Ruf is one of those performance car companies that does very little wrong, if anything. Most folks know the brand for its Yellowbird: a Porsche 911-based, twin-turbo sliding machine that hit 211 miles per hour in 1987. It certainly didn’t stop there, though, as Ruf is still building wickedly powerful machines with P-Car influence. Its latest is actually an engine—a boosted, 4.8-liter flat-eight making more than 1,000 horsepower and 737 lb-feet of torque–and it’s debuting at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The horizontally opposed power plant finds its home for now in a CTR3 prototype body that’s been stretched 3.9 inches. Ruf plans to stuff it in a production car later on, though it’s unclear what shape said car will take. All I know is that this test mule looks sick, especially in that black-and-yellow livery. And it has a six-speed manual!
Ruf has yet to reveal many details about the B8 engine, as it’s called, only divulging that it was designed and developed in-house. As far as I can tell, there’s never been a production car with a flat-eight; only Porsche motorsport specials in the 1960s. That would make it pretty tough to copy anyone else’s homework, I assume.
There’s a special event at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week where bystanders can hear the engine fire for the first time. (We even got a save-the-date invite.) The B8 Prototype will run up the famed Goodwood hillclimb twice a day from Friday, July 10, through Sunday, July 12. And who better to drive it than beloved race pilot and Top Gear alum, Tanner Foust?
I’ll be on the lookout for more deets, and you can bet I’ll update this blog with the flat-eight’s exhaust note when it gets posted online.
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