► Ruf develops a new combustion engine ► Eight cylinder boxer engine incoming ► Revealed at Goodwood 2026
Remember the Ruf CTR Yellowbird video and the incredible pre-internet video of a lap around the ‘Ring? Well we could be about to be treated to another instalment as the German car manufacturer – very much ‘not a tuner’, as Aloisa Ruf told me – has unveiled a bespoke flat-eight engine at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Running in a modified CTR3, the 4.8-litre, twin-turbo boxer eight will produce over 1000bhp and more than 737lb ft of torque when it makes it into an all-new production car due in around 18 months.
For now, the flat-eight powers the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, but it’s not clear what exact configuration the production version will have when it launches. The CTR3 prototype driven up the Goodwood hill has been lengthened by 100mm to take the extra cylinders and offers few clues as to what the actual car will look like.
A flat-eight is unusual. Porsche has obviously used flat sixes for years but has largely resisted the lure of an extra couple of cylinders in road cars and kept it restricted to motorsport – Stuttgart’s only F1 win came with a flat-eight in 1962.
The CTR3’s striking livery is a nod to the 1987 Yellowbird and was designed by Aloisa Ruf, daughter of current owner Alois Ruf (pictured above). Everywhere you turn, there are little Easter eggs to the past – when we spoke to her, Ruf was wearing a pair of moccasins as a reference to the legendary Ruf test driver Stefan Roser, who famously only wore normal clothes when he was pounding round the ‘Ring.
From here, the engine will continue to be developed in prototypes – as Ruf told us, in a process of ‘optimise, optimise, optimise’ – before a production version of the unnamed road car will be revealed towards the end of 2027, possibly into 2028.
Comments (0)