Without falling into too much of an existential crisis, RUF isn’t necessarily a restomod maker but it does make restomods. RUF should be seen in the same vein as the likes of Schnitzer and Alpina in the 1970s, a tuner and refiner of a German marque’s models. Which, when its current models, technically isn’t restomodding. But in many ways, it technically is as time goes on.
It’s semantics.
And the RUF SCR that will be among the Reboot & Restomod display certainly looks like a 964 Porsche. Only carbon is used for the body and monocoque, rather than an actual steel Porsche, and it weighs just 1250kg soaking wet.
The SCR is also actually a reboot. In 1978, RUF Automobiles revised and overhauled a 911 SC and created the SCR, with more than 200bhp and a wild front spoiler full of lips and scoops. Just 50 were made.
Exactly 40 years on, RUF dipped into the archives and pulled out a new take on the Sports Carrera RUF. The full carbon car, with steel rollcage adding even more strength, fired out 510bhp and could run on to just shy of 200mph. The needle passes 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and 120 mph in 11.9, thanks to its light weight and tuned four-litre straight six. Without a turbo. And with a six-speed manual.
The car is entirely a RUF creation, and its says the SCR is: ‘Racing technology and loving details for maximum driving pleasure under the guise of a retro sports car.’ But if that’s not the ethos of a restomod, nothing is.
See the RUF SCR in the Reboots & Restomods display at the Scramble on Sunday 5 October.