2017 Geneva Motor Show: RUF CTR Yellowbird Geneva tribute revealed

RUF, the German tuning house that made its name fettling and tweaking Porsches, has wheeled out something a little different from its usual creations at this year’s Geneva Motor Show.

At a glance, it’s a fairly faithful homage to the original CTR, the heavily-massaged 911 Carrera 3.2-based twin-turbo monster that earned the nickname “Yellowbird” and put CTR on the map. Peek under the skin of the present-day CTR, however, and there’s a surprising lack of Porsche-ness.

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The classic fastback silhouette, eye-searing yellow paint, gaping NACA ducts, chunky five-spoke alloys and whale tail spoiler are throwbacks to the original CTR, but underneath is an entirely bespoke carbon-fibre passenger compartment bookended by steel subframes at front and rear, which carry the suspension, steering and powertrain.

That means that besides the dry-sumped, 515kW twin-turbo 3.6 litre Mezger flat-six hanging out back and the six-speed manual hanging off it, there’s very little Porsche content in RUF’s CTR redux.

The suspension is a racecar-style pushrod config, and thanks to the light weight of the carbon chassis it all weighs in at just 1200kg dry.

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Modern features like LED daytime running lamps, LED light bar tail lights and a mammoth brake package are also key clues that this is more than just a reboot of the classic Yellowbird.

Mega-fat 305-section rear tyres take power to the ground, and RUF says the 2017 CTR will smash through the 100km/h barrier in a brisk 3.5 seconds. Only 30 cars will be made and RUF still isn’t talking about pricetags just yet, but you can bet none will be coming our way.

We’ll have to enjoy this one from afar, but we can at least soothe our sorrow with this legendary and absolutely bonkers footage of the original Yellowbird being whipped around the Nurburgring Nordschliefe by test driver Stefan Roser. Enjoy.