Germany’s RUF is a well-known Porsche tuner/carmaker, but it is less well known for piecemeal work on cars like today’s Nice Price or No Dice Boxster S. Could that obscurity make this Canadian RUF a smooth deal?
Yesterday, torches were lit while pitchforks were sharpened and mobs were formed. All of that hustle-bustle was in reaction to the $12,500 price tag carried by an inarguably very nice 1990 Lexus ES 250. As well preserved as that car appeared to be, nearly no one thought it to be worth that kind of money. Most of the comments leaned toward it being worth perhaps half as much. That is, of course, when they weren’t just spewing vitriol. Good for you. Doesn’t that anger and contempt make you feel alive? I thought so. It also made for a huge 94 percent No Dice loss for the Uber Camry.
Do you know what I like most about Alois Ruf’s name? It’s the fun you can have pronouncing it. You can say it the way a dog describes sandpaper, or – more properly – like what’s on top of your house. Even more fun is what his company does to Porsches. RUF is to the Porsche world what Wolfgang Puck is to frozen pizzas, packing more tasty performance into the cars than one might imagine possible.
Founded in 1939 as a repair garage in Pfaffenhausen Germany, RUF didn’t gain international prominence until well into the 1970s. That was after Alois Sr. passed away and his heir and namesake began to focus the company’s efforts almost exclusively on turning Porsches into Autobahn berserkers. The cars they produce are so extensively modified that the German government recognizes the company as a manufacturer in its own right.
This 2001 Porsche Boxster S isn’t a serial number RUF but it does apparently have a lot of RUF stuff and that makes it a bit more interesting than your average bear. It should be noted that, in S form, the 986 Boxster is just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Of course, having just spent the last year wearing even more clothes due to the global pandemic, that’s presently not saying much.
The ad for this 98,000-kilometer Boxster claims it to have more than $30K in RUF swag. According to the description, that includes the following:
Race suspension (lowered), upgraded 19″ alumimun turbo wheels with brand NEW wide low profile performance tires, red calipers, drilled disk breaks, RUF exhaust, custom body package (front turbo spoiler, Zenon upgraded style headlights and signal lights, side skirts, rear fin, alum. rocker panels, alum. roll bars), short shift kit with alum. shift knob, colour coordinated centre console to match exterior, embroided crest in sport seats, computer chip horsepower upgrade and rear back up sensors.
The result is a car that looks a little bit like a baby Carrera GT and carries the RUF name on both bonnet and boot. The Seal Gray paint looks to be in terrific shape and with a solid color match across both factory and aftermarket parts. Although listed as a 2001, the car wears later head and tail lamps, and inexplicably, an earlier four-spoke steering wheel. The remainder of the interior presents well with Porsche crests on the headrests of the seats and the factory Becker still in the dash.
You might expect a car with tuner mods to act and sound a little different from stock. True to form, the seller does claim this Boxster to sound “like a beast” and to handle “like no other car out there!” The ad goes further in describing the car as being in immaculate condition and well maintained over its life.
At present, the car lives in Canada and carries a clear Canadian title. That pegs its price in Canuck dollars so before we evaluate it, we’re going to have to do some maths. Let’s start with that asking price, which is $22,900 Canadian. According to the Internet, that works out to around $18,930 in U.S. green. For those of you living on the Euro (sorry, Brexiters), that’s about €15,536.
What do you think, could this RUF-ified Boxster S be worth that much as it sits? Or, does that price make buying this modded Porsche too much of a muddle?
You decide!
Vancouver, BC Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
A short note from your humble host: Hey party people. I need to give you a heads up that I will be off for the next two days and hence there will be no NPOND on Thursday or Friday. For those of you interested, I’m going to Purdue to watch my daughter collect her electrical engineering degree and then help her set up her apartment in Chicago. I’ll be back — hopefully in fine form — on Monday. Please don’t miss me too much.
While you’re waiting, help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.
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