RUF’s 993 Turbo R is not a common car by any stretch of the imagination. So you can imagine my horror when I first saw the video of this car wrecked in the middle of the road. I’ve always loved the cars that RUF creates, and the Turbo R is certainly among the greats. To see one die a horrible death is painful. Not only is the Turbo R one of the best iterations of the 993 out there, it’s also subjectively one of the prettiest designs. The 993 body design just works so well with RUF’s signature 5-spoke wheel.
To make their Turbo R, RUF took the standard 993 Turbo, already a performance benchmark of the era, and re-programmed the ECU, upgraded the turbos, added a full sports exhaust, re-profiled the camshafts, and underwent a full overhaul of the cylinder heads. The engine work was good for somewhere around 500 horsepower (RUF quotes 490, but most Turbo Rs turn out more than that on the dyno). They also added a sportier suspension which lowered the car 30 mm over stock, and a Carrera RS flywheel, which is significantly lighter than the dual mass unit the Turbo came stock with, making revs much easier to turn. The Turbo R, then, was a bit of a monster.
This RUF was, unfortunately, crashed during a gathering of like-minded Porsche enthusiasts in the California SF Bay area. The driver says he was okay after the accident, but his family made him go to the emergency room anyhow to get checked out (where he received a clean bill of health). The car, nicknamed “Rufus”, was likewise sent to Canepa to be checked out, but the prognosis does not look good. He says that the incident was a ‘stupid misjudgement’ of the abruptness of a blind right hand corner. Luck wasn’t with him behind the wheel, unfortunately, as there was a truck in the oncoming lane, and they collided. A third car, a 997 Carrera, was also involved, but the damage is much less severe in the case of that car. Everyone involved was okay, but it doesn’t look like Rufus the Turbo R is going to ride again.
Friendly reminder from FLATSIXES.com: Make sure to get your 993’s insurance policy reappraised, as they’ve increased in value a lot in recent years. You wouldn’t want to get caught under-insured in an incident like this one.
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[Source: Road & Track, Rennlist’s 993 forum]
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