YouTuber Tours Ruf Automobile’s North American Headquarters

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You’ve undoubtedly heard of and probably seen Ruf Porsches in the past, but a YouTuber’s tour of the company’s North American headquarters will help you understand even more. It’s located in Miami, which is convenient to also service Central and South America. Seeing the showroom with an array of cars from the Ruf history is amazing.

This Japanese tuner is taking the Porsche world by storm.

What most people don’t understand is Ruf hasn’t been around for 30 or 40 years. The family-owned manufacturer, which started off as a service shop, has been in existence since 1939, longer than the Porsche brand.

Ruf isn’t an American company and it’s not located in Stuttgart. Instead, it started and still is based in Pfaffenhausen, Germany which is in the heart of Bavaria.

Most people became aware of Ruf’s handiwork back when the Ruf CTR Yellow Bird lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 1987. The video, which was shared via VHS through Porsche enthusiast circles, spread like wildfire long before viral videos were a thing.

The connection with Porsche didn’t happen until Ruf found Alois Sr. handed over the family business to Junior in 1974. The son soon got into modifying Porsche 911 Turbos, dialing up power, handling, and braking performance.

By 1981, the car manufacturing business was officially separated from the repair shop and started buying bodies, chassis, and other components from Porsche dealers, assembling them for optimal performance.

This is something many don’t understand about Ruf. While it started off modifying Porsches, it became a manufacturer. Unlike with Singer, Gemballa, etc. the vehicle didn’t have a Porsche VIN and title, but instead those came from Ruf.

Today, Ruf constructs its own bodies and chassis, even though people will swear they come from Porsche.

Because North America is a vital market, especially for more premium vehicles, Ruf has poured substantial resources into this region. It’s interesting to see how operations here are set up today through a tour most people never enjoy.

Image via Larry Chen/YouTube