Three Generations of RUF CTR Cars - Jay Leno’s Garage

[Music] that feels like a brand-new car we have so it should be it's out in 30 years welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage tonight we have Porsche royalty here three generations of CTR is built by roof if you're not familiar with that name it is one of the most legendary names in German motoring it's his own manufacturer you might remember back in 1987 I think roof became most famous when they set the world's record for the fastest car rodent track went looking for the fastest car and a car called the yellow bird went 211 or 213 miles an hour right up there nobody was going any faster than that that car became so legendary they did a production run of them and this is the very first one so we're gonna discuss this thing with the owner and my good friend Bruce Meyer he bought that car and then we'll meet the roofs and they can tell you a little about the history of the company and the exciting new stuff that's coming it's really it's really amazing but let's let's meet Bruce Bruce come on in Bruce Meyer hello my friend J yeah you got all the cool toys glad you're sharing with you J oh well we love having you come by I remember when this this rodent track issue came out everybody just talked about it about the yellow bird and how fast it was and it was amazing to me that a small tuning shop at least at the time could produce the fastest car in the world even Porsche it would have won nine five nine it was up against the nine five nine exactly f40 right Koenigsegg Lumbergh whatever the fastest cars were a rodent rack assembled them all right and they did it in 84 - so one in 84 yeah in 87 and this is the very first product this is not the original yellow bird because that still belongs to mr. roof but this was the first production one correct correct so the the the prototype still belongs to the roof family right and this is serial number one and I love serial numbers I know yeah yeah big serial I know that and what is what is the horsepower on this car it's somewhere around high-fives right you know I would say 550 575 adequate to say the least and this is would be an 89 model for this is an 89 model based on the Carrera just the standard Carrera but then he takes it completely apart it's aluminum fenders hood doors it's all you know bespoke to roof and it has a roof VIN number so it is a roof right and 89 was 30 years ago Mike 30 years ago wasn't really much with you know nowadays 500 horsepower seems almost the norm yeah but at the time I was just ground brake just staggered bubble just staggering no no it was and I've been a Porsche driver since 1961 right so I remember when I first Porsche had 60 horse powers and normal right and then I bought a 65 and that was the 911 that I think it had 140 oh my god so I think now do this at 550 plus and the thing that amazed me at the time and still amazes me to this day it said a company like Porsche all the lemon wins all you know they've got the engineers they know how to do it they would allow a small tuning shop to literally rebrand their cars almost you know their roof is a Porsche basica this Porsche parts in it but it's it's own manufacturer I had never heard of anyone being allowed to do that yeah especially in Germany where everything you know everybody's very strict no no no you cannot do this no you cannot do that that's right the fact that he was privileged given this honor I mean that that's amazing to me that because usually manufactures well no you can't use my name no you can't do this the fact that they allowed his name on their product yeah I mean that's what really sold it for me and that's what I think it's made the company so impressed 100% and and it's still today a roof right and it's still owned by the roofs yeah and we have both of them here today once you introduce them we sure do Alois roof and his wife Estonia and we were talking earlier but so you know Estonia my dear me Jay Leno so we have the same hair so it's that's what I can say you know I have the same hair as he does never got to meet Enzo Ferrari those guys well they got to meet him so this is pretty impressive and his accomplishments are suddenly no less impressive than Enzo Ferraris because you've done just amazing work now you have three generations of cars here this of course is the first one now tell us about the second generation well the second generation happened exactly 10 years later it was in 1996 when we introduced this car and it was based on the Porsche 993 right but we were using all the clues that we learned from the first generation like removal of the rain gutter to be more sleek also for aerodynamic reasons and this time we were a little bit riskier with design whilst the first car the first generation still looks very much like a 911 very sober lines we were going here a step ahead and we were going in the rear engine here as you can see a different type of a rear wing which has several functions one function is to allow the air to come in for the intercoolers to cool and also the air for the intake for the combustion air it's all happening with his lid here so that required that the whole rear end of the car from the body from the structure had to be changed and was very much made we spoke to our needs and how hard is it to impress for lack of better word the Porsche family I mean you're the little shop excuse me I modified your car and then you show it to them I mean that's quite an accomplishment to get I know you're a modest guy but that is impressive that they would allow you to sort of rebrand their cars modify their cars and allow you to be a manufacturer well it was a long long way of course but the real change happened when the 911 looked like it was going to end which was in the late 70s and there was a lot of turmoil amongst the Porsche community as you can imagine and that was giving us an uplift in the and more wind under the wings to develop more and go to for more 911 and this was the outcome you know I'm I want to say anything that we have done here Porsche could have done too you know if the decision was made to build that type of a car they could have done it so I don't want to say I'm the person the only one who I mean the fact that that your name has become synonymous and it's right up I think it's it's so impressive now how long have you guys were married we're 22 years married okay so you've been there since the beginning you've seen this whole thing grow and you're involved in the company as well okay so she slipped into that yeah and what do you drive you have a have a 56 convertible D from 1958 oh very nice very nice fuel green and I love the car and I have a nine entry right the export freight car yeah he wished for us to have it for me to have it before he departed and I'm very fortunate and I could drive any roof but I actually don't drive it because I respects the car so much and then they have to live with him if anything happens to the car we share these we sure this car we share the passion and he's a lot of fun and you started out your company with how many employees when you started well when I took over in 1974 after my father passed away which was very suddenly and I had three people working for us and one of them was an apprentice and he had to be continued I was suddenly his master and the one who had to give him the education that was in 1974 and it was a very difficult time because it was the middle in the middle of the energy crisis yeah you were 24 years old 24 years old you know it's you and and then he continued growing we had many many difficult years to build up and to to make a name and then the big change was really happening in the very late 70s when out of motor in sport covered our cars and showed them the first time to the public and then the international breakthrough was really with yellow bird with road and track because with the Anglophone press this was the number one in the world right and then everybody else followed Japan or whichever country and then in the 1980s we were really growing and the company was remodeled we built new buildings and we grew the staff and today we are a staff of 65 employees Wow it's intimate size but it's a size where you really have to make sure that you know it's turned over every month is it hard to impress the German government to become a manufacturer yes that is a very tough however I think they gave the United States no I wouldn't say that you know I mean EPA d-o-t all these things are not easy to come by but the base was definitely to become a manufacturer in Germany and that happened in 1981 we were registered as a car manufacturer and ever since our cars that are built Lee from scratch built up from scratch they bear our chassis number 17 digit number wow that's impressive yeah these are the cars that I very sought-after today let's look under the hood of the yellow fur okay again beautifully detailed and what we always wanted to have a symmetrical looking engine bay and an engine that is nice to look at you know yes so we did a lot of cleanup already in the 80s when this car came out that we had a center air cleaner and everything was parted the left side and right side symmetrical here you see the intercoolers where longitudinally mounted so they were never in the way of the engine and we had the shortest distance between turbocharger and intake manifold right okay and the best response and you're this far ways you can be from the engine heat yes what well still under the right car yeah okay and this of course has an air conditioning as well it has air conditioning right okay now notice okay on this one the intercooler here mm-hmm now let's move over to the okay on this one the inter comas are in the wing correct in the wing yeah and the airflow goes through the wing here okay and the exit is here laterally at the sides here so the air is being sucked through the rear wing comes in here it goes right down south ectly where's there you're still getting a lot of hot air from the engine apart we know you're far away not really because the air cooler engine makes the engine compartment cool at only an ambient temperature when you're running it yeah and here we use the section of the side of the rear bumper here well this one looks cool I just love the way this is I love things that can serve two purposes yes you know not only is an airfoil but it also cool you know that's really was the idea that's really very clever the Porsche factory guys calling go why didn't we think of that one well a lot of this stuff was carried over later yeah it's fantastic all right let's go let's go over to the last generation explain the name CPR what is it what is it where's the come from was it mean well the idea of that name was Group C from Group C racing in the eighties and t4 turbo and Arfa roof oh there you go yeah we basically wants you to bring a type engine like a 962 engine on the road make it Road worthy right this happened in the yellow Burt you know this was the first time when we went twin turbocharged now with this car here we are making the first real statement also about design let me ask you about the design process because in my business when I have a new joke I run it past my wife she thinks it's funny I do the joke when when you're laying out the initial sketches with Freeman Thomas the other do you take it home and go honey what do you think you like this you're not like it is that part of the process the first step is is my wife you know she I discuss it with her I share the idea sometimes it takes a bottle of wine to understand it really but it always works out the best this way you know she's my important voice here yeah yeah and we really enjoyed this this part especially when we are creating something new and and when we have Freeman in the circle then you know many many ideas pop out and you just have to grab the right ball you know yeah this beautiful shape that came out because he he gave the lines to this car and he he tried to make it very feminine you know to following the beautiful lines of a female body and the person who actually executed it at the end was mr. Soderbergh Richard Soderbergh who used to be his former boss and headhunter when he kept a Porsche well I see some classic Porsche cues in the you know this looks like from the 50s the fastback fastback from now so I see all that and I like you say to me that the greatest looking cars and ones are both masculine and feminine they have incurved to it you know the way this all goes and yet they they seem strong so it's a little bit of both you know it's like I've never never met a woman who didn't think a Jaguar was attractive the early jag well they all think they're try because that has a masculine feminine form and that that's what this has this is it's really striking especially this whole treatment here and the fact of the engine it's a true mid-engine as a crewman having it behind the axles yes you know really really really impressive can we open it up sure you see the the back of the car is entirely our own frame and suspension system with horizontal shock absorbers and coil overs and push rod to going to the double wishbones right classical racecar or rear-end yeah I mean it really is it's all nice and detailed I was that's the oil filler over there yes but all production car stand you know and this meets all us this beats all us certification it all stickers out right there yeah so many people come here with cars think oh well a couple of weeks we're gonna have our and you know in the approval and from carb or from the environmental people it never comes in this is a car you can buy and you can drive it anywhere in the United States that's correct Wow very impressive very impressive and brakes tell us about the brakes it has ceramic carbon brakes and we use a large diameter 318 millimeters of of size and so the brake performance is excellent and as well now this car has a double clutch gearbox so the shifting is very simple it's basically paddle shift mm-hmm and very smooth up to the same standards like the big om cars so it's also car that can be used every day and everyday traffic situation was it difficult for you when Porsche went from air-cooled to water-cooled the we were sort of disappointed it was just another challenge you had to work with it was a new challenge and what kept me going from the brain because it was against water of course it was the fact that the Lima winning cars were water coal cars are right right so I think the water makes a statement it is needed when it when you want to have the maximum out of an engine or of a certain displacement you need to go to water for the better cooling one and how many leader is this this is a 3.6 liter engine Wow so still fairly compact and small very clean 777th triple seven Wow I mean that's did you ever think back in the 70s that you'd be pulling that kind of horsepower from 3.6 I could I couldn't imagine it I could imagine it at that time when turbocharging started you know it suddenly it it was the door to a new world right right Wow all right let's let's close it up again let's talk about the transmission development in these three cars this one is a five-speed right yes the Porsche turbos were all for speed force via the generation of the 930 s they were always for speeds except the last model year of Porsche in 1989 and we decided in 1981 already to make our own 5-speed gearbox so that enhanced the use of the engine and it was a much more drivable car because you were suddenly in correct year right and and that is the gearbox that we used also for the CTR for the first one okay so this was the 5-speed then this next generation come on this is that's a six feet you're gay boxes was also our gearbox okay developed by us and now the new one has a 7-speed double-clutch gearbox okay you know I like the double country it just feels precision a lot of times manufacturers make the excuse that's too heavy it's lighter with the torque converter but it always feels sharp though from the engineering it's it's the best type of box to have today yeah absolutely well you know this is one of these deals you don't know which one to drive and being sort of a historian and thinking back to 1987 this is the car that put your name on the map oh that's because you know when I was a kid I never appreciated Porsche because in America in a Corvette with 400 horsepower less money than a little foreign car with 180 horsepower and then when you came along and put over 500 horsepower suddenly that up the stakes you got the European styling and handling with American style horsepower I think that's for a lot of Americans that's what really put your car on the map and making it the fastest car in the world so we can go for riding anyone who can you and I take a ride in this certainly absolutely let's go all right do it all right very cool anytime I get to drive one of Bruce's cards and he's not around that's fine [Laughter] boys feels like a brand-new car so it should be it's out in 30 years shop all cars or just Porsche now my father had a shop where he worked on anything you think there had wheels and I grew up this way I watched him and saw how he was working on everything at every possible problem there was after World War two you know the that the people were wanted who could make out of nothing something right and then in 1963 the whole Porsche story for us started with an accident my father had a tour bus that he actually built himself right and he took the people on charter tours on the weekends and on one Sunday he is being overtaken by a Porsche 356 if the driver loses control and ends up in the ditch rows over the car my dad ends up buying the car fixes it and that was the beginning for our Porsche story that was the beginning so that guy had that accident yeah yeah it was an accident how the whole thing started yeah and then we had the car for one year we really enjoyed it we love this car and then we sold the car almost I would call it an accident again we were in Munich driving along the the layer fortress and suddenly a young guy knocks at our window and asked us to stop he wants to talk to us and he bought the car on the spot on a Sunday afternoon really he had the money in cash he was a student who was dealing with Porsche cars as a as an extra income for yeah yeah and the way this the sale happened was something like never happened before because it was effortless it's funny for every sale was an effort you know was your dad trained a self-taught my dad was trained in self-taught both you know he had he had an education a basic education but the rest was the university of life yeah yeah it feels like one solid beat yeah that's you know that's the one thing I love about my 63 350 620 cam that I have it feels solid it all feels like one demos leave it beautiful that's how it's a fabulous moment what I like it's a plane bearing it's not the role of burning so okay you know last a long time boy in Folsom and you only about 29 of the 29 with a roof chassis number there was a series of cars that we built also that were modified cars now why the number 29 just it just happened to be this way oh it just happened to be this way you know Bruce is it's very particular with his cars he wants to have the best test in a very high let's have the fastest car most unique the one and only right and this is really great that yeah this is the first one so the end it's it's so special that we could use it for this show today really appreciate that very much you feel sad every time one leaves like your baby's leaving well especially when I know that it goes to a good home yeah that it's only extension of the family and all our people who have these cars eventually we all become friends and we are part of one family which is great and we enjoy that the fact that I can talk to the man who built in designed in West Anthony to be the best cars are always one man's vision I say one man or one person because there aren't that many women designers but what I was going up it was Marsha it was wo mentally Gordon Murray to yourself you know people have one idea what it should be and they usually right yeah cars designed by committee no committee doesn't work no it takes it takes one head and he has to be persistent yeah to make it happen I mean it must be so hard now compared to the early days as a manufacturer that you just built a good strong dependable car you in now you've got to beat every country every rule every regulation that that makes it a lot more complicated yeah yeah but think of there are also some ideas that help you know like the small volume manufacturer there's a special status that allow you not to make you you still have to meet all the standards but you don't have to crash a car for instance you know because that that is mission impossible for us yeah crash one or three cars it also exact some of that work can be done with virtual computer work how many cars have you built in total since you became a manufacturer cars are of the examine yeah over the years and car number one is weird you know well of the CTR the carnal ability as a manufacturer the oldest one that I know is still in Germany yeah yes what's your biggest market in the Germany America the biggest market is definitely when I say the West and America is the opinion maker yeah for our cars when Americans love our product because this is the nation where all the car craze is at petrol heads get together this is the place here and it's so important because the people in Asia they want our product because the Americans love it but to answer your question I would say still the main market is for us the United States because there's so many car lovers here and they appreciate that and people in Europe very often don't understand it because they say they have a speed limit mind what do they want to do with this car well we have some customers they have two of the same one in America and one they keep with us in our storage facility and they come to Germany to drive and enjoy the out of I've been on the Autobahn I really enjoyed it it takes a certain hours when you can really enjoy it because our our speed limit is really the traffic I came to Los Angeles the first time in 1970 alright yeah that was my big eye-opener and learned about the car culture and the way of life here in the West it was just an amazing for me that was the biggest iOpener of all times yeah yes and I just met with a friend the web company of the that day when I arrived we're still a very good friend of mine he lives in Long Beach and at that time it was the car culture with the hot rods and flames coming up the side pipes yeah it was impressive in the seventies and eighties portions in America was still relatively cheap relatively here I mean let's say in 1974 $8,000 he bought up the Purdue 911 yeah but I think you could buy three Cadillacs for that but of course the prices went up with everything it's it's crazy but the cheapest time for Portia I think ever here was at the times that's Li 56 yeah with the strong dollar you could buy a comfort buddy $500 I know you know really advertise in Americans all word of mouth isn't it's word of mouth and basically the community they they spread the word well your reputation is sterling people I've never heard anybody say anything other than unbelievable and it's the classic German think of the performance with the reliability you know I have so many friends that have examined cars and they brag about how few miles they have on them yet all Porsche oldest brag about how many miles they have yeah exactly you know I gotta I didn't sixty got an eighty and yeah I know Ferrari guys I got a hundred miles I don't want to break a thousand tell us about the film you made about the Nurburgring oh it's actually all over the internet right and you can find it also the roof website is a roof Nurburgring roof Nurburgring and driver is Stefan roser is a very very dear buddy and friend of mine we are friends for over 40 years and he was a test driver at outer motorsport magazine right and his passion is the rear engine 911 of course you know that's his car at that time we were contemplating what kind of documentation we could make about roof to send the message out to the world so we said let's make a video presentation and we made that video presentation and we said well we should probably go to the Nurburgring and make a couple of corner shots there and put that into that presentation so most of these company presentations were only boring you know so we wanted to bring some dynamic to it so as we were there he said well here here we have hired a helicopter that's very expensive we have the car non-politically are burning the tires why don't you make a full lap maybe there are some real hardcore guys who want to learn about the Nurburgring and they want to see every corner so we said okay let's do it yeah and all of this happened within two days and so we made a full lap of the Nurburgring from helicopter from inside the car and from exterior shots right and then we were editing it to one movie and that became the movie that is just timeless and it's still of importance we got even an award from the British Motor Press being the best out of motive movie of the 80s yes that was very very special it's great yeah and and it's still a very very important presentation everybody talks about it I think it also did its job to make the Nurburgring very well-known in the whole world because many people didn't know where the Nurburgring actually was yeah well it's 223 turns the car that is coming next is for the 30th anniversary of this car of the CTR Yellowbird we introduced and showed the car in Geneva and in 2017 now we're going into production and they're going to be fifty cars built of that and I was enough to show it to you and bring it to your garage and take a couple of months whenever it's here oh yeah we'd love to it looks very much like this car but it has a complete new frame a complete new structure it's based on a carbon monocoque and it's a very very exciting car but again it shares the DNA with this car exciting do they have big roof gatherings in Germany we have roof Catholics everywhere yeah yeah Japanese roof Club that just turned 32 years oh wow two years ago they turned 30 and we have rooftop in Germany we have roof world of roof over here in the States and so we always have something going yeah that's on that yeah the big gathering will be this year when the company celebrates the 80th anniversary that would be in October this year I think people like that something with a name on it and I like to put a face with the name yeah there's a person responses is more personalized than an Arab somebody faceless corporations yes the boss who's that you know you want that human connection the human connection is definitely better people that know your philosophy in your lifestyle so they share it you know I'm always a sucker over engine signed by the Builder you know yeah that's a guy that's fantastic okay well that was great thank you so much where's Donny it's time to come in in here Bruce oh it's fantastic I want to thank my friend Bruce Meyer for buying this car and the roof it's so exciting when you get to meet the person behind the car as you're talking in the car you know so many things now it's corporate you don't know who's who so when you can put the face to the machine it's really fantastic thank you thank you thank you Bruce thank you guys next time we'll drive the last generation but this uh see you next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 954,425

Keywords: Ruf, Ruf Automobile, Alois Ruf, Estonia Ruf, Bruce Meyer, Porsche, turbo, Yellowbird, CTR, CTR2, CTR3, Nurburgring, RUF, 80th anniversary, Phillip Sarofim, GmbH, German cars, Germany, air cooled, water cooled, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: BBAlQ7jFZ5s

Length: 33min 49sec (2029 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Adaris187]

I really enjoyed watching him speak in this video when I saw it yesterday. He's the real deal. A CTR2 is my unattainable dream car, full stop. I'd kill to just see one in real life, much less drive it. I honestly feel that it's impossible to make a better looking 911 than that car.

[u/High5Time]

Just FYI, and if you haven't already listened to them, Alois Ruf did an episode of both the Smoking Tire Podcast and Spike's Car Radio in the last year. Very interesting man.