RUF Yellowbird! Iconic Porsche sold at auction for staggering price

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Back in 1989, no one had heard of the internet, video-phones were science fiction, and YouTube was still about 15 years away. Somehow, though, if you were into cars, you had heard of (or maybe even seen) a video showing a yellow Porsche being driven around a racetrack like it was piloted by the devil himself.

The 20-minute film became part of underground auto-culture infamy. Even into the early 1990s, dubbed VHS copies were shared in classrooms or at town-hall swap meets. A legend was born.

MORE: RUF CTR-3 launched 20 years after original RUF CTR-1 'Yellowbird'

The track was the infamous Nürburgring. The car, was a highly modified 1987 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera built by German tuner RUF Automobile.

This was the RUF CTR, nicknamed “Yellowbird", and one just sold for an eye-watering price that set a new record not only for RUF, but for the Porsche 911 on which it is based.

The video, Faszination auf dem Nürburgring, is yours to watch in full below.

One of only 29 RUF CTR built by the factory, and one of just nine finished in the iconic Blutengelb (Blossom Yellow) that gave the car its unforgettable nickname, sold at the Gooding & Company Amelia Island Auction in Florida, USA last week for $US6,055,000 ($AU9,606,500).

This is the highest price paid for any Porsche 911-based vehicle on record.

MORE: RUF CTR3 midengined supercar

Powered by a 3.4-litre, twin-turbocharged flat-six engine, the CTR (Group C, Turbo RUF) shaves 200kg from the 3.2 Carrera's kerb weight (to 1150kg), and with the aid of a fuel-injection system from a Porsche 962 Le Mans race car and twin-KKK turbochargers and a pair of intercoolers, delivers 345kW at 5950rpm and 533Nm at 5100rpm.

That's 300kW per tonne. Ooft.

For context, a current 992 911 Turbo sits at 'only' 267kW per tonne.

Note too, that the 345kW output is simply the quoted number, and the lowest reported output tested by RUF on a dynamometer. In real terms, cars were running numbers around 500hp (373kW). Ooft, again.

All this gave the RUF CTR a top speed of 342km/h (213mph) which made it the fastest car in the world at the time. Ooft indeed!

It wasn't just marketing bluster either. Back in 1987, Road and Track magazine conducted a 'World's Fastest Car' comparison at the Volkswagen high-speed test track in Germany. The yellow CTR won the day, beating the likes of Lamborghini and Ferrari in full road trim, famously 'mit radio' installed.

You can dial in the nostalgia and read the article here.

When new, a 1987 RUF CTR would have cost $US142k ($AU225k).

The "Yellowbird" sold at auction (car 26 of 29) runs a six-speed manual transmission (using RUF's own ratios), 17-inch RUF Automotive Speedline wheels and has just 1700km on the odometer.

The auction description notes the car is immaculate, and can be identified from lesser (but just as yellow) Porsche 911 variants due to its unique front and rear bumpers, which aid aerodynamics and cooling airflow, and lower, race-oriented suspension. The RUF engineers even removed the rain gutters to help with aerodynamics.

Inside you'll find a factory-fitted rollcage, fixed-back Recaro race seats, and even true to the 'world's fastest car' champion, a Blaupunkt tape-deck so you too can hit warp speed, 'mit radio'.

The sale price was only marginally above the auction guide price of $US6m, and at $US6,055,000 easily eclipses the $US2,397,500 paid for a 993 GT2 in 2023, and the $US3,085,000 paid for a Singer DLS and $US4,295,000 paid for an ex-competition 1976 Porsche 935 at the same auction in 2024.

Perhaps the peak of 'if you know, you know' automotive history, that stunning video showing the little yellow RUF Porsche power sliding its way around the 'green hell' may have created the RUF CTR's legacy, but a sky-high auction record certainly cements it.

Check out more photos and the full auction listing here.

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