1979 Porsche 930

Coupe

3.4L Flat 6 Turbo with Bosch Motronic

5 speed manual

9119201544

Clear

About RUF Porsches RUF is a very highly respected tuner of Porsche cars, and a manufacturer in its own right. RUF has a very close relationship with the Porsche Factory, and purchases ‘bodies in white’ and hand assembles be-spoke sports cars with RUF Vin’s. These cars can easily be double the price of the Porsche versions. RUF works with Porsche OEM suppliers and engineers and produces upgraded parts for Porsche sports cars. RUF also does conversions of customer cars to spec. In the mid-1980’s Ruf Porsches were the fastest cars that money could buy. In the Road and Track “Top Speed Tests” the Ruf Porsches not only had the highest top speed, but also a perfect reliability record. A Ruf BTR achieved 186mph in 2004, and the CTR “Yellowbird” hit 211 mph in 1987. The CTR also held the Nurburgring lap record for production cars at 8min 05 seconds. It wasn’t until the Porsche 993 Twin Turbo of 1996 could better that time with an 8 minutes flat. MAGAZINE ARTICLES: ROAD & TRACK: Ruf 930 Turbo Cabriolet (July 1984) ROAD & TRACK: World’s Fastest Cars, Ruf 911 Turbo BTR (Sept 1984) SUPERAUTO ILLUSTRATED: RUF 911 TURBO (Jan 1987) ROAD & TRACK: Dream Machines; Ruf 930 Slantnose BTR Cabriolet (May 1987) ROAD & TRACK: World’s Fastest Cars; Ruf CTR Yellowbird (July 1987) Click here 80’s RUF Brochure-Carrera, BTR and CTR, Excellent! Click here for RUF videos, including RUF History and Stefan Rosers incredible lap of the Nurburgring in a RUF Yellowbird! RUF had been modifying and upgrading Porsche 911’s since the 1970’s; first with a ‘RS’ Style 215hp normally aspirated 911, and then a 3.3L version of the 911 Turbo, before Porsche built it. The first RUF VIN car, made after RUF gained German manufacturer status, was the BTR, which was put in limited production in 1983, and continued into the mid 90’s with the 964 bodied Porsche’s. The letters ‘BTR’ come from ‘Group B’, ‘Turbo’, and ‘Ruf’. In the 80’s Porsche had an extensive racing program, dominating many series including Le Mans, IMSA etc. Porsche didn’t produce any track versions of their cars until the 959 supercar of the late 80’s, and this left the door open to RUF to incorporate race-proven componentry into the road cars. In the early 80’s the FIA had Group 4 (Modified Touring) class and Group 5 (Touring Prototypes). Porsche ran their 934 and 935 race cars in the respective classes. ‘Group B’ was a series started in 1982 and run for 4 years, that created some of the most fearsome (and dangerous) race cars of all time, including the Ferrari F40, Ford RS200, Audi Quattro S1 etc. Group B required a homolgation of 200 road cars. This is an excerpt from Karl Ludvisgren’s definitive book on Porsche, “Excellence was Expected”, about the Group B 911 Turbo: “For the 1983 season Porsche built six 930’s expressly built for racing. Suspension was stiffened with torsion bars up 3mm in diameter to 22mm in front, and 1.5mm at the rear to 27.5mm. Front Anti Roll bars were a thicker 22mm while their rear bars were made adjustable for stiffness. The 930’s 917 brakes were good enough to start with, but Porsche was able to make larger 330mm brakes available for 1983. These fitted inside 16” wheels with 9.5” front rims and 11” rear. Constructed much along the lines of the 934, the Group B 930 had an aluminium roll cage and an aluminium cross brace above its 26.5 gallon racing fuel tank and an oil tank in the front compartment. Working within Group B rules, the engine was given cam timing with more overlap, a larger intercooler and boost pressure raised to 20psi (1.4bar). Output rose to 364hp@5,500rpm and torque increased substantially to 360 ft/lbs @ 4,500. To cope with the higher cylinder head pressures, 935-type head gaskets were installed. Completing the drivetrain was a clutch with sintered metal linings and a gearbox equipped with an oil pump and cooler. What would Porsche’s customers do with a car like this? Why take it to Le Mans, of course! It was a tribute to their confidence in the provisions that Porsche had made in these vehicles that their owners felt they could be subjected to more than 24 hours of flat out speed at Le mans. As a matter of fact, they could. Of the six cars entered in 1983, one retired and two finished well back. The other three were first, second and third in Group B and 11th, 13th and 15th overall. At scrutineering they weighed in at and above the 2,723-pound minimum for their engine size, to which they had to be ballasted by some 200 lbs of lead in the passenger foot well.....It’s 0-60mph acceleration took 4.5 seconds and it reached 100 from rest in one-fifth less than 10 seconds.” The RUF BTR was inspired by the Group B Porsche but it was a road car, and built to customer specifications. The car could be ordered with flared Turbo bodywork, or the standard 911 sheet metal which was lower in drag and gave a 20km/hr increase in top speed. The BTR could be built up from a Porsche body-in-white and given a RUF VIN, or a customer car could be modified. It is thought, though not documented, that there are approximately 200 BTR Ruf motors built, but only a couple dozen or so were used in genuine RUF VIN Cars. There were several body styles (narrow or wide body, slant nose, coupe or Cabriolet) and some componentry differences, though they shared the 3.4L engine and 5 speed transmission. The Basics of the RUF BTR start with the engine, which had the original partially finned cylinder barrels replaced by ones with air-cooling fins around their complete diameter. The bore was increased giving a new displacement of 3.4L from the original 3.3L. Ruf added unique Mahle Pistons and connecting rods and 935 type camshafts. The turbo was replaced by a larger KKK K27 unit, and a larger free flowing intercooler was added. The intake manifold was replaced, as was the exhaust. The first BTR engines used Bosch K Jetronic (CIS), but later engines called BTR III, used Bosch Motronic, and had 408hp up from the 374hp of the CIS engines. The Ruf Motronic system was the first digital engine management system to be available on a street Porsche 911 Turbo and had a dual injectors per cylinder, custom injector blocks and fuel rails derived from the 962 race car. Motronic was a $10,000 option on a BTR, but standard on the CTR. A larger oil cooler was installed in a RUF front spoiler, moving it from the inside passenger fender. RUF single piece forged rims sized 9x17 and 10x17 ran on Dunlop Denloc tires. RUF offered a complete set of gauges including a 350km/hr speedometer, 1.5bar boost gauge, and Tachometer with the red line turned to near vertical. RUF modified the standard Porsche 930 4 speed by adding a 5th gear with the help of Getrag-the top two ratios remained unchanged, and the lower 3 ratios were spread to cover the speed ranges formerly served by 2 gears. 1st gear and reverse were unique RUF parts, and gears 2 through 5 were 935 parts. RUF also improved the shift linkage that was both lighter and more positive than the stock unit. In the late 80’s RUF modified Porsche G50 transmissions to take the increased demands of the BTR’s prodigious torque. The cars were lowered and the suspension was stiffened. RUF added an adjustable boost control in the cockpit, changed the steering wheel to a RUF item, and added a RUF tachometer and boost gauge. For the original BTR, power increased from 300hp to 374hp at .825 bar of boost and 425hp with 1 bar. Top speed was 300km/hr for the narrow body car and 280km/hr for the Turbo body. Acceleration to 60mph was in less than 5 seconds; by reaching 62mph in 4.6 seconds a 3.4 Liter Turbo-Ruf became the fastest accelerating production car ever tested by Auto Motor und Sport. It reached 100mph in only 9.5 seconds. RUF had matched, or even bettered, the performance figures for Porsche’s own Group B Le Mans car! This car was featured in Road and Tracks Fastest Cars issue in 1984, where the car did 186mph and won the speed contest. In 1987 Ruf was put on the world stage with the “CTR” which was the famous “Yellowbird” that graced the cover of the July 1987 Road & Track (click here), and was declared the ‘Fastest Car In The World’, achieving 211mph. The Yellowbird is also featured in the video above with test driver Stefan Roser driving the car tail-out around the Nurburgring where it achieved a road car record of 8:05, a remarkable time in the day. 0-60mph was achieved in 4.0 sec, 100mph in 7.3sec, and the quarter mile in 11.7 sec@133mph. The CTR was inspired by Group C racers, the Porsche 956/962 being the dominant machines of the 1980’s, and was the expression of Alois Ruf to create a slimmed down race car for the street-the ultimate road car. The CTR used a twin-turbo version of the 3.4L engine, with Bosch Motronic management from the 962. Power was up to 469hp, with, and a top speed of 211mph (340km/hr). The 29 CTR’s had special aerodynamic bodies constructed, all on the narrow body 911’s, with the drip-rails ground off, the rear wiper removed, an aero mirror and special bodywork that added 1” to the rear fenders allowing the narrow body car to run 10” wide rear rims. The front and rear bumpers were replaced with lightweight aerodynamic fiberglass sections. The car was also significantly lightened with aluminium door skins, fenders and trunk lid (similar to the homologated 911 SC/RS of the late 1970’s) and it weighed in at less than 2,600lbs. It had an integrated roll cage, heat exchangers replaced by a front mounted gas heater, the oil tank relocated to the front compartment, twin turbos and intercoolers mounted on sides of the engine bay, a central air intake, adjustable boost from .75bar (350hp) to 1.2bar (470hp), a/c delete, new larger diameter fuel lines with 4 fuel pumps and 330mm Brembo brakes with 4 piston calipers inspired by the 962 race car. No RUF CTR was ever sold in North America, as the didn’t have impact bumpers. In 1987 the prices for the RUF BTR Turbo Coupes started at $115,000 (in the US) and the Cabriolets were $10k-15k more expensive. The Slantnose Turbo Cab quoted in Road and Track in 1987 was $150,000 (in the US). US MSRP for a standard 911 Turbo in 1987 was $58,500 while a narrow body CTR Coupe “Yellowbird” was listed at the equivalent of $142,000 in Germany. The standard BTR was priced at 140,000DM, and the CTR 240,000DM. RUF continued to make BTR’s and CTR’s through the early 1990’s on the Porsche 964 platform, but created new models when the 996 twin Turbo came out in 1996, eliminating the single turbo RUF. In the 80’s RUF set up a network of US dealers, including RUF Western America/Scottsdale Motorsports in Arizona and Exclusive Motorcars in New Jersey. They sold RUF parts and did RUF conversions to customer Porsches. From 1987, when RUF was granted an importation license as a manufacturer by the US, the dealerships were able to sell RUF Vin cars. RUF made only 29 genuine CTR’s with RUF Vins, and perhaps the same number of BTR’s. These RUF VIN cars are valuable collector cars today. RUF also modified or supplied parts to a few hundred customer cars per year. These account for nearly all of the “RUF” car on the market. RUF also serviced Porsches, and did complete ground up restoration on Porsche road and race cars. There were RUF factory versions of the BTR on 911/930 chassis and on the 964/5 Chassis, some with an enlarged 3.8L engine. According to Mark Bongers book on Porsche and RUF, all in all there were about 400 RUF VIN and RUF factory converted cars built prior to 1994, on 911 and 964 chassis. About this RUF BTR III Chassis #: 911 920 1544 Engine 63F03870 RT9 / BTR34111M Trans 650 502 K02405 68,700km This RUF started life as a 1979 Porsche 911 SC, and was originally a Swiss car. In 1991 RUF sourced the 78,000km donor car, and began the transformation into a BTR III for a Porsche Enthusiast and amateur Porsche Racer named Gosse Stielstra from the Netherlands. Stielstra spent a reported 270,000DM on the car in total which was about $180,000usd in the early 90’s. This makes the car one of about 400 RUF VIN or RUF factory modified cars built on the 911 and 964 chassis from 1977 to 1994. Invoices from RUF show 120,000DM (about $80,000usd, at the time the list price of a 928 S4) was spent on the mechanical conversion alone. The car was transformed into a wide body car with the then-current 965 bumpers and rockers. The rain gutters were shaved which was unusual for a BTR, but a feature of the CTR. The 20 pages of RUF invoices and documentation (in German) list the following: 3.4L single turbo BTR 408hp engine with Motronic, twin injectors per cylinder, custom injector blocks and fuel rails, wastegate, RUF intercooler etc. RUF twin outlet exhaust Modified G50 transmission with locking differential and hydraulic pedal assembly 330mm front and rear brakes with RUF/Brembo calipers and Turbo suspension incl. larger torsion bars and anti roll bars. Body modifications to wide body '965' turbo including H4 lights and mirrors Shaved rain gutters. Ruf 17" wheels, Yokohama street tires and Pirelli Cup slicks. Full RUF instrumentation including 350k/hr speedo Cockpit adjustable turbo boost control Special Grey leather interior with leather dash and centre console and special carpet Matter CTR Roll cage, fully padded with attached fire extinguisher Race seat with 6 point Sabelt harnesses The documentation is sparse post conversion, but it looks like Stielstra kept the car until at least 1998 and put at least 61,000km on it. It sold to a Dr. Nonkes between 1998 and 2006. The car was serviced in the Netherlands at a firm called Renntech, who did work for both the previous two owners. This RUF came to Canada in early 2007 with approximately 67,000km on it, purchased by a guy from Grand Cache, AB who purchased the car in Holland through some friends who lived there and knew about the car. He only drove it a few times, and was basically too large to fit in it! I purchased the car in Sept 2011 with 67,500km. When the car came to me it had some driveability issues: the Turbo boost fell off at 6,000rpm, it had a slight miss at higher rpm, and it smoked on start up, though cleared up (caused by oil in the turbo). As a precautionary measure I took the engine out of the car for a full diagnostic check up and service. The plugs were removed and the bores inspected with a scope which were thankfully fine with no scoring or evidence of overheating or pre-detonation. Plugs were all fine. The Turbo did have have a significant amount of oil in it-the cause of the smoking-and the vanes turned with resistance, so it was given to Rob at Tunerworks in Calgary for a rebuild at a cost of $1,000. I received an order for OEM wires, plugs, rotor, distributor cap, filters etc. from Pelican parts ($1,100) to replace all the consumables. The starter was replaced with a Bosch remanufactured unit. 12 remanufactured Bosch injectors were sourced at a cost of $1,000. Hunting down the rough-running issue we replaced the entire fuse box and fuses, fuel pump relay, Throttle Position Sensor, Crank Sensor, battery, coil etc. and in the end found the Motronic ECU to be faulty. A replacement ECU was sourced and the cars rough running has been completely cured, and the car runs beautifully. In the course of the engine out service, we replaced the clutch and ring gear, which had a chip in one of the teeth. The car starts instantly, revs sweetly to red line, and is scary fast. It idles evenly, with no hunting or coughing-much better than the CIS BTR’s. Oil pressure is excellent showing 2 bar at warm idle, and between 4 and 5 bar at over 3,000rpm. There is no smoking upon start up or on the overrun. It does still prefer full throttle when there are min 1,500 or 2,000 revs on the clock which is normal for this era of turbocharged high performance turbocharged engine. An interesting note is the comparative lack of wind noise from the shaved gutters and the 965 body kit. It is much quieter at speed than my 930 BTR was, and accelerates significantly harder at higher speed. The clutch and transmission (5 sp G50 with locking diff) are very positive with excellent syncros. The suspension is firm but compliant with no knocks or other indications of wear. There is no play in the steering or abnormal wear from the tires. The brake pads are near new, but the rotors are down to 25% and show some evidence of cracking where drilled. The Bridgestone S03 tires have about 50% left on them. The suspension is set up a little different than a 930 turbo, with a much sharper turn-in. Less understeer. The chassis feels much more communicative, if not as fail-safe. It is also quite compliant, with none of the jarring you get from the stock Turbo Suspension. The interior is overall in decent shape with exception of the Cobra seats which look out of place. New 996 GT3 fixed shell seats in in black along with the 930 adapter plates were purchased as were red 3" Sabelt harnesses for it. These seats and adaptors do not come with the car, but can be purchased separately for $4500. The custom stitched RUF leather dashtop shows some warpage and lifting on the driver side which will have to be addressed. A small piece of carpet over the dead pedal is worn through. There have been some paint repairs to the roof for damage during shipping (dents) and repair from the parking incident. The paintwork was only done to ‘serviceable’ quality, and shows some paint imperfections on close examination. The front bonnet shows some paint cracks, and there is evidence that the front bumper has been repainted. There is no evidence of accidents and the floorpans, rockers, engine bay, front compartment show no evidence of previous repair. Cosmetically it is presentable enough, but if the new owner plans on showing the car, it would benefit from a quality respray and a certain amount of tidying. Close examination reveals imperfections in the paint, some wear in the interior, no manual or tools, and the spare tire has gone missing (though easily replaced). To sum up, I would describe this car as a thoroughly mechanically sorted car and an excellent driver. It has had the benefit of over $10,000 of a recent engine-out major service with many new parts. It can be happily enjoyed as is, and I can’t imagine a car with greater performance (0-100km/hr in less than 4.5sec, 0-160 in less than 10sec, 300km/hr top speed) in this price range. This would have been a $250,000 car in todays dollars-the GT2RS of its day. To make the car a “10” it would need a quality paint job, change out some light lenses (cracked, faded), change the seats out to the Recaro GT3 seats that are separately available or find something period correct, refinish the wheels, etc. I would budget $10k-$15k plus the seats to take it apart and do everything properly, if you wanted it to be “Concours”. That said, you won’t have any more fun if you spend more money on it. It is presentable as is, has no glaring defects, and you have to look at it pretty close to see the issues. Last thing is that this isn’t a car for the faint of heart or novices! I had the car out in December (3/4deg C) for a shakedown after the ECU was put in, and got wheelspin in 2nd and 3rd gears in a straight line. At 200km/hr it is pulling very hard, and sweeps past the 50km/hr increments in seconds. Needless to say when the boost comes on mid-corner you need to be ready for it...Be Afraid! Lawrence Romanosky Calgary, Alberta, Canada 403-607-8625 Lromanosky@me.com