RUF CTR "Yellowbird"
Why 4.0: A twin-turbo flat-six in a narrow-body 930 shell, a 5-speed manual, no ABS and none of the electronic net a modern 911 leans on — about as raw as a road car gets. The 1987 Road & Track top-speed test that made it famous also cemented the widowmaker reputation: massive lag, then a shove few drivers were braced for.
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · $148k (1987) → $5.2M (2026), trending up · illustrative data
The long version
RUF is legally its own manufacturer, not a tuning shop, which is why this car carries its own VIN rather than Porsche's — a distinction the Yellowbird made famous when Road & Track ran it alongside a Ferrari F40, Porsche 959 and Lamborghini Countach in a 1987 top-speed showdown and it came out fastest. That single magazine test turned a small-batch conversion into a legend, and the values followed the legend rather than the production numbers, which were tiny to begin with. What survives now trades as a blue-chip collectible, campaigned occasionally by owners who understand exactly what they're driving.