Porsche tuner Ruf is back with a surprise 1000bhp B8 engine, and that’s not a typo
Long-standing German Porsche tuner and manufacturer Ruf has announced a new boxer eight-cylinder engine, and it’s already up and running
German Porsche tuner Ruf hasn’t made much noise in the last decade or so, but it’s changing that with its attendance at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Out of the blue, it’s announced the development of a new 1000bhp boxer eight-cylinder engine, and we won’t have to wait long to see (and hear) it in action: American racing driver Tanner Foust will be driving a test car up the famous Goodwood hillclimb.
Nestled at the core of an extended CTR3, a Ruf creation based on the 987 Porsche Cayman with Multimatic underpinnings, is the new 4.8-litre twin-turbocharged unit. Codenamed B8 for obvious reasons, it’s paired with a six-speed manual transmission in this application, producing 986bhp and 738lb ft of torque – it’s fair to say it’s not short on performance.
The use of a boxer-type engine isn’t necessarily beneficial for output though, instead it typically offers smoother running thanks to horizontally opposed cylinders. The configuration also opens up the ability to mount the flatter engine lower in the chassis for an improved centre of gravity. They do tend to be more cumbersome than a ‘V’ equivalent, however, hence the requirement to lengthen the CTR3 test car by 100mm.
Precisely where this engine will find itself in Ruf’s lineup is not yet known, but the firm does say it 'hints at the next generation of Ruf performance,’ acting as a testbed for future models. Company founder Alois Ruf said: ‘There are moments in a company's history that define the future. For Ruf, the Boxer 8 is one of those moments. A boxer-eight has never been part of our story, or anyone else's in this form, so we decided to write a new chapter in automotive history. We look forward to letting the engine speak for itself at Goodwood.’
Ruf says it prefers to ‘show rather than tell’, and given this is the first we’ve seen of this engine, it appears to be standing by that claim. Spectators will be able to see and hear the test mule in action on the Goodwood hillclimb this week.
