Certain old cars are hailed as icons by peeps looking back into the past through rose-tinted glasses. The Ruf CTR Yellowbird is 100 percent worthy of being called an icon for several reasons, including the way it handles.
Outright speed is another forte of the Porsche 911-based legend, which launched in 1987 and ended production in 1996. Approximately 60 units were produced, split between 29 cars built from Porsche-supplied chassis and 20 to 30 cars converted from the G-body Carrera 3.2.
The Pfaffenhausen-based company modified the donor 911 tremendously to create the Ruf CTR, which received the Yellowbird moniker from Road & Track's photographers while the American publication was testing the twin-turbocharged sports car in 1987. From an official standpoint, the 3.4-liter boxer pumps out 463 horsepower and 408 pound-feet (553 Nm) of torque.
But you see, Ruf pulled a BMW M on prospective customers by publishing the lowest dynamometer reading of all engines tested before the unveiling of the CTR. In fact, said engine makes closer to 500 ponies.
Auto Motor und Sport pushed the Yellowbird to a simply ludicrous but entirely believable 215 miles per hour (346 kilometers per hour) at the Nardo Ring back in 1988, besting the most desirable supercars of that era. One such car was the F40, the last Prancing Horse personally approved by Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari.
The Petersen Automotive Museum and Doug DeMuro have recently sourced a Ruf CTR and a Ferrari F40 to find out which of them is quicker in the quarter mile over three runs. They also brought a Dodge Viper SRT-10 ACR from the ZB II generation just for the hell of it.
Unfortunately for Porsche 911 enthusiasts, the first race against the V10-powered Viper didn't go as expected because of a missed shift. Be that as it may, the Ruf crossed the finish line one tenth of a second behind the American Club Racer. 13 seconds at 124 miles per hour (199 kilometers per hour) versus 12.9 seconds at 120.90 miles per hour (194.56 kilometers per hour), that is.
The second race concludes with quicker ETs for both cars: 12.1 seconds for the Ruf and 12.3 seconds for the Dodge. The Yellowbird makes easy work of the Viper in the final race as well, clocking 12.4 seconds versus 13.4 seconds. Bear in mind that both vehicles feature manual transmissions and tons of torque, which makes it nigh-on impossible to be consistent race after race.
As for the showdown you've all been waiting for, the F40 is disappointingly slow in the first of three dig races. How disappointingly slow? Make that 15.2 seconds compared to 12 seconds flat for the Yellowbird. The gentleman behind the wheel of the fantastic-looking F40 launched better on the second outing, improving to 14.3 seconds in the quarter mile against 12.1 for the Ruf.
The F40's driver improved yet again in the final race, recording 14.2 seconds. The Yellowbird proved quicker still, taking down the F40 for the third time in a row.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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