Faraway cousins of the Stuttgart stallions

Fascination on the Nurburgring.

While some tend to associate RUF with a viral montage of an onboard and aerial footage of the yellowbird tail happily gliding through the Nordschleife, most of us subconsciously associate the yellow 911 (which is a severe understatement) with the playstation, namely Gran Turismo, with no small thanks to EA and Porsche's exclusive licensing honeymoon period. Since RUFs manufactured unmarked 911's with their own specific VIN's, the German marque is technically a manufacturer in its own right. However, blank 911s were not the only canvas RUF played with. The RUF Dakara was a Porsche Cayenne, with widened track, a plush interior and 911 headlights. Not quirky enough for you? RUF's Deucalion (Dr. Frankenstein's monster) was a 993's 3.6-litre twin-turbo powerplant strapped to a VW T4 van.

Ruf Dakara

Bentley Continental

Bentley Continental

One of the many perks of being a Volkswagen Auto Group sibling is getting to raid the closet, or in this case, the parts bin of Porsche. That is exactly what Bentley turned to when co-developing the new Continental GT, which goes like a spaceship thrusted by the W12, while corners like one too (if spaceships could corner) thanks to the Porsche Panamers toolkit.

911 reimagined and remastered

Singer Octagon Commission 911

911 recreations have always been more of an art piece than tools of precision driving. Such is the case with Singer 911, a no expenses spared, turned up to eleven, reimagined 964 that drives as good as it looks, and looks as good as it sounds.

Similarly, Guenther werks remasters 993's in a treatment akin to Singer; bespoke reiteration

down to the nuts and bolts.

Koenig Specials

Koenig C62

Purveyor of souped-up Ferrari's of the era, was no stranger to Porsche, as disbanded group C left an abundance of arguably the most successful customer Porsche chassis, the 962. The mad men at Koenig simply offered to road convert the race car for the road which translated to completely reworking the 962 tube chassis out of carbon fibre, detuning the engine, adding code-compliant head and tail lights and installing A/C to name a few. And voila, an actual race car for the road.

Read more

Wolf in sheep’s clothing: Honda FD2 Type R

W Motors

Lykan HyperSport

W Motors made their debut on the big screen with the launch of Fast and Furious 7. Powered by a RUF developed, quintessentially Porsche 3.7-litre twin-turbo drivetrain, the Lykan HyperSport is the first Arab supercar to move under its own power, unlike the much contentious Devel Sixteen. Moreover, a 3.8 litre RUF developed flat 6 seems to be the choice of power house and drivetrain for the Lykan Fenyr SuperSport coupled with Porsche's proprietory PDK gearbox.

Honourable mentions

Mercedes Benz W124 500E

Even though every bit of the Mercedes W124 500E is deservingly Mercedes, however, engineers hired then strapped for cash Porsche to fit the massive V8 under the bonnet snug, to which Porsche replied with a dosage of flared body styling, evident on the hood itself and the fenders all around. The entire process took 18 days, as the 500E travelled back and forth in-between the two factories.

Audi RS2 Avant

Porsche's greatest wagon that isn't a Sport Turismo and Audi's first RS car: the RS2 Avant was as every bit a Porsche as it was an Audi. Produced at the very same zuffenhausen production assembly line as the 500E was, the co-developed Audi received instantly recognisable 964 wheels and mirrors along with ever so special badges. And the nogaro? Enough said. And for a very short period, you could see a Porsche, Mercedes and an Audi all under the same roof.