GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Porsche tuner RUF returns with CTR

There was a time when people the world over knew RUF as the guys who took fast Porsches and made them faster.

Now they take old Porsches and make brand new cars that look exactly like them.

Relative newcomers like America’s Singer might have taken over RUF’s mantle as the world’s highest-profile Porsche tuning and customising outfit, but the German company is fighting back, crazier than ever.

Its new CTR 2017 looks for all the world to be a 911 Carrera 3.2 from the 1980s, but is actually a completely new vehicle and so different it might as well be a silhouette formula.

And it is based on a Porsche, but only sort of. RUF instead claims its design pays homage to its own 1987 CTR Yellow Bird, which kicked freckle at the short-lived World’s Fastest Car competition and whose lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife is still the stuff of opposite-lock legend.

Yet instead of the steel chassis of the Porsche, the CTR 2017 is based around a carbon-fibre chassis tub. And still manages to look the same as it did 30 years ago.

While a carbon tub is usually associated with mid-engined sports and super cars, RUF’s addiction to Porsche history runs so deep that they’ve ignored all the opportunities its architecture offered it and stuck the flat-six petrol engine in the 911’s traditional spot behind the rear axle.

They’ve also taken the carbon-fibre theme further with a full carbon-fibre skin (the rest of the world calls them panels), resulting in 1200kg kerb weight.

They’ve RUF’ed up the power, too, with a new twin-turbo 3.6-litre flat six punching out 522kW of power and 880Nm of torque. The dry-sump engine is already delivering its torque peak at 2750rpm and holds it until 4500rpm, while the power peaks at 6750rpm, which isn’t bad from a twin-turbo.

The all-aluminium block and heads are water cooled and filled with things like sodium-filled valves, forged pistons and variable valve timing and lift.

RUF has mated this powerplant to a presumably robust, custom-made six-speed manual gearbox with two overdriven gears (and no direct drive gear).

All of that means the custom throwback rips to 100km/h in under 3.5 seconds, though just how far under 3.5 seconds it goes depends entirely on how your feet manage to get the rear tyres to hook up. There is traction control (and ABS), but physical limits are physical limits.

There’s enough power there to arm wrestle the aerodynamics into submission, too, ripping out to 360km/h for the incredibly brave.

In a sideways-happy RUF tradition, the CTR is an old-school rear-wheel drive with a mechanical limited-slip differential, which explains why the sprint to 100km/h feels a little off. There’s only so much longitudinal acceleration a pair of 305/30 ZR19 rear tyres can cope with before they surrender in a pall of smoke.

It’s kept on the road by double wishbones at all corners, with high-mounted horizontal dampers at both ends keeping the movement of the springs settled and the centre-locked alloy wheels under control.

Six-piston fixed calipers clamp its 380mm carbon-ceramic front brake discs, while four-piston units grab the 350mm rear carbon-ceramic rotors.

The car runs aluminium subframes and a roll cage on top of its carbon-fibre monocoque, and has kitted it out to look as much like its period of inspiration as possible.

There are old-school dials, a 370km/h speedo and aluminium pedals, while the seats are carbon-fibre shells coated in Alcantara, just behind a three-spoke steering wheel.

A strict two-seater, the CTR stretches out to 4207mm long, 1818.5mm wide and only 1265mm high, with a 2342mm wheelbase.