Saturday, April 18, 2009

Ruf CTR Yellowbird

Recently a lot of attention has been paid to Nuerburgring lap times, with Nissan, Chevy, and Dodge posting incredible numbers. Between the raw speed and the incredible engine notes, the videos of these hot laps are breathtaking as they display not only sheer velocity, but the required poise of both car and driver.

At least, poise would appear to be required. Poise, stability, razor-sharp handling, a helmet... All apparent requirements. Unless you're the driver of the car that kicked off the Nuerburgring lap time craze back in 1987: the Ruf CTR Yellowbird. "Breathtaking" doesn't begin to describe this classic in-car footage:

3 comments:

LymanSS said...

I'm fairly certain that the car was deliberately attempting to kill the driver. The handling is downright cruel. From 4:15 - 4:30 he's going through some fairly gentle high-speed sweepers, and he repeatedly saws the wheel up to 90 degrees to counter the snap over-steer. That car sure is fast.... fast and evil.

Cope said...

I've watched the clip a few times now, and I just can't get over how much work the poor bastard is doing just to keep himself alive. I have definitely never seen that much steering input at those speeds before. Absolutely unreal.

Frank said...

I love the boot around the shifter. Also its about 2 feet high so he doesn't have to reach too far down to grab it. How come they don't make them like that anymore...