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.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see it powered by a Porsche-based flat-six engine. Ruf has proven itself particularly adept at squeezing extra muscle out of Zuffenhausen’s signature engine, supplying units good for 770 horsepower to W Motors for use in the Lykan HyperSport, for example, or 900 for the Fenyr SuperSport.
More than that, we don’t know at this point, but we’re told the supercar will revive “the spirit of the 1987 Yellow Bird.” That model, based on the original, first-generation 911, was so heavily modified that it could reach 213 miles per hour to make it the fastest sports car of its day.
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