This Ruf CTR Yellowbird Is Expected To Sell For Over $1 Million
It all goes back to a now legendary Road & Track group test held at VW’s Ehra-Lessien facility in 1987. Even though it featured some of the hottest cars of the 1980s - including a Ferrari 288 GTO, a Porsche 959 and a Lamborghini Countach, to name but a few - it was the CTR that shone through. Partly because it was completely nuts, and partly because the bright yellow paint scheme of the test car made it stand out even more. It was nicknamed Yellow Bird, and the name stuck.
It all goes back to a now legendary Road & Track group test held at VW’s Ehra-Lessien facility in 1987. Even though it featured some of the hottest cars of the 1980s - including a Ferrari 288 GTO, a Porsche 959 and a Lamborghini Countach, to name but a few - it was the CTR that shone through. Partly because it was completely nuts, and partly because the bright yellow paint scheme of the particularly test car made it stand out even more. It was nicknamed Yellow Bird, and the name stuck.
Although the intention was to build a spectacularly angry turbocharged 911, Ruf chose not to do the easy thing and start with a 930, but instead use a regular 3.2 Carrera as the base. That flat-six grew to 3.4 litres and gained a couple of turbochargers, along with two intercoolers. Soon the power was at 469bhp, allowing for a top speed of 213mph. In 1987. Even the 959 it was tested against didn’t have an answer - it ran out of puff at a mere 197mph.
This particular CTR was built for the Swiss market and was delivered on 10 February 1989. The first owner, however, was a German man who’d gotten bored of waiting for the CTR that was being built to his requested spec. Once the second car was completed, he decided to keep both. We like his style.
With 52,200km on the clock it’s not exactly leggy, but considering how special this thing is, that’s a pleasingly high mileage. It’s clearly not just been stuffed away in a garage all of its life, in other words.
It’s due to be auctioned at RM Sotheby’s Monterey event on 25 August.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Its not yellow tho
Disclaimer: this is a joke, dont get triggered at me and make me seem like dumb ass
dude youre so stupid
angery triggered
fight me you car normie reeeee
Fun fact, there is only one official CTR that has the Yellowbird nickname and you can tell which one that is as the actual Yellowbird has NACA ducts on the rear fenders
Another fun fact:it was removed because it drew air out, rather than in once it went fast enough
I guess you could call it the Blackbird🤷♂️ awesome car by the way!
Blackbird you say?
you mean this?
looks at prices
ow
weeps
52200km is an amazing mileage for such a car. Yes, it only amounts to ~1800km per year, but considering you can’t drive it in the rain (it’s completely mental, you’d probably crash it) and in the winter (adding to the danger of crashing it is the danger of rust). Assuming you can really only drive it 3 months of the year that’s 1800km covered in 3 months. In other words, if he drove it all year round it’d have covered 7200km each year and a total of 208800km (and would probably be in a much worse condition).
The RUF CTR is the fastest car Porsche never made. It’s so incredibly fast, it’s hard to put into words just how ludicrously fast it is, even thirty years later. At 304 km/h (189 mph), it beats the Porsche 991.2 Turbo, the Shelby GT 500 and even the McLaren 675 LT in the standing mile. This is absolutely incredible.
Yeah, it may be a thirty year old million-dollar-car but it’s just as fast as a new million-dollar-car, so maybe it’s not such a bad deal after all.
Well it also weighs next to nothing, which also helps
But like you said it’s still impressive
What about the 9FF?? 240mph is stupid fast for a 911…
It’s not even ruf’s fastest, although it is close
‘Yellow’ bird
That moment when you realize a tuned Porsche is more expensive than a Lamborghini Aventador
Lamborghini Aventador is not as exclusive. You can buy one new from the factory.
That moment when you realise another tuned Porsche is faster than a McLaren F1 and possibly more expensive than a veyron supersport
ItS nOt evEn yEllOw
Bet the first owner is kicking himself