Car-Vid Classics: Faszination on the Nurburgring

David Linklater
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Porsche tuning company Ruf commissioned the film Faszination on the Nurburgring in 1989 to build its brand and raise its profile. Given we’re still talking about it 34 years later and the company has since evolved into a maker of bespoke performance cars, that’s probably mission accomplished.

Ruf can trace its beginnings back to 1939, but it rose to prominence in the late-1970s with its tuned Porsche models. By 1987 it had created the 911-based Ruf CTR, which was acclaimed as the fastest production car in the world: tested to 339km/h.

With the attention of the world on it, an ambitious Ruf decided to go for broke – by filming test driver Stefan Roser going for broke in the CTR, aka Yellow Bird, around the Nurburgring.

The idea was not to set the fastest lap, but rather to set hearts pounding with spectacular scenery (the company even got a helicopter involved) and even more spectacular slides from Roser in the CTR – all the more incredible when you think what a handful a superpowered 911 of that era must have been to drift at high speed.

It’s not a terribly slick piece of film by modern standards, but still incredible to watch nonetheless. The aerial shots capture the CTR at play and the extended in-car sequences with Roser are thrilling, as he flicks the wheel left and right to keep Yellowbird flowing around the ’Ring.

The focus on drifting as entertainment makes this one of the most important and influential car films of all time – a viral car-vid before the internet existed.