RUF Reveals Flat-8 TurboRUF AutomobileRUF debuted a flat-eight engine called the B8, wherein B stands for boxer and 8, obvs, for the cylinder count.The 4.8-liter twin-turbo boxer-eight makes over 1,000 hp.It's technically just a research platform for now.At the Goodwood Festival of Speed's Supercar Paddock, German supercar maker RUF introduced something remarkable even in these times of supercars on every corner: a flat-eight engine of its own design.The all-new 4.8-liter twin-turbo boxer-eight makes over 1,000 hp and 1,000 Nm (738 lb-ft) of torque. The B8 is mated to a six-speed manual. The demo engine was hidden beneath a stretched CTR3 test vehicle for its Goodwood debut. Is this thing going into production?AdvertisementAdvertisement"It serves as the dedicated development platform for technologies that will define the next chapter of RUF engineering,' the maker said.Called the B8, the engine ran up the hill in front of the crowds at Goodwood, driven by 2007 and 2008 Formula Drift champion and current movie stunt hero Tanner Foust, allowing FoS enthusiasts "to hear the unmistakable sound of a twin-turbo boxer-eight for the very first time.""There are moments in a company's history that define the future. For RUF, the Boxer 8 is one of those moments," said RUF owner Alois Ruf. "A boxer-eight has never been part of our story, or anyone else's in this form, so we decided to write a new chapter in automotive history. We look forward to letting the engine speak for itself at Goodwood."The B, of course, stands for Boxer and the 8 is for the cylinder count. Don't be confused by the 4.5-liter V8s RUF put in 996 and 997 911s a few years ago. Nor by the fact that Porsche itself made a flat-eight for the 908 Long Tail at Le Mans in 1968.The B8 engine with chief engineer Marc Brunner and RUF owner Alois Ruf. Brunner holds a master's degree in racing engine design from Oxford Brookes University and has been at RUF since 2017.RUF AutomobileGreat Wall Motor, one of China's top 10 auto manufacturers, showed a flat-eight at CES this year, putting a 152-hp 2.0-liter powerplant into its mighty S2000 CL touring bike, badged under its subsidiary brand SOUO. That moto-unit even came with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.AdvertisementAdvertisementAnd while airplane engines sometimes come in flat-eight configurations—Lycoming produced horizontally-opposed eight-cylinder engines (such as the Lycoming IO-720) for various airplanes—the idea of a flat-eight for a sports car seems to be all-RUF. It's been under development for several years."We've been developing and engineering (it) over the past few years," Ruf said. "The engine case is gravity-casted aluminum bespoke for us, and in RUF style it's a manual (six-speed) of course."The engine sits in a RUF CTR3 body, which is RUF's take on the Cayman it introduced in 2007. While the CTR3 shares front-unibody architecture with a Porsche Cayman, the unique sports car used to house the B8 extends the wheelbase by 3.9 inches and adds a custom steel chassis with an integrated roll cage. The body is wrapped in lightweight carbon composite and Kevlar panels painted in black and yellow, with the yellow being in the same hue as the famous RUF Yellow Bird."The CTR3 body is the engine and drivetrain's test bed—this is the first time that we've let our fans witness the development process of our new cars," said Ruf.To that end, the B8 will be making runs up the hill at Goodwood twice a day through Sunday. Go listen.The yellow on the livery is the same as that on the RUF Yellow Bird.RUF Automobile
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