Ruf unveils eight-cylinder boxer engine with more than 1,000 hp and manual transmission at Goodwood

Ruf used the Goodwood Festival of Speed, in England, to unveil the B8 Erprober, a prototype that anticipates the next generation of super sports cars from the German manufacturer and proves that the manual transmission still has a place at the top of the segment. Internally named “Erprober” (“tester” in German), the car is a development platform for the technologies that will equip the brand’s future models.

The highlight is the engine: an unprecedented 4.8 eight-cylinder boxer, the first in Ruf’s history. The flat-eight biturbo delivers more than 1,013 hp of power and more than 102 kgfm of torque, without any help from electrification. Even rarer is the set coupled to a six-speed manual transmission, a combination practically extinct among cars of more than a thousand horsepower.

To accommodate the engine, larger and wider than a six-cylinder, Ruf lengthened the chassis of the CTR3 by 10 cm, its own super sports car with its own body and structure presented in 2007. The choice of model, according to the company, was strategic: it allowed the new engine to be tested in a discreet way, without attracting attention during development.

During the event, the prototype will make six climbs in the traditional Goodwood mountain race, two per day, from Friday (10) to Sunday (12), with driver Tanner Foust at the wheel. The car features an exclusive livery created by Aloisa Ruf in partnership with Optima Batteries: the yellow tone refers to the iconic CTR Yellowbird from 1987, while the graphics repeatedly draw the number eight, a reference to the cylinder count.

Eight-cylinder boxers are very rare: Porsche even used them in racing cars in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the 908 and 907, but never took them to a street model. Ruf itself built its reputation on the flat-six derived from the Porsche 911, an aesthetic base that remains in the brand’s DNA, as the CTR3 takes advantage of the front structure of the German sports car. True to this story, Ruf has always produced on a small scale: the Yellowbird, for example, had only 29 units made by hand.

Ruf did not say when it will launch the production version, but the fact that the engine is already running on a working prototype suggests an advanced stage. If the specifications hit the streets, the new sports car will easily surpass the brand’s current strongest car, the CTR3 Evo, which yields about 811 hp and does not offer a manual transmission.

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