Just Add Lightness: The RUF CTR2 Sport

Two turbos, 3.6 liters, 580 brake horsepower pushing around 3,000 pounds, and capable of 217 miles per hour in 1995. At the time of the RUF CTR2’s release the only production car faster was a McLaren F1.

The RUF philosophy has always been to add lightness, and the CTR2 version does exactly that, saving nearly 10% of a standard 993 Turbo’s weight. Adding a healthy dollop of power, carbon-ceramic brakes, and extra-wide wheels, the CTR2 Sport is an incredible mash-up of high-end aftermarket excellence.

Improving on a Porsche is a lofty goal, but one that Alois Ruf Jr. was quite familiar with. As if to rub it in, Mr. Ruf decided he needed to prove just how good the road car was by entering two of them into the 1997 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

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These would be the prototypes to this rare wide-body Sport version I spotted at McCall’s Motorworks Revival. The prototypes, though, would boast an incredible 702hp and an extra-wide wide-body. One car qualified first and finished second, with the other RUF entry taking fourth overall. To add insult to injury, the cars were driven all the way to the event and back again as they were entirely street legal.

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These prototypes had an extra wing, but I love how aggressive the flowing standard Sport deck lid looks here. I say ‘standard’ but only 15 of these cars were made, meaning that nothing is really standard as we normally would think of it.

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A very drunk man, who you can actually see in the reflection of the window, insisted on telling me all of the ins and outs of these cars, their history, and so on. While varying in accuracy, one detail he did seem to get right was about the dial you see in front of and to the right of the shifter. This is a controller for the AWD torque bias, something you could also opt for on the ‘base’ model CTR2, if it’s even appropriate to call it that.

Appropriate or not, from the flowing wide-body down to every last detail the car is sensationally good.

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The RUF CTR2 Sport carries over Porsche’s design language so nicely. It’s an entirely refined package, just about as rare as they come, and exactly the sort of thing you hope turns up during Monterey Car Week.

It’s the 993 to best all street-legal 993s. Well, maybe not quite

Trevor Yale Ryan
Instagram: tyrphoto
TYRphoto.com

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1

You really hate taking whole shots of cars.

2

Wow you beat me to it. I was about to type the exact same thing. So oftenon SH, I want to see the whole car but only the details are shown.

3

No, he hates taking pictures of people, which inevitably will happen if you take whole car shots at car show.

4
Charley Bit My Finger

It's funny that the auto industry has come to calling a 3,000lb car light weight. It would be funny to take someone who drives a car like this regularly and throw them into something under 2,000lbs with half the horsepower.

Weight is the single most important contributing factor to performance in a vehicle and 3,000lbs is a substantial amount of it no matter how you look at it (relative or otherwise).

5
Daniel P Huneault

3 grand is pretty light for a fully developed street car

6

My 68 912 weighs less than 2100 lbs without any carbon fiber

7

So yours weighs the same as it did from the factory but imagine if you took 10% of that out, like they did here. I agree that 3,000 seems like a lot, but 3,300 feels like a whole lot more.

8

It was made in 1968, it's tiny, 4cyl,rwd, probably small steel wheels and teency brakes. Add two cyls, two turbos, awd, and big wheels and aero and see what it weighs. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised your car is that heavy.

9

its still a "fully developed" street car and is all steel. Original miata was also 2100, plenty of cars were less. Im just saying that 3k isn't light by any means.

10

My point exactly Nate. I don't like how this person is trying to add all these nuances to justify it.

Weight is weight. Very cool car but its not a feather by any means.

11

The first time I saw this car was in Gran Turismo 2! Great memories!

12

My favourite thing a Ruf Porsche.......thanks Trevor your articles on the Monterey week have been absolute quality a few of your featured cars the Merc GTR for one I had forgotten even existed........keep them coming fella

13
Jay Soh Tsu Chung

It seems the widebody even moved the headlights further apart...

14

This car was driven. Something not common for super-expensive Porsches. Utterly brilliant.

I love the fact it's so light, miles more appealing than the stock car.

15

I am currently modding a 97 VW Jetta. I've been modding it for over two years now, and I am a mechnical engineer so I focus on creative and low-buck mods. In all honesty, I AM STILL REMOVING WEIGHT from the the car, and I've been working quite diligently to find new places to drop weight. Last weekend I built a new engine subframe that dropped over 20lbs from the front end. The difference in handling is absolutely astonishing. The lighter your car gets, the more each pound makes a difference.

I can't really list all the mods, but the point of this post, is that if you have a good technical background you can improve your car's handling FOR FREE...and you can spend years doing this, as you get more creative about dropping pounds. I'm having so much fun figuring stuff out for myself, and the improvements are so dramatic, and the best part is that I spend so little money on it. It's almost endless the types of mods you can do. I think it's really fun, actually.

Some people are obsessed with 'power'...but I guess, I'm now obsessed with 'lightness.' To each, his own.

16

I've been meaning to go back to school to properly learn welding and metal fab - actually get to know the science behind it so I can do just this with my own project car (Prelude H22-swapped '92 Accord wagon). Do you have a build thread or anything like that online?

17

Great article, but am I gonna be called a blasphemer if I say that I'm not really fond of the rear end of the car? Just can't bring myself to really like that rear.

18

Although not exactly "pretty', it's quite functional and very mid-90's so I do like it. Could be worse.

19

Blasphemer!!!

20

I am no expert on the subject, but I severely doubt that this car had carbon ceramic brakes in 1995. Brembo only started selling carbon ceramic in 2002 with the Ferrari Enzo. Even in pictures, it would seem that this car has steel floating rotors. If anyone can say otherwise, it would be appreciated. Love the content!

21

"580 bhp, 3,600 cc horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine, twin Turbocharges, all-wheel drive, six-speed gearbox, front and rear independent suspension, front McPherson-struts and wishbones, rear multi-link axle, and four-wheel carbon-ceramic brakes. Wheelbase: 2,270 mm"

Haggerty Automotive source. Appears to check out.

22

Maybe RUF's numbers were so low that they didn't count as "mass production" or "serial production", compared to Ferrari

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