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Driver's Notebook: Raising the Ruf

Gregory Anderson

February 1, 2007

Buy a Ruf, and you get more than an automobile. “We build so few cars that we become close friends with our clients,” says Alfredo Stola of Studiotorino, the Italian coachbuilder responsible for the optional customized bodies and interiors of the Ruf RK Coupé and Spyder. “Ruf knows everyone who buys his cars,” Stola claims. “That is the Ruf philosophy: The customer becomes a member of the family.”

Those familial feelings are not shared by Porsche, which for years has counted Ruf Automobile as one of its most frequent customers because Porsches make up the basis for every automobile that bears a Ruf badge. Officially, however, the two companies share no affiliation. “If you were to ask Porsche, they would say Ruf is a competitor,” Alois Ruf says about his eponymous company’s long-standing business relationship with Stuttgart. “The way they see it, we are competing with their model policy. But every car that we sell,” Ruf points out, “is a Porsche sold.” (Click images to enlarge)

Ruf maintains a steady business thanks to Porsche’s “model policy” of incrementally improving a car’s performance from one year to the next. For a recent example of this policy in action, look no further than the 2007 Boxster S, which at 295 hp makes just 15 hp more than last year’s model. By contrast, Ruf’s upgraded version of the Boxster—a supercharged roadster called the RK Spyder—develops more than 400 hp. “If Porsche tried to compete [with us],” Ruf says, “they would end up cannibalizing sales of the 911.” The bulk of Ruf’s customers, therefore, are best described as impatient Porschephiles.

Now, if anything, Porsche follows Ruf’s lead.

“Everything we have done, Porsche has followed, eventually,” Ruf says. If that trend continues, and the Ruf Rt 12 (see The Robb Report Collection, February 2006) is any indication, the 911 Turbo (the current 997 version of which develops 480 hp) will someday produce 650 hp—a plausible prediction in an era when 500 hp is fast becoming the minimum requirement for sports car status. Until the 911 pushes the envelope, however, the latest Porsche—the Cayman coupe—may be stuck in a quandary. Hamstrung, performance-wise, so as not to compete with the 911, the Cayman is a sports car that under Ruf’s guidance has reached supercar stardom.

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Studiotorino’s bespoke coachwork trades some of the Cayman’s Teutonic utility for a welcome dose of high Italian style. (Click image to enlarge)

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To put it another way, the Ruf RK Coupé is a Porsche 911 Turbo trapped in a Cayman’s body. While the letter R in RK Coupé stands for Ruf, the K signifies the mid-mounted engine’s Kompressor, or supercharger, which spools 440 hp and 348 ft lbs of torque to the rear wheels through a heavily modified 3.8-liter engine. Coincidentally, and accompanied by a guttural wail, the car also accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds, or just a tenth of a second slower than Porsche’s 911 Turbo.

The supercharged performance does not come as a bargain. Including the cost of the Cayman on which it is based, the Ruf RK Coupé with Studiotorino coachwork starts at just over $250,000.

“We’re trying to recapture the original spirit of Porsche,” Ruf says. With the 190 mph top speed of the RK Coupé, there is not much Ruf will not capture, including Ferrari F430 and Lamborghini Gallardo customers, just to name two Italian exotics that are guaranteed to be more numerous on the roads. Appearances and exclusivity are important to exotic-car buyers, and for this, Ruf has commissioned the Italian design experts at Studiotorino to soften Porsche’s staid German aesthetic. (Click image to enlarge)

“The front was the biggest problem,” says Stola. “Porsches are [shaped] like eggs.” So like a good omelette chef, Studiotorino broke a few eggs. Alterations are subtle yet distinctive: The shape of the carbon-fiber trunk lid, for instance, is reminiscent of the classic Porsche 904. “We also covered the lateral glass,” Stola says. “When you take out the glass and put in steel, there is a gain in body stiffness, which improves handling.” Though most of the body is steel, Studiotorino uses lightweight aluminum in the hood and carbon fiber for the bumpers. “A Ruf car is a labor of love,” Stola says.

“Ruf will build only 49 of these cars,” he adds, “but Studiotorino cannot build more than seven or eight bodies per year.” In effect, the RK Coupé with coachbuild by Studiotorino is a niche within a niche. In automotive taxonomy, therefore, you could classify them as a genus and species within the Porsche family.

Ruf, www.rufautocentre.com
Studiotorino, www.studiotorino.com