Legendary maker Ruf is celebrating 25 years of success, says Nick Hall, with a big surprise for the market
An invitation to legendary manufacturer Ruf's anniversary party was always going to be entertaining, particularly as they've produced a car for the occasion.
The 25th Anniversary Edition 3400K could have come adorned with bells, whistles and Alcantara, but Ruf has used this opportunity to go a different direction. The whole car costs €75,100 before the dreaded VRT. This is an entry-level Ruf and a sign that the firm is finally coming to the masses: well, the 30,000 Irish millionaires at least.
Ruf is fiercely proud of its manufacturer status, and is keen to separate itself from the hoi-polloi of tuners. Alois Ruf's most famous creations were all great cars and Yellowbird, the RTurbo, even the Studio Torino will go down in legend. Ruf has even appeared in Gran Turismo, and is so respected by those in the know that the mere mention of their name brings a solid Porschophile out in goose bumps.
But the cars all came with telephone number price tags in the front window, and a go on the Playstation was about the closest most of us would ever get to owning one. Even Ruf admits it has become synonymous with €500,000 weapons, and has missed a gap in the market.
So on the company's quarter-century it has marked a new direction, and embraced the lower end of the market. Now, for the price of a bottom-end Carrera, a Ruf can be yours. It does a Boxster-based version, too, for those who need to be seen whistling while they work, but the the Cayman has to be the one to go for.
The Cayman is, fundamentally, a better sports car than the 911. Its mid-engined stance gives a more natural weight distribution and better cornering skills, but then Porsche handicapped the car to keep the natural order with a relatively weak-willed engine and no limited slip diff. In the corners this lithe rocket takes just fingertip control and when driven well can hold a 911 in the bends, but this one can cope in a straight line, too.
Ruf could have gone for a full engine transplant and produced a firebreathing Carrera-powered creation, but not at this price.
To prove the accelerative power, Ruf's PR manager Marc Bongers, took us to a disused piece of road alongside the autobahn and sent us on our way. It was a mind-bending lesson in the car's capability.
Figures of 4.4 seconds for the 60mph (96km\h) dash, 14.8 seconds to 200km\h and a top end speed of 291km\h don't nearly do justice to this car.
It feels faster and I'd lay down a fair wager that it is. Most of the additional horses make themselves felt with an added kick just beyond 5,000rpm until the redline at 7,400rpm. So there's a relatively small window of opportunity to truly feel the burn, and you'll need to be quick on the six-speed box to make the most of this car.
AT HIGH SPEEDS those carefully tuned aerodynamics come into effect, too, and the car feels composed and unruffled even as it homes in on its top end. On that road it was simply a case of planting it and pulling the gears, it was that easy, that simple and that capable.
A new flat floor joins forces with a revised front bumper and rear set-up that not only improves cooling, it also looks better - which wouldn't be hard. The original Cayman front bumper looked as if it was designed by Ratners with plasticky light surrounds and a naff, straight-cut design that cheapened the whole car.
There's a gruffer exhaust note than the standard Cayman, but only a connoisseur would tell them apart and there's none of the latent aggression that some tuners would automatically dial into their cars.
The suspension has been tweaked, but for those that want the full Monty there's a fully adjustable kit that weighs in at €3,600 and drops the car 35mm lower than the standard Cayman. Price was the primary concern with this car, but that extra few thousand, the price of SatNav or metallic paint, would give it more grip than gravity.
Ruf can upgrade the brakes, too, to a whopping 350mm on the front, mated to six-piston callipers, but again to keep the costs down they've simply painted the monobloc four-piston units that come on the base car. And you know what? They work absolutely perfectly, as this 1,350kg car simply isn't heavy enough to require the huge racing numbers or, heaven forbid, the ridiculously overpriced PCCB ceramic upgrade offered by Porsche.
Those who want to ritually humiliate bigger 911s on the racetrack can hit the options list hard, and come away with a warrior with everything from tyre-pressure monitors to GT3 seats, a fire extinguisher and a borderline racing car dressed as a Porsche.
Even in the upper echelons of the Porsche tweaking world, Ruf has always held a special place, and now they have left the elite behind and embraced the lower end of the market, they have truly given us a reason to celebrate.