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As some of you may know, a few months ago I took a gamble and placed a bid, sight unseen, on a RUF listed on PCARAUCTION.
The car had a number of obvious issues: damage to both the front and rear bumper, lots of interior wear, swirls and scratches in the paint.
But it also had a compelling backstory. It had been owned by the same gentleman since 1992.
He'd had it converted from a 'standard' 3.3 964 Turbo to a RUF BTR 3.8 in Pfaffenhausen in the late 90s for an at-the-time astonishing cost of $100,000.
He then drove it regularly for the next 20 years, and really got his money's worth, driving a mile for each dollar he spent.
I had no experience with the 965, but having done a fair amount of work on my 964, I didn't see anything too scary mechanically and figured that I could handle most anything that needed fixing.
Nonetheless, I fully expected the auction to go over my limit and was awfully surprised to win the car 'cheap' -- at least for a 964 Turbo these days, especially one with RUF provenance.
Having won the auction, I figured that the question marks around the car meant this was a real "bring a trailer" situation -- but the owner assured me that it really was up for the three hour drive back to my place.
Taking him at his word that the car was better than it appeared in the photos, a friend and I drove out to the cape and picked it up.
Here it is on it's first night in its new home:
Picking up the car confirmed my initial suspicions: the car was solid mechanically, but pretty rough cosmetically.
The $64,000 question (perhaps literally?) was what to do about the cosmetics.
Both bumpers had spiderwebbing and definitely needed repainting.
There was a 6 inch scratch down to primer on one front fender, and, as seen above, both rear sharkfins had nasty road rash that only was exceeded in ugliness by the 30 year old factory PPF.
The hood had a peppering of rock chips and a small dent, the doors were chipped along the edges.
Overall there weren't many panels on the car that didn't have at least one serious flaw or imperfection.
On the plus side, the car was amazingly rust free for one that had driven 100k miles in the Northeast.
The previous owner said he never drove it in the snow or salt and I now believe him -- this car was CLEAN underneath.
The only real rust was on the exhaust nuts, which is pretty much unavoidable on a car that's driven.
Nonetheless, getting the exterior perfect was going to require painting 80% of the car, which felt like more time and money than I wanted to put into a Metallic Black finish (which always looked dirty next to my solid black 964).
The alternative, however, was daunting: even though RUF often did their color changes without full disassembly, I don't like to half-do things.
A new color would mean a complete strip down to bare metal.
I was torn.
What pushed me over the edge was a combination of the weather and the interior.
Light colored interiors always show more wear, and this one, while not awful, was showing its 30 years of use.
Once the salt went down and I couldn't drive it, it wasn't long before I started tearing it apart.
The car really was a blast from the past -- check out those vintage Recaro CSEs and that huge custom subwoofer enclosure (installed circa 1996)
The frunk was similarly full of 90s era audio equipment, with giant ADS amps that needed to be removed to pull out the carpet and crossovers hiding where the air pump should have been.
Check out that original RUF strut bar -- the new ones you can get from them are black anodized, and don't have the R65 part number stamped on them!
Digging out the crossovers led to a pleasant surprise: a tool kit!
I'd been told the car came without one, he figured it had gotten lost over the years.
Well, it had: it got lost under those crossovers back in 1996!
Can I take a moment to shake my fist at whomever decided to use those awful security bolts on the ignition and steering column? It's probably not going to stop a car thief, but it sure frustrated me!
Then I removed the bumpers, fenders, fuel tank, HVAC system, washer, ABS and brake system, and finally the fuse box and front harness.
It looks so bare!
Pulling the fenders off was one of the things that worried me since I'd seen how bad Larry's fenders were when they came off.
I was once again pleased to see no rust on the fenders or at the cowl.
I think part of the reason for that was how insanely well glued in everything was on this car.
There was more than a quarter of an inch of that factory rubber undercoating that I had to cut through to release the fenders!
The glass also seemed to be original, and they did not hold back on that day in 1991 on applying the urethane sealant.
I sacrificed all the seals and got the door, rear quarter, and back glass out with some struggles, but pushed too hard and cracked the windshield.
Oh well.
Moving to the back of the car, I started prepping for the engine drop by removing the intercooler, airbox, and assorted connectors and fittings.
The majority of the oil and AC lines came out earlier, but I still had to disconnect the last few.
I set about deleting the secondary air injection system. The belt had been disconnected and the pump and hoses left in place, but why not do it right?
Also, isn't that RUF intake manifold interesting?
Cast aluminum with an R65 part number and frankly doesn't look anything like what you'd get in a 3.6 Turbo
(which where this 3.8L motor started its life -- I know, I know, but it was the 90s).
Headers removed, air injection spider deleted, plugs in place.
Then Rob came over and this happened:
Getting closer and closer to having that parking space back!
Congratulations on the new acquisition and as you can see from the pictures, literally no stone is left unturned, no half measures are taken.
The effort that the small company Ruf has driven in the 90s with EFI conversion is also not to be underestimated. There was no blueprint except the N/A cars, much had to be developed and built. With the small quantities also an enormous financial effort which explains a bit the exorbitant price for the conversion.
Would be nice if you could document a few details about the technology (ignition, injection, engine control).
Yes, Porsche went crazy with the Seam sealer in 1991. 1/2 as much in 93 and practically none in 1995.
I just upgraded to the 993 Glass. i highly recommend that upgrade. I also upgraded the climate control HVAC suitcase to 993 footwell heat shut offs.
easy upgrade at this point.
Since you are going this deep, re-gearing is worth it's weight in gold. Looks like you had a heavy car. Lightweight and Re-gearing makes this car come alive.
Question? I see a second Fuel pump delete. Can you tell us about that?
Scott, I wish I knew more about the specifics of the motor build. RUF did it in 1997 and they had a flood in the mid-2000s that destroyed all of their records.
I have the invoices from the previous owner, but they don't specify everything that was done (e.g., "Conversion to BTR 3.8 Specification"), so it's all been a bit of detective work.
I do know that the car has a RUF R50/60 six speed transmission, so I probably won't mess with that as it's part of the "specialness" of the car and is geared for the 200mph top speed.
In terms of figuring out how they did fuel delivery and all that, once the car heads off to blasting I'll start digging into it more when I pull the engine tins for powder coating.
I've learned a bunch from your thread, and agree that the 993 glass seems worth it. Which seals did you use to make that work?
I'm also open to the idea of throwing in 993 heat shutoffs.
I've seen the mod where they are manually opened and closed for each season ( https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...our-964-a.html ) but is there a way to make the motors operate with the 964 suitcase and CCU?
When (if?) Classic Retrofit releases their upgraded CCU to the public I bet that could make them work.
In terms of weight, so much has already come off and is still slated to come off the car.
I'm actually a little worried about the weight distribution ending up too far to the rear given how much weight is coming off the front and out of the cabin.
I went with the 993 suitcase. Comes with updated larger drain hoses. You'll need the two A/c lines up there. They easily connect.
The 993 suitcase comes with the wiring for the relocated heat shut offs.
Great design. It does add up. 964 CCU works fine. I checked all the wiring. There are no issues.
I deleted the rear blowers. Turbos have extremely powerful heat.
993 inner seals and outer seals will be needed with the glass.
You won't have to worry about too much weight in the rear unless you spin out.
You can lower the front so air doesn't pick up the front from underneath on hard acceleration.
Looks like your engine is original and he didn't run the hell out of it.
But checking those Heads studs are #1
Congratulations on the purchase of your RUF. Once I drove down to the Kempten/Fussen area to see famous RUF facilities, and lo and behold Mr. Alois Ruf himself showed me around. Him and his team left a great impression on me, not salespeople, but real technicians.
Love this thread. I bid on this car as well. I bought a cobalt blue 91 turbo back in August that was already apart at the time of this auction but man what a cool car and thread this is.
03-17-2023 | 01:42 AM
From Rough back to RUF
