Nother CarGuy

See this car? It looks like a Porsche 911, right? Well it isn't. At least it's not actually based on one. What you're looking at is the 2017 RUF CTR, revealed for the first time at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. It's the celebrated Porsche tuner's first original chassis, and despite its design, it does away without the actual 911 underpinnings. Instead the new CTR is based on an entirely original carbon monocoque chassis – the first of its kind to put the engine way in the back over the rear axle, just like Zuffenhausen's iconic sports car. Inspired by the legendary 1987 “Yellow Bird” that was the fastest car of its time, the new RUF CTR packs a 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat six rated at 700 horsepower and 659 lb-ft of torque. All that muscle is channeled through a six-speed manual and limited-slip differential to the 19-inch rear wheels alone, which promises to be quite a handful to manhandle. The narrow bodywork is similarly crafted from carbon fiber, and ...

There are manufacturers in the automotive industry, and then there are tuners. Some straddle the divide by modifying vehicles so extensively that they could be considered completely different by the time they're done. But some tuners have even gone beyond that to create entirely original vehicles that aren't even nominally based on another manufacturer's products. Saleen went that root with the S7, much as Hennessey did with the Venom GT. Now RUF is preparing to join that rarified category. The legendary tuner has a long and distinguished history of modifying Porsches – often quite heavily. But at the Geneva Motor Show this week, it will reveal a completely new sports car based on its own chassis. Ruf announced very little in the way of details (and not so much as a teaser image), except to say that the vehicle has been built around a carbon-monocoque chassis – similar to the type employed by Formula One racing teams and the top supercar manufacturers in the business...