duPont REGISTRY Talks: The Art of Bespoke Supercars with RUF

Join Esteban Larrañaga of RUF North America on duPont REGISTRY Talks! Discover the art of crafting bespoke Porsche-based supercars and the legacy of RUF. Listen now!

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
- Welcome to DuPont Registry Talks,
a new podcast from the homeof driving luxury since 1985.
Hello everyone, andwelcome to this episode
of DuPont Registry Talks.
My name is Charles Bradley,
and today I am gonna be joined
by an eminent guest from ourwonderful world of luxury,
exotic and classic cars.

(00:25):
ESTEBAN LARRAÑAGA is AccountExecutive of RUF North America,
the importer of this eclecticGerman performance brand.
Thank you for having me. Tellus a little bit about Roof
and the whole historicalsignificance of what kind
of people might think isa Porsche at first glance,
but it's it's a wholedifferent story, isn't there?
- There is, yeah. So Roofstarted off since 1939.

(00:49):
It was a, it, it was AutoRoof, which was a repair shop
that Alois Ruf Jr.
And his father Alois Ruf, Sr.
Had, you know, within the family,
his mother ran a gas stationoutta that same property.
And he had this, this tourbus where he would take people
around town and, and showthem pretty much the mountains
and everything around the area.
And on one

(01:09):
of those tours at 356had passed them a Porsche
356 crashed.
They pulled over, theyhelped the gentleman, he went
to the hospital, they fixed the car
by the time the car was done
and the guy got back into it,he was like, you know what?
This isn't for me. Let mejust, you guys can have it,
whatever, that they, he,they, they exchanged the car

(01:30):
and then Alois Ruf Jr.
And his father, you know,one day we're driving in
that car in, in, in Munich
and they were stopped by a gentleman
that bought the car on the spot cash.
- Wow. - And so with that, itclicked in their minds that,
you know, this Porschecommunity, the Porsche clientele
and the individuals whohave these sorts of cars,
they're trusting individuals,their individuals who,

(01:51):
you know, could fund the business
because they have thecapital to buy these cars.
And, and that's how the story started with
that sort of Porsche heritage.
Right. They started offfixing three 50 sixes
when the nine 11 came out.
They started fixing nineelevens and working on them.
And, and when, you know,unfortunately when,
when Alois's father passed away,junior took over the company
and then he really hada vision for performance

(02:13):
and, and tuning these cars.
And so with that came theidea of tuning these cars
to make them faster and faster and,
and much more than what, you know,
Porsche was engineering atthe time, Alois Ruf Jr.
He, he believed that thatplatform had so much potential
and that the architectureof what the nine 11 was
with the rear engine andeverything was fantastic.
It was, it was amazing, butit could be pushed further.

(02:34):
And so with that, with allthe tuning that he did,
eventually he became amanufacturer, got a certificate
of being a manufacturer in 81,
then officially had our first VINs in 84.
And with that came out thefirst model, which was the BTR,
then CTR and so on
and so forth with eachgeneration of Porsche chassis
that came out, RUFended up coming out with
what their own idea of theperfected platform would be.

(02:58):
And so that's something
that is a very unique aspectof automotive history.
'cause you don't reallysee manufacturers doing
that nowadays, letalone a situation where,
like Porsche was in, in the seventies
and eighties where they wereabout to kill the nine 11,
they were gonna bring in the 928
and they weren't sure of what was
gonna happen to the company.
So because of financial issues,they struck a deal with RUF

(03:20):
and, and they basically startedgiving us bodies in white
where they would give usa chassis, a blank slate,
and then we would build ourown car on that platform.
Hence us being a manufacturer,making our own models
and people confusing themso easily with nine 11
and Porsches because they look the same.
It's the same sort of silhouette.
It's, it's a very similar, you know,

(03:40):
design almost identical.
Right. But when it getsdown to the nitty gritty,
the engineering, the performance
and everything, it's beenmuch more advanced than
what was out at the timefrom any other sort of tuner
or even from Porsche themselves.
So to give an example,
our first car was in 84, which is the BTR.
And everybody knows us forthe Yellowbird for the CTR,

(04:01):
which was in 87, the world's fastest car.
But the BTR in 1984 actuallywas the world's fastest
car already as well.
- Yeah.- When that came out.
So that car, when it wasunveiled, it had a dog leg,
five speed transmission,which was also the first
of its kind in that sort of architecture.
It had 17 inch lightweight wheels,
which might sound like something not
so special nowadays, but

(04:22):
- Back - Then, back thenit was incredibly advanced.
And you know, with that sortof development, with that sort
of pushing the boundariesof engineering, you know,
other companies started contacting us to,
to even help develop other things.
So like Dunlop used us todevelop a Denel lock tire
that was then used on othericons of the nineties. Of
- Course. Yeah.
- Yeah. And, and yeah,
nobody was really hittingthe speeds that we were.
So we were, we definitely

(04:43):
were at the top of the food chain there.
And if, if anybody wanteda bespoke high performance
vehicle, that was theabsolute pinnacle it would be,
you know, you go to RUF.
- So an amazing history there.
Fast forward to today, you'vebrought in this amazing
roads, the behind us. Tell us about it.
- So yeah, so as as mentionedwith every generation
of chassis that came out from Porsche,

(05:05):
we would always getbodies and white from them
and develop our own vehicle out of it.
With the 997 platform.
This is one of our mostsuccessful platforms
that we had come out withbecause we had the RT 12,
which was RUF turbo 12, the12th turbo model that we made.
- Yeah.- Then it was RT 12 s
and R along with R-G-T-R-G-T-R-S
and a couple of other models.

(05:25):
But what this is here is an ode
to the icons of the sixties.
Right. So, you know, our lineage
and our heritage goes verydeeply ingrained with, you know,
the inception of the 911 till now.
Right. 'cause we've always worked on them
and we have that sort of growthwithin our brand as well.
And when we had a specialclient that came up to us

(05:46):
that he wanted to get a specialcoach build, you know, us
as a manufacturer and notonly do we make these really
unique vehicles andmodels on these platforms,
but we can do whatever we want.
So, and that's where it gets really fun
because Yeah, he wanted to pay homage
to the classic driving experienceof driving a true targa
- Yeah.
- From the sixties when atthe time technologically the,

(06:07):
it was impossible.
Right. So you look at Porsche lineage
and Porsche history,the true B pillar Targa,
first off the soft windowwas a very small run in the
sixties, I believe it was like 66, 67
and then, or maybe even earlier.
You gotta fact check me on that one.
And then when you fastforward from the 993

(06:27):
until the 991, therewas no B pillar target.
- Yeah.- Let alone a soft window. Yeah. Right.
So when they finally broughtit back with the 991,
it was still glass in the back.
Right. And now today westill have a glass target.
964 is G bodies. Thoseare glass in the back.
So what this client wantedwas he wanted something
with the power of an RT 12 s.
So it has 650 horsepowerto all four wheels.

(06:49):
Carbon ceramic brakes, centerlocks, advanced suspension
that was developed by US carbon skin.
But with that luxury
and that sort of connectionto the outside world
that you get from atrue soft window Targa.
And so with that,
you get all the inductionnoise from the turbos.
I mean you have these naca ductsthat are here in the quarters,

(07:10):
which are pretty iconic andsynonymous with our brand
as well, feeding straightto the intercoolers.
So you get all theseamazing turbo flutters
with the rigidity ofhelping, you know, with
that B pillar as well.
That structural rigidityis pretty important.
- Pretty substantial,- Isn't it? Yeah.
I mean it's not like aconvertible where you just have a
pillar and then the hips.
Right. This at least gives it a lot more
structural rigidity as well.
The windshield is different,the windows are even
different 'cause it's cut different.

(07:31):
And then the, the, the, the tops are,
it's not one single T top,it's two panels that come off
and they're paint matched to this car.
- Nice. - But the individualthat ordered the car wanted
that sort of, you know,tribute to what it really meant
to have a Targa with thatsort of iconic performance.
And then we took it, youknow, a step further really,
not only coach building a reallybeautiful body and design,
but going completely all outwhen it comes to the spec too.

(07:54):
'cause it's, I mean we spentlike 45 minutes just trying
to get the lighting right because of
how Oh, the paint insane.
The paint is on this car. It's real.
So it's this chroma flash,chroma flare satin paint where,
you know, to the untrained eye
and in regular, you know, soft lighting,
it's satin silver, beautiful color.
- Yeah. - But then you getthese tones of blues greens

(08:14):
and like pinks almostlike an oil slick within
the satin paint once you start
hitting it with different lighting.
And it almost gives it this effect
of like a holographic tradingcard. Like a baseball card.
- Yeah.- It, it, when you look at it,
your eyes glitch almost.
It doesn't look like it's a real card.
It looks like it's loadingin a video game. It's crazy.
- Yep.- So that sort of paint was something

(08:35):
that we developed withthe client for this car.
And we've, we've painteda couple other cars since
then in this color code.
But this is a one off,it's, it's a true one
of one coach build by us
with a beautiful full red leather interior
with carbon buckets,extended carbon fiber trim.
- Wow.- And then even on the inside you'll see
that there's like silvertrimmings on like the door handles
and, and you know, where allyour fingers go, like the, the,

(08:57):
the tactile points.
Those are also satin chroma flash.
So like when the light hitsit the right way when you're
driving, you see that sort of flare,
which is really, really beautiful.
So, you know, not onlyare we iconic for the sort
of performance thatwe're always able to get,
but for always delivering acar that was unlike any other,
you know, I don't thinkI've ever seen a single roof
that was exactly like the other.
There's always something different

(09:17):
because every single oneis built for their client.
- Yeah. I mean, just sittingclose up, it's sat in there,
it's a rainbow going on on thenaca ducts there. It's just,
- And the quarter panel'sjust the best part.
It's just, it's insane. It's, it's insane.
Plus the double decker wingthere with the carbon, it's,
it's just a really nice touch.
'cause you get that blend ofsportiness, but still elegance.
- Yeah.- And yeah, for the in individual that,

(09:39):
that might not want to bein something super flashy,
the satin on the outside, itgoes under the radar until,
you know, a beam of light hits in
and it just flares up, whichis really, really cool.
You know, the other aspectthat's unique about this car is
that it's pretty historically significant
because when it was done,
it was unveiled at Ren Sport six in 2018.
So it's pretty cool. It's gota motor trend article on it
and it's been like, it'sbeen featured before.

(10:00):
- Yeah.- It's a one owner car.
So it's, you know, we, we got out
of the original owner's collection
and it's been beautifully kept, you know,
and it's something that we're,we're really proud to have.
And you know, now at thispoint as RUF North America,
we always curate thesecars for their next,
for their next collectorand their next owner.
So now it's just a matter offinding the right individual
to help continue the beautifulhistory of this car as well.

(10:21):
- For sure. Well, I'm asucker for the, for the red
and black interior as well. That's,
- It's, it's awesome- Isn't it? Kicks it off, doesn't it?
- Yeah, it does.- Well, Esteban,
we've had a great look at the car here,
but we can see the listinghere on petrolicious.com.
Tell us more aboutwhat's, what's on offer.
- Yeah, so this is a uniqueopportunity since I mentioned
this is a very special car.
It's, you know, I thinkwe should present it

(10:42):
with an iconic brand as well.
Like Petrolicious, it's partof the duPont family now.
And it's, it's a really coolopportunity to work together
as a team to bring thiscar to the market, right?
So now it's, it's time forsomeone to enjoy the next chapter
of this unique vehicle's life.
You know, someone who's gonnaalso care, take it and, and,
and curate it and,
and enjoy it the wayit's meant to be enjoyed.
Yeah. You know, the car's a one owner car,

(11:03):
it's got 6,900 miles on it.
So it's, it's been enjoyed,
but it's still low mileswhere you can enjoy it further
and not feel bad.
At the end of the day. It's one of one.
So there's not really many
comparables when it comes to the market.
No, exactly. Very unique and all. Yeah.
And, and it's, it's, yeah, it's
unique in all aspects, right?
So it's, it's one of those special pieces
where whoever wants something

(11:23):
that definitely stands out in the crowd.
I mean, this is it, right?
This is a car that you canargue also in inspired many
others in the future from roof.
So there's the Turbo Florio
that was done on the 991platform that was pretty much
an ode to this.
That one I think is still a,a, a hard shell in the back.
It's, it's got glass in the back.
It's not a a, a drop top softwindow If I'm not mistaken.

(11:45):
And, you know, if it wasn'tfor this sort of exploration of
what this car and thisdesign looked like, you know,
I don't think someone would've thought,
well let's try it on the 991 next.
So it's a pretty unique chapter.
It's one of those momentswhere, like I said, you,
you get a B pillar, a trueB pillar soft into Targa
for the first time sincethe sixties from Porsche,
and let alone any sort

(12:05):
of b pillar Targa fromPorsche since the 993.
So, you know, it's, it'sone of those moments
where you really get toappreciate the level of detail
that we put into these cars.
I mean, when you lookat the interior, it's
that beautiful redleather extended carbon.
Then you have thedeviated silver stitching,
the silver seat belts.
It just, it all, it allties together so well.
It's, it's really, it'sa truly remarkable car.

(12:27):
- And if you'd like to ownthis automotive work of arts,
then check out petrolicious.com
and the listing is there inthe private sales section.
Obviously Porsche very wellknown for three digits,
you know, 911, 928,we could go on and on.
Can we, 959 through thewhole, the whole range.
But with roof, it seemslike the alphabet's

(12:48):
quite important as well, isn't
- It? Yes.
- Explain what all this is about.
- So going back to our firstmodel, the BTR that was built
around group B era, right?
Yeah. So it was group B turbo roof. Yeah.
That car was supposedto be homologated or,
or built with the, the idea
and the concept of what groupB rules were at the time.
Yeah. So it was a threefour single turbo, you know,
with a five speed andthen later six speed.

(13:09):
And that was one of our remarkable model.
It was our first model. It was like,
it's it's the alpha right?
It's a Yeah. For us, eventhough it's b Yeah, yeah.
And then after that we cameout with the C-T-R-C-T-R one,
the yellowbird, the icon.
Right. The one thatreally put us on the map.
It's, it's, it's the, it's the trophy car.
The, it's the crown jewel.
- Yeah.- When you ask a RUF collector and, and,
and an individual who,who loves the brand.

(13:30):
- Yeah.- The CTR one is the crown jewel.
And so CTR stood for group C turbo RUF.
It was the first time thatpeople had seen, you know,
especially applied to a streetcar, that sort of technology
where it had group C fueldelivery and ignition system.
It had group C brakes.
It was a twin turbothree, four flat six Wow.
Of power made to a fire speedand then later a six speed.

(13:51):
Yeah. A lot of power.
And it was the world'sfastest car at the time.
- Mm. - You know, we, wewere you're talking about a
manufacturer who makes bespokebuilds limited production
and on top of that
you had these multi-billiondollar companies
trying to compete with us.
- Mm. Yeah.- When at the end of the day, our shop
and our family that runs this company,
it's all very family oriented.

(14:12):
- Yeah.- You know, our founders still
involved with the company till today.
You know, everything'sbuilt by hand. Yeah.
It's built by a small team of individuals
who are absolutely dedicatedto perfection and their
- Craft.
- And what's really significant
and very important to us is the heritage
and going back to Otto RUF
and the original shop,they're all still built there.
- Wow.- So the factory itself is still the same,

(14:32):
it's still on the landwhere Alois. was born,
grown a bit, grown a bit.
Yes. Of course. You know,for expansion reasons,
of course logically, but,
but no, it's still tiedto, to to the same.
It's still in the same plot of land
and there's still a gas station there,
just like the gas stationthat his mother would run and
- Wow.
- Back in the days. And now I believe,
I think it's his dining room
or one of, I think it was his ru Yeah.

(14:52):
Either the dining room orlike one of the solarium
or something from, from his house
- Yeah.
- Is now the paint department at RUF.
So it's just, it's, it'sreally amazing to see
how deeply rooted theheritage is in our brand.
So, so yeah, that was,
I mean those cars wereall built at that time.
That's CTR right? That'sthe second sort of icon.
- Yeah. - Then with the 9 6,4 generation came out RCT,

(15:13):
which was RUF Carrea Turbo.
And that's, in my opinion, one
of the best air cooled allarounders that you can own.
I mean not only is the 96 4 platform so capable,
but you know,
it says a lot when even ALORUF's personal like favorite
for him to like always goout on drives in is an R ct.
- Yeah. - You know, so thatcar was really remarkable.
It wasn't a world record car in the sense

(15:34):
of hitting top speeds.
But that was the car that helpedus introduce the technology
of integrated roll cage.
So, you know, as time went on,the BTR was built on a body
and white CTR and all of our models were
built on bodies in white.
But when we wanted to hit thattop speed record, what we did
with the CTRs for the yellowbird, right.
The, the, the record setting car,
we picked an arrow bodycar for fur low drag.

(15:55):
Yeah. Added some flares tothe back to get beefier tires
underneath better grip, better suspension,
stitch welded the chassisshave the rain rails.
Okay. Tiny little rain rails
you see on the side of a Porsche.
Just attention to details.Yeah. To reduce drag.
- Wow. - But when you do that,that's a very important part
of a Porsche to its structural integrity.
- Okay.- So if you did that
to an off the shelf Porsche on the street

(16:17):
and didn't really reinforce the chassis,
the car would have the equivalent
of a German Shepherd with hip dysplasia.
Like it would, it's really, it's
really important that little blade.
So what we would do is wewould integrate our roll
cages from what we've learned.
You know, the CTRs had mattercages which were aftermarket
cages later on people restored them
and upgraded them to theintegrated roll cage.
But that, with that 964generation, the RRC T
- Yeah.

(16:37):
- We introduced that as part of an option
for these cars moving forward.
And that's one of thosethings that really, really
completely set us apart
and made us leagues ahead when it came
to mechanical grip on these cars too.
Because not only does thecar feel more planted,
it's much more rigid,it's safer, but the turnin
and the responsivenessof that car is woken up
tenfold just by doing that.
Right. So then later onwith the 993 generations,

(16:59):
we had different models as well,
like the turbo R which wasmore of a, of an all arounder
as well turbo roof,
which was built based on 99 3 turbo standards, kind
of like the send off of theair cooled era all-wheel drive
it was came out with 490horsepower later on, had updates
to five 60 the CTR two,which was the follow up
to the CTR one, you know,

(17:20):
how do you follow up the worldrecord setting car from 87,
you build another worldrecord setting car.
So that car was the world'sfastest car in 95. Fantastic.
And, and, and that car, forexample, was another car
that was incredibly important because
that it didn't use a Medtronic,
it used a tag injectionsystem, Which is tied
to the only car that beatus, which is the McLaren F1.

(17:41):
So that sort of technologyis the technology
that we were using as a small manufacturer
making these bespoke cars.
And that was with the CTR two. Right.
That car was one of the first applications
of functional carbon ceramicbrakes on a street car.
You know, not somethingthat you had to heat up
and drive like crazy just
to get some warmth inthe pads and all that.
It was usable. Yeah. Wehad carbon cavalier being
used on the body as well.

(18:02):
Shaved rain rails integrated cage and,
and it was a very limitedproduction run that was a car
that roof wasn't like amanufacturer factory racing
- Team, - But there's anindividual here in the us Steve
Fedor, he and his family,they were big RUF clients.
They were big RUF fans andthey were basically kinda like a
private tier racing team.
Yeah. The RUF. And theycompeted in Pike Peak

(18:24):
with the CTR two CTR two sport
that was built for Pike's Peak.
Not only was that car, theworld's fastest car back in 95,
but the, the car itselfbud's Pike's Peak CTR two
was actually able to achievesecond in the events open class
and his brother in anotherroof finished in fourth.

(18:45):
So these types of carshave always been able
to really achieve tons of
performance accoladeswithout that sort of support
that you see from thosemulti-billion dollar companies.
Which helps add to thatsort of legend that we are
by being such a bespoke tuner
and manufacturer of thesereally special race cars

(19:05):
or really special cars fora car that wasn't really
engineered with a racing team in mind.
Right. So it, it's just,
it really puts into perspectivethe type of car that it is
and you know, in the forums
and really nerdy things thatyou get into as a car guy,
if you look through and sleutharound, you'll find footage
of that CTR two sport beingdriven still at like the

(19:26):
original rent sport one,two and three reunions.
Yeah. Where it's in a grid
of all these historic Porscherace cars, nine six twos,
you know, nine seventeens GT two evos
and it's a street car justabsolutely maneuvering
around them with no issues.
Absolutely no problems at
- All. Yeah.
- And so I think that's whatreally helped people realize,

(19:47):
you know, as time went on,these are way more special than
just being, you know, coach builds
and bespoke cars. They're
- Yeah.
- They, you put your money whereyour mouth is when it comes
to roof performance
because of just how eng howover-engineered these cars are.
- Yeah. - You know, and that'sjust stopping at 993,
you know, with 996, 997, 991.

(20:07):
We ended up making models as well.
But once that body inwhite agreement, you know,
ended based off time,
that's when we introduced ourown technology with everything
that we've learned and thenstarted building cars a hundred
percent from the ground up with our own
chassis and our own skins.
And those are a hundredpercent carbon fiber.
So at the moment we'rethe only manufacturer
that makes a carbonmonocoque chassis vehicle

(20:30):
with a rear engine andmanual transmission.
And because of that,
- Yeah, - It's the same sizebumper to bumper in length
as the original Yellowbird Wow.
As an air cooled Porsche
and as an air cooled rooffrom back in the day.
So the proportions of thedimensions are perfect.
The, the agility of that car is surreal
because it's a carbon tub,a b, it's got push rod,

(20:50):
dual wish bone suspension front and rear.
And then you're talkingabout a car that comes in at
around 1300 kilos with
a twin turbo set up inthe CTR anniversary,
which was a rebirth of the Yellowbird,
which is 710 horsepower.
Then in the SCR, which is 500 horsepower
with a four liter naturallyaspirated flat six as well.
And then now in the rodeo,

(21:10):
which is a twin turbo all-wheeldrive, all-terrain variant.
Which is just remarkable honestly.
So we've kind of always beenpushing the boundaries of,
we've kind of always been pushing the
boundaries of what could be engineered
- Yeah.
- With that platform. Yeah.
To the point where now, you know,
we just make it ourselvesand we just do it on our own.
- Yeah. I mean, going back tothe Yellow Birds, Paul Frere,
one of my know as a journalist,an absolute legends Yeah.

(21:33):
Got a corner named after him at Spa
han the Racetrack these days.
He was blown away when he drove that car.
I mean that, you know, thatera of saying lap records
around the Nurburgring,Nordschleife I mean,
what an incredible timethat must have been to be a,
an employee of, of, of RUF.
- Yeah. I mean it'sdefinitely way before my time.
- Yeah. Course it's- Of course one of those things
that like, it's it's legend, you

(21:54):
- Know? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
- And I think that that'sanother aspect of, of our brand
where it just becomes sosynonymous with icons is, you know,
the word legend in the dictionary
and just when you talk aboutit with your friends, you know,
the literal sense is,you know, stories hearsay
and things that have been passed down from
generation to generation.
And this was in an erabefore social media,
before YouTube, before any of that.

(22:15):
And yeah, our, our iconic video,
the Yellowbird on the Nürburgring is one
of the first fascination isone of the first like viral
videos in the automotive space.
Right. Besides rendezvousfrom back in the day. Right.
'cause that was also a really cool video,
but it, it, it's justreally remarkable to see
how many points in
automotive history we'rein without realizing it.

(22:37):
- Yeah. - You know, look atGrand Turismo in video games. Of
- Course. Yeah.
- I had a direct product of- That. Okay.
- Like a direct product of roofbeing in video games. Yeah.
I couldn't race with a Porsche
'cause Porsche had their rights
with another video game developer.
- Yeah. It's quite acomplex story there, isn't
- It?
Yeah. And so I had a PlayStation,so I had Grand Turismo and
because I had grandI'd raced with the RUF

(22:58):
and my dad would tell me like,yeah, that's, that's stuff
that would, that was legends.
Like I would see it in magazines.
My friends had postersof it back in the day
and now I'm here. You know, it's crazy.
- And you can go fromvideo games to, you know,
billionaire car collectors.
You no doubt.
- It's, it's quite a journey. Yeah.
That, that journey aloneis crazy. But yeah.
- So is it true that theexact production number

(23:18):
of roofs is a very closely guarded secret?
- Yes. - So at the moment,what's on the production line?
Obviously the, therodeo was the, the wild,
- The rodeo- Wild car that we've seen recently.
- Yeah. So that's gonnabe going into production
right now on the assembly line.
We're building the SCRs.
- Okay. - Which are thenaturally aspirated variant of
that carbon dub platform.
- Yep.- Beautiful car.

(23:39):
It's honestly, it's,it's amazing to drive.
It's just, it's like, it's like an
emotional experience really.
'cause it's just so connected. Yeah.
But yeah, our, our productionnumbers are pretty, pretty,
you know, there's ranges and there's,
there's ballpark figureswhere, you know, we'll say yes
or no if you're correct or not.
But you know, the, the real iconic cars,
like the CTR anniversary,we built 50 of those,

(24:00):
which was the first of the carbon tubs.
- Yeah. - CTR Yellowbirdwe build 29, you know, and,
and so, you know, there's othernumbers that are out there
for other generations and,
but yeah, we've always keptthat kind of a, kind of a,
a, a mystique.
Right. And I think thatadds to the brand too.
It kinda makes it more, more unique too.
- Yeah, absolutely. I mean for,
for obviously veryexpensive brands, you seem

(24:21):
to produce quite a lot of fun cars.
I mean, going back to the, therodeo for example, you know,
what's that 600 horsepower?
- Yeah. With- Some off-road capability.
- Yeah. Yeah. So- Spoil
- Yeah, we introduced thatat the quail this year.
It was an awesome presentation.
It had like beef jerkyand everything. Yeah.
It was very, very offroad andaltering theme. Very popular.
Very popular themed. Yeah.
Even the hats that we had there,

(24:42):
like I saw kids like buying them
and flipping them outside of the quail.
- Wow. - Yeah. Actually Ithink Aloisa got offered
Alois's daughter, she got offered,
I think she got offered like 200
bucks or 300 bucks for her hat.
Just for the hat. 'cause weran out, which is pretty crazy.
But, but yeah, no, the rodeo's awesome.
It's, it's, it, it's gotgreat ground clearance.
A lot of people saw it and they're like,
oh well what can I do with it?
You can do a lot becauseit's got about nine

(25:03):
and a half to 10 inchesof ground clearance.
- Okay.- And because of the fact
that we developed this car witha carbon tub, it's just the,
a plain belly that you're not
really gonna hit much when you're there.
Right. And the fact
that you have this adjustableall-wheel drive system
that you can change on thefly where it goes 50 50 split
or 30 70, you know, you'reable to enjoy that car
with a six speed transmissionand be connected to the road.
And just because the roadends doesn't mean that your,

(25:23):
your experience does
- Yeah.
- Keep going. You keep goingso you can enjoy it in the
snow, you know, GP Ice race,I would love to see one
of those there, you know,and I'm sure I will.
So it's just, it's one ofthose cars that was built
to be more of an all arounder
and more of a, of a, of a good time.
You know, all of our cars,like you mentioned, they're,
you know, we're, we're at thislevel of blue chip collectors

(25:44):
and individuals who areconnoisseurs in the industry have
these amazing cars andthey also have RUFs.
But it's just the experience,
it's always been aboutdelivering an experience.
It's, it's always beenabout making it be the elite
performance car withinits class based on the
architecture that we use.
You know, so it's alwaysbeen about the emotion,

(26:04):
the connection to the road,
what the driver feels whenhe is driving that car.
And, and that's why, you know,
these carbon tub cars are justanother era of our history
that's gonna be incrediblyiconic when we look back at it
because it's, you reallycan't compare it to anything
that's out there on the street right now.
- And the interior of the,
the one I saw at thequail was unreal as well.

(26:25):
- Yeah.- The, the rodeo theme was throughout.
- Yeah. That one was, that interior was
done with Ralph Lauren actually.
- Funny. Oh really? Iwondered why it was so,
so hit and cool.
- Yeah. Yeah it was with RLLso that was a really cool like,
you know, combination and collaboration
that we did with them as well.
Very, very beautiful interior.
- Okay. And beyond that, inthe future, what do you think
that might hold for, for RUF?

(26:45):
- I know and you won't,- So no
- Spoilers, so Yeah, no,no, no spoilers there.
There's really cool things inthe works though, you know,
and I'm very excited to,to be a part of the team
and it's, it's reallyamazing to, to be able to say
that we're one of those brandsthat really is committed
to the driving experience.
Yeah. Whatever it is that'scoming out in the future,
it's not gonna be somethingthat disconnects you.

(27:06):
It's gonna be somethingthat connects you even more
and more as the industry itself moves on
and becomes less and less connected too.
- And you guys are based at a race track?
I think at the Concourse Club?
- Yeah. So we have a collaborationwith the Concourse Club
where we do deliveryprograms there as well.
- Got it.- But yeah, we're,
we're actually working onexpanding our showroom.
So yeah, we had a, a facility there
for deliveries and everything.

(27:27):
We're still doing the deliveries that,
that are available in theus Like whenever people come
and bring their cars we canstill do it there at the club.
Yeah. But we're actuallydeveloping our own like standalone
facility, you know, now with our full shop
and everything where we'vebeen working on cars privately.
But now we'll have a bigger facility
that way we can take in cars for service.
'cause we do serviceprivately at the moment.
But we basically serviceany and all RUFs, any

(27:47):
and all Porsches as well.
- So the future's looking bright then.
- Yeah. A lot of advancementscoming along, you know,
really cool cars that we've been
bringing to the market as well.
So it's been, it's been a very, very,
very fun experience overall.
- Alright. Okay Esteban, thanks
for telling us all aboutthe journey of RUF
and it's been an educationand thanks very much.
Thanks for joining me on the show.

(28:08):
Well thank you for having me.
Make sure you check outDuPont Registry's website
where you'll find the bestexotic and luxury car listings
and all the latest automotive news.
That's all for today. We'llsee you for the next episode.
And remember, drive safely.