- You guys getting a tingly little feeling in your buns?
Getting all hot and bothered by what you see next to me?
Or am I just projecting my own feelings onto you?
Because I am purty excited right now.
Feast your eyes, fellow donutors
on the RUF CTR aka the Yellowbird.
The fastest production car in the world at one time.
But this isn't just any RUF CTR.
Of the mere 29 that were built, this is number one.
The first production model manufactured by RUF.
This is by far one of the most significant
and famous Porsches in the world.
But it's not even a Porsche.
And because of that, it was able
to take on the evil juggernaut that is Electronic Arts.
We're going bumper to bumper
on this 1987
RUF CTR Yellowbird.
[lively guitar music]
RUF automobile GmbH,
which is German for Geselleschaft mit beschränkter Haftung,
got their claim to fame by taking Porsche 911 SCs
and hopping them up to reach the same performance
as the much faster 930.
If you want a little refresher on the history of RUF
as a whole, check out our episode of up to speed,
but don't go anywhere quite yet,
because we're about to dive deep
into this yellow beauty sitting next to me.
Guys I'm so excited.
Hello baby.
In 1987 RUF took their non-production, twin turbo CTR,
the car on which this one is based,
to Road and Track's world fastest cars event.
RUF had completed the CTR with little time to spare,
getting it's legendary yellow paint job on,
only days before the event.
After speaking with Mr Alois RUF on the phone,
uh, yeah, I got to speak to him personally on the phone.
- ♪ It's Britney, bitch. ♪
- He dropped some sweet insider info
about the famous yellow color.
In the 80s, a yellow car was absurd.
The only cars that were yellow were German postal trucks
and earthmoving equipment.
That's a quote from the man.
RUF had intended to paint their Road and Track car red,
but their driver Stefan Roser knew that Lamborghini,
and Ferrari would be bringing red cars.
So he suggested to paint it yellow,
and they did.
RUF painted the CTR the color that I like my vegetables,
heirloom tomato yellow.
I go to the farmer's market every weekend.
Great joke, James, go celebrate by raising the roof.
[seinfeld sting]
While RUF was consciously taking on the big name Italians
and their German daddy,
they were unconsciously fighting Electronic Arts.
In Y2K, Porsche had signed an exclusive license with
Electronic Arts that would ensure no other video game
would be able to feature the popular Stuttgart brand.
But you see RUF is it's own car manufacturer,
with it's own unique VIN number.
So if you play games from the Gran Turismo,
Project Cars, Drive Club franchises,
you weren't finger driving a Porsche,
you were finger driving a RUF.
So I guess, and I think this is the first time anyone
has spoken this phrase.
Thanks, EA.
This Yellowbird was originally sold to a buyer in Japan,
before making it's way back to Germany for restoration,
which is where Bruce Meyer comes into this story.
Mr Meyer is the founding chairman of
the Peterson Automotive Museum,
which is where we are shooting today.
If you haven't been there, you should check it out
if you're ever in LA, I go like, twice a week.
He bought this CTR just last year
because he knew that one day,
I would leave Kentucky in hopes of a better life,
become a tier three Youtuber,
and host my own internet car show called Bumper to Bumper,
eventually leading up to today,
and me sitting here next to the coolest car ever made.
[heavy bass music]
The CTR was based on the '87 Carrera 3.2
as opposed to the 930.
The standard body panels including the doors,
hood and engine cover, were replaced with aluminum pieces,
helping to eliminate an additional 441 lbs.
That's like removing two Nolan's or three me's.
That's why you stay in school, kids.
Because you can do the quick math, I'm 147 pounds.
The cars total weight is just a tad over
2500 little ol' lbs.
In an effort to reduce drag,
they designed custom fiberglass front and rear bumpers,
and removed the rain gutters,
which also reduce wind noise at high speeds.
The only downside is that without rain gutters,
you get wet when you open the door when it's raining out.
But that wouldn't bother me because I'd already be soaked
when I'm getting out of this thing.
With sweat!
[sloppy wet noises]
Unlike the prototype Yellowbird,
this production model did away with the NACA airducts.
Ruf released that the ducts created
a negative pressure area and air was drawn out of the duct,
defeating the purpose of why they put them there
in the first place, to send more air into the inner coolers.
So, RUF didn't implement them on the production models.
It's a Yellowbird, with no ducts.
The rear arches slash fender were also increased in width
to accommodate the larger Speedline wheels.
Like so many other additions on the car,
RUF designed these wheels in-house.
The 17 inch staggered wheel set up
is a staple for RUF automobiles.
These are 8 inches wide up front, and ten in the back.
To shave off all important grams of unsprung weight,
reliefs were cut into each spoke.
The CTRs came with with Dunlop Denloc tires,
the same tires put on the 959.
When I spoke to my buddy, Alois, on the phone,
[cameras Clicking]
and asked him what his favorite part of the car was,
he said the tires.
I'm not kidding.
Now these are real Speedlines made by RUF,
but they don't have the Denloc deed
because Dunlop doesn't make the tires anymore.
These are Michelin pilot sport cup twos,
which are very nice tires.
The CTR has custom group c brakes with 13 inch rotors,
helping you bring the world's fastest production car
to a halt in a hurry.
13 inches is huge, that's like,
two inches bigger than my waist.
The Bird needed those big bad boy brakes,
because going 213 miles an hour is fun,
but it's kind of important that you can
safely get back down to zero.
I got a need, a need, for slowing down.
Boom, roasted again!
[heavy bass Music]
I'm sitting in a frigging Yellowbird, I'm stoked.
This birdie's got two leather Recaro bucket seats
with bracing harnesses, because a traditional seatbelt
would just feel silly and scary
in a car that goes over 200 miles per hour.
It's got a fricking roll cage for Christ's sake.
Make no mistake about it, this is a race car
with some comfort features, not the other way around.
You still have your AC and your radio,
but that's only so you can stay cool,
and listen to Led Zep on 100.1 FM, the Quake,
while you blow past everyone at the track.
Or, if you can't tune into your favorite radio station,
how about you pull your favorite tape
from one of these awesome tape dispensers.
My favorite happens to be 'Piano by Candlelight'.
[soft piano music]
It's got a Momo three-spoke steering wheel,
which fits my hands perfectly, just saying.
The instrument cluster includes a tack,
boost gauge, oil and fuel gauges,
and of course the speedometer,
which goes all the way up to 217 miles per hour.
The coolest thing in the interior,
besides this brake bias knob up here,
is the boost controller between the seats.
It looks like the dial for a nitrous tank.
Laughing gas, baby.
It's got other cool knick-knacks like power seats,
a huge glove box and a little place to put your cellphone.
[heavy bass music]
The motor in the based 911 at the time
was a 3.2 liter, horizontally opposed flat six cylinder,
putting out 217 horsepower and 191 foot pounds of tort.
RUF took that motor and bored out
the cylinders 98 millimeters, to increase displacement
from 3.2 to 3.4 liters.
They added a Bosch Motronic 2.1 fuel injection system
because the mechanical K-Jetronic system sucked,
and they switched the ignition
with one designed for the Porsche 962 racecar.
They designed a turbo system featuring twin turbo chargers,
and twin inter coolers which bought the total output
to 469 horsepower, that redlined at 6800 RPM.
That horsepower number is on the low end,
a more true estimate of the power of this birdie,
is closer to five hunny.
It goes from zero to sixty in
[clock ticking]
3.65 seconds.
They went 213 miles per in 1987.
You went any faster, it would have
slowed down the rotation of the earth,
like Superman did in 1978 Superman film
titled Superman, staring Superman.
At the time, Porsche offered the 911 3.2
with a 5-speed manual transmission,
while the 930 got a 4-speed
because it was the only tranny that Porsche built
that could handle the 930's high power output.
RUF didn't like the idea of the Yellowbird having a 4-speed,
and weren't able to modify this 5-speed unit to their liking
so what did they do?
They built their own.
You ever built your own transmission before?
Neither have I, but I imagine it's not easy.
RUF did build their own transmission and they celebrated
by raising the roof.
Come on guys, I'm sorry, I won't do it again.
I gotta finish the video.
[lively bass music]
RUF created a legend with the Yellowbird.
The one small service garage took on Lamborghini,
Ferrari, Mercedes and even Porsche themselves,
and smashed them to bits.
They set new benchmarks for street legal sports cars,
and made it clear to everyone in the automotive world
that they weren't some small mom and pop,
one stop pop up shop.
My close personal friend Alois Ruf,
set out to change the production car game
with the Yellowbird, and he did it.
He made a car that anyone who got behind the wheel
would leave with a smile on their face.
And a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Final EA burn, uh!
- ♪ Game over, yeah! ♪
- Big thanks to REC Watchers
for sponsoring this weeks Bumper to Bumper.
If you're a car boy like me,
REC makes the perfect watch for you.
These sleek, industrial watches are each unique,
and feature pieces from real cars or airplanes.
They're concept is recover, recycle, and reclaim.
Oh, REC, I get it.
Every watch has a subtle design feature
on the watch face that's a little wink wink to the car.
And even the real VIN number of the repurposed vehicle.
Check out the full concept and collection
at recwatches.com or click the link down in the description.
Big thanks to Bruce Meyer for letting us borrow his car,
and again, thank you Peterson Automotive Museum,
you guys always hook it up.
Thanks for watching Donut Media,
really guys it means so much to us.
We're coming up on 2 million subscribers.
If you're not already subscribed,
hit that sub button right there
and help us get there a little bit faster.
If you liked this video hit the like button,
it really helps us out and it only takes a few seconds.
Follow me on Instagram at @jamespumphrey,
follow Donut at @donutmedia.
You wanna buy some merch, go to donutmedia.com.
You wanna know more about the RUF story?
Check out this episode of up to speed,
where I cover the whole history.
If you're looking for a car that's basically the opposite
of this, as in affordable.
Check out this episode of Wheelhouse,
hosted by my son, Nolan.
I love you.