To the average onlooker, regardless of whether they are familiar with the company’s movements, the CTR3 seems fairly normal — some may even mistake it for one of Porsche’s sports cars. But it hides a revolutionary engine under its skin, and only those with prior knowledge of the brand and/or Porsche and a keen eye would know that something else is going on. The CTR3 is elongated to accommodate the large B8 engine — 100 millimeters to be exact. Though one of the most interesting aspects of the entire build is that all 1,000+ horses are sent through a six-speed manual transmission.
Though RUF has been tight-lipped about the project, the team assures us that we’ll get to hear the B8 in all its glory howling up Goodwood all weekend long.
Livery Pays Homage To The One That Started It All
A special cosmetic package has been applied to the B8-powered CTR3, one that calls back to the “Yellowbird” that lit the fires when it tore up the Green Hell more than 35 years ago. Accompanied by graphics that symbolize the number 8, as well as continuous motion, visually, the B8-powered CTR3 will be enough to draw emotion from enthusiasts. And if that doesn’t work, RUF brought a 1,000+ horsepower eight-cylinder Boxer engine, which should help capture some curiosity from those lucky enough to experience it.
Sources: RUF, Porsche
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