If you’re a fan of Porsche’s performance cars, the name Ruf should sounc very familiar. Known for creating some of the most amazing tuned Porsches, Ruf has a long history when it comes to Porsche, and for Alois Ruf, it starts before the 911 was even revealed. Alois Ruf Sr. had worked on plenty of Porsche 356s before, but it was in 1964 when Alois Ruf saw a blue Porsche on the Autobahn that he’d never seen before. Eventually, that model would be revealed as the 901, and after potential legal issues, it would then become the 911 that we have known and loved for 60 years.
More About Porsche
Alois Ruf got a Porsche 911 with minor accident damage for his 19th birthday, with the four-cylinder engine from a 912 installed, and planned on restoring it. He would quickly find out that the 911 he owned was quite special, as indicated by the dashboard clock having all the digits rather than 3, 6, 9, and 12. What this meant was that this was not a 911, but rather a 901 prototype. Alois Ruf would go on to develop the Ruf company, and become properly acquainted with newer 911s as they would be released, and the restoration of his special car fell to the wayside for many years. However, he decided to restore his beloved car 50 years after he first got it in 2019, learning that it was in fact a testing prototype, and the sixth extremely rare 901 ever built. Since then, the car that was thought to be lost to the ages received an image like the original car, and it may well be the car that Alois Ruf saw as a teenager on the Autobahn in 1964, 60 years ago, beginning a very long history both for Porsche and the Ruf family.
View All Porsche 911s For Sale
Sources: Porsche