A logical engine swap
Addicts in search of extreme Porsches should travel not to
Zufenhausen but to Pfafenhausen, home of Alois Ruf, Jr., who has been
manufacturing low-volume Porsche hot rods since he took over the business from
his father in 1974. With no love from Porsche, Ruf has created such memorable
driving machines as the 1987 CTR “Yellowbird” plus today’s awesome 777-hp CTR3 Clubsport
and the RGT-8 powered by Ruf ’s bespoke 550-hp eight-cylinder engine. Since
other Rufs cost between $314,000 and $769,000 in the U.S., the Boxster-based
Ruf 3800S looks like a bargain at $132,895. A Cayman-based coupe is available
for $6800 more.
The 3800S benefits from a simple heart transplant that
mid-engine proponents, but not 911 purists, champion. Sitting on more than
fifty brand-new 911 engines that have been replaced with his own motors, Alois
Ruf made a virtue out of necessity, tweaking the 911’s 3.8-liter flat-six and
fitting it to the Boxster S. Sounds clever, except now the parts manager is
stacking brand-new Boxster engines.
Alois Ruf made a
virtue out of necessity, tweaking the 911’s 3.8-liter flat-six and fitting it
to the Boxster S
Although the 3800S is a Boxster S with a Carrera S Kraftwerk
wedged between its hind legs, Ruf also installs heavily modified front and rear
bumpers, all-black wheels and bigger tires, stronger brakes, and tauter springs
and dampers. The 3800S cannot be sold as a Porsche, so it’s available with an
extracost seven-speed RDK gearbox, carbon-ceramic RCCB brakes, and active
suspension management dubbed RASM. The Rs stand for Ruf, one more thorn in the
side of Porsche, which eyes this operation with profound skepticism.
Ruf also installs
heavily modified front and rear bumpers, all-black wheels and bigger tires,
stronger brakes, and tauter springs and dampers
There’s no reason for the customer to mistrust the work of
the renowned Bavarian tuning shop. The conversion to 3800S is commendably solid
in concept and in execution. A new free-flow exhaust, which sports four
prominent tailpipes, is primarily responsible for the 20 hp and 7 lb-ft jump.
The 911 Carrera S also donates larger front brake discs (13.4 inches in
diameter) straddled by fire-red calipers and twenty-inch wheels shod with
slightly wider tires.
The 3800S eclipses the Boxster by a substantial margin, but
is the open-top Ruf also quicker than a 911 Carrera S droptop offered for
similar money? The 420-hp mid-engine Porsche accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in
4.1 seconds, which makes it 0.6 second quicker than a manual 911 cabrio, and
its 186-mph top speed is an academic 1 mph slower. The difference in fuel
consumption is equally negligible. Such a 911-vanquishing Boxster is something
the powers in Zufenhausen and Weissach would never let happen.
Does this thin on-paper lead translate to the open road? To
find out, we spent a day in the hinterlands of Pfafenhausen, where corners
abound and where the law is intimately familiar with each of Ruf ’s five
demonstrator models. Even though the 3800S sounds like a 911, it still drives
like a Boxster. It is better balanced, more playful, nippier, and commendably
stable on the straights but full of bumblebees at the limit. The Carrera is
more black or white, more emphatic, and yet more benign when pushed hard. This
steroidal Boxster wants to be treated with care. The additional 105 hp and 66
lb-ft of torque make its larger footwear break away more aggressively. Its RSM (Ruf
stability management) lacks that highly desirable in-between setting.
It is quicker,
more special, and more demanding to drive.
The 3800S calls for even quicker reflexes with RSM
deactivated.
Communication between steering and throttle is more of a shouting
match than a dialogue, and the speed window is more in line with that of any
rear-engine Porsche. The means with which to induce understeer, oversteer, or a
four-wheel drift can blur and overlap. Small variations in driver input can
result in major changes of vehicle attitude. Exciting, yes. User-friendly, less
so. Is a 3800S a better buy than a Carrera S cabriolet? Yes. It is quicker,
more special, and more demanding to drive. Is it worth twice the money to
upgrade from a Boxster S to a 911-engined Ruf? Probably not. The 315-hp ragtop
is so sweet, smooth, and special that all it takes to narrow the performance
gap is the optional PDK. From Ruf ’s model range, it’s more worthwhile to drive
one of the crazier efforts that leave the donor car well and truly grumbling in
the dust.
