BEHIND THE LENS ONE HECK OF A RUF SHOOT SCOTT MEAD With a little help from his grandfather, Mecum’s senior photographer, Scott, started driving at the age of 3 and was racing go-karts by the time he turned 8. He received his first camera (a Kodak Instamatic) around the same time and started photographing car events, races, rallies and concours. Before coming to Mecum, he was a writer and photographer for Edmunds.com, Motor Trend and spent 15 years in Hawaii photographing the island’s splendor. Scott’s wife swears he gargles with 100-octane race gas and bleeds 20/50 motor oil, and when he’s not on the road, you can find him in his garage, wrenching on their DeTomaso Pantera or Porsche 914. In past iterations of this column, I’ve written about automotive unicorns, prototypes or production misfits that should have been to the crusher and cars that were trendsetters, but I’ve never had the opportunity to write about or even photograph a car that influenced a major automaker to change its stride and its way of thinking. Until now. There are two words in automotive vocabulary that pique the interest of nearly all enthusiasts: Porsche Turbo. Development of a turbo-charged 911 began in 1972, and in 1975, Porsche launched it to the world. To say it was an immediate hit would be a gross understatement. The Turbo coupe produced 260 BHP from a 3.0L turbo-charged flat-6 engine, and people were immediately drawn to the car’s unique wide hips and big rear wing. At its time of introduction, it was the fastest production car in Germany and quickly garnered the nickname “The Widowmaker.” Fast forward to 1981, in the quaint town of Pfaffenhausen, Germany, where one Alois Ruf is the proprietor of a modest tuning shop. Wanting something different than what customarily rolled out of Porsche’s Zeffenhausen plant, Ruf took a brand new 911SC Targa, cut out the back window section and fitted a Cabriolet top. The original flat-6 mill was removed and replaced with a punched-out, 3.4L turbo, mated to a dogleg 5-speed manual gearbox. To make things interesting, Ruf’s turbo included a cockpit-adjustable waste gate, enabling the driver to crank the boost from 5.0 PSI to 13.5 PSI with the flick of a wrist. A deep front air dam with integrated oil cooler, taut suspension upgrade and red leather interior (replete with Ricaro buckets) were the icing on the turbo cab cake. Alois’ personal car gained extensive media attention around the globe, with several “First Drive” stories in magazines such as Road & Track and even the cover story of Auto Week. The car also gained a lot of attention in the halls of Porsche. So much so that the Automaker introduced its own Turbo Cabriolet in 1987. Today, Ruf’s Turbo Cab still looks spectacular. It fires on the first twist of the key and, in Teutonic tradition, is as solid as the day it was born. The car is a true wolf in sheep’s clothing, and the sedate drive to the photo location relayed nothing of what lies beneath the aft hatch. It’s coming to Kissimmee in January where the new owner can find out what’s in there for themselves by cranking up the boost, winding the turbocharger to 10,000 RPM and experiencing Alois Ruf’s dream turned reality, top down. 62 // MECUM.COM
