Earlier, at the Michelin Tuning and Bespoke auto manufacturer’s day at the Nurburgring in Germany, Porsche outfitter and tuning outfit, RUF, fetched along the mighty looking Ruf CTR 3 and allowed me a few passenger laps. Like all RUF models, the CTR 3 is Porsche based, but the origin of its chassis has never been disclosed. I suspect 60% of the chassis to be reconstructed from the front wing and slightly longer wheelbase to accommodate repositioning of the twin-turbo flat-six boxer engine. The CTR3’s ambition and heritage was to replace the now legendary 469bhp CTR ‘Yellow Bird’ and the 520bhp CTR2 that followed a decade later.

Using essentially the same motor as Ruf’s 911-based Rt 12, but with an additional 50hp, the CTR3’s 700bhp is supported by a jaw thumping 656lb ft of torque at 4000rpm. Therefore directing all the power to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gear box. This thrusts the CTR3 to 0-124mph in 9.6sec. However, no matter what the figures tell you, on the Nordschleife in Germany, I expected it to be restrained in the many uncompromising corners of the northloop.

This definitely was not the case. Immediately after leaving the car park and cruising down through Tiergarten, I realized this was no normal press lap. Hatzenbach and Quiddelbacher were a blur and I was overwhelmed by the power and low end lagless power delivered by the twin turbochargers.

At the peak of Flugplatz, the car jumped slightly as it aggressively positioned itself for the tight right hand corner. As the car powered its way down towards the corner at Aremberg, jumping slightly at Schwedenkreuz, it entered the forest under the bridge at Fuchsrohre into Adenauer Forst.

This is where the familiarity of the previous Porsches’ handling capabilities came into play, albeit with more power and composure. The next few corners were textbook racing as he stormed his way to the Karussell. I was not expecting to experience the Karusell, due to the reduced suspension height. To my amazement, he planted the CTR3 into the corner as the car miraculously dampened out most of the concrete bank vibration, to which the Karussell is famous for.

155MPH…he still had 2,500 rpms left!

Then we went up the hill to Hohe Acht, to the famous spectators’ area (Brunnchen) where he toyed with the throttle letting the back over steer slightly. He did the same at Pflantzgarten. He shot through the mini Karussell with the same composure, then down the final straight at Dottinger Hohe, where the driver teased me at 155mph saying that he still had 2,500 rpms left!

People compare this car to the Porsche Carrera GT and the Pagani Zonda-F; my opinion is that there is no comparison. This is a RUF CTR and a 3 year old one at that!

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