$4.68M Yellowbird Confirms Vintage Rufs Are Flying High

More than just a ‘roided-up Porsche 911, the original Ruf CTR “Yellowbird” is a rare bird. Just 29 were built, so it’s unusual to see two of them sell at auction in as many months.

One was a highlight of the Amelia Island sales mere weeks ago, when it sold for a record-smashing $6.055M. The other just sold at Broad Arrow’s Air|Water auction in Costa Mesa for $4.68M. While the second result is lower, it cements this ’80s exotic as a top-tier modern collector car that’s worth deep into the millions. That also means this Ruf is worth more than the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959 it beat when it was new, not to mention the slew of other high-end tuner Porsches that have come along since.

The roots of Ruf Automobile GmbH started in 1939 with a service station in Pfaffenhausen, Germany, but the business went in a new direction when Alois Ruf, Jr. took over the family business in 1974. He started modifying Porsches for performance, and Ruf’s first full model, the Turbo 3.3, debuted in 1977. Four years later, the German government granted Ruf full manufacturer status.

Ruf’s breakout hit came in 1987, with the CTR (Group C Turbo Ruf). It looked like a warmed over 911 Carrera 3.2, but it was much more. Displacement grew to 3.4 liters, and the flat-six gained a pair of KKK turbochargers to boost output to 463 horsepower. Ruf also fitted a five-speed transmission, of its own design, at a time when Porsche only offered a four-speed. Suspension improvements, Brembo brakes, 17-inch Speedline wheels, and some subtle body shaping to help cool the engine rounded out the package.

Ink was important in the pre-internet car industry, and the impressions of a big car magazine could make or break a car’s reputation before it even went on sale. The CTR really made a name for itself in Road & Track’s July 1987 issue, with the mag’s “world’s fastest” showdown at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany. “Two of Them Top 200!! The Slowest Goes 176!” exclaims the cover.

The test brought together a smattering of Europe’s most rapid supercars, including a 288 GTO and Testarossa from Ferrari, a 959 from Porsche, a Countach from Lamborghini, an Imperator 108i from Isdera, a Hammer from AMG, and another modified 911, called the R/S, from Koenig. Only the Koenig and the Ruf rolled into the 200-mph club, and the Koenig managed 201 mph to the Ruf’s 211. “We could make it go faster,” Alois Ruf said at the time, “but there’s not much purpose in a road car going very much faster than 300 kilometers per hour.” The test also notes that the Ruf team had taken to calling the CTR the “Yellow Bird,” and the name has stuck.

Ruf repeated the performance the following year at the Nardò test track in Italy, and the CTR officially became the world’s fastest production car. “Production” is a bit of a stretch, since Ruf built just 29 CTRs from scratch, although additional cars have been converted from standard 911s supplied by customers. Ruf’s Faszination auf dem Nürburgring film, which showed a CTR expertly thrown around the German track by test driver Stefan Roser, further added to the Yellowbird mystique.

The example sold by Broad Arrow is chassis number 23, finished in classic Blütengelb Yellow with a jet-black, lightweight interior. Its odometer shows 37,174 km (23,099 miles) in the photos and it was represented as all-original other than a minor paint repair in the engine bay and new wheels and tires fitted by Ruf.

In the second half of the 1980s, the benchmarks of high-performance automobiles were arguably the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959. The CTR Yellowbird is faster and rarer than both, but it wasn’t always worth more, necessarily. Before 2025, the last time one of the 29 original Yellowbirds sold at auction was in 2018, when a black one sold in Monterey for $1,022,500—at the time, less than a very good example of either the F40 or the 959, which are now worth $3.1M and 3.4M, respectively, in #2 (Excellent) condition. Then, the $6,055,000 car in Amelia this year came along, selling for millions more than either Ferrari or Porsche. The sale this past week proves the Amelia car was no fluke and, while its sale price is lower, $4.68M still puts this Yellowbird higher than its period rivals.