Born : January 23 1950
Biography Alois Ruf
When Alois Ruf was born in 1950, his father Alois Ruf Sr. was running an automotive company and gas station. That meant Alois grew up among cars, wheels, bolts and body parts. And that can mean 2 things. You hate cars or you like them. And the 2nd is something that describes Alois Ruf Jr. the best. He admired his father, for his technical skills, and his perseverance to achieve what he wanted, even though he not always had the right technical tools to do so at hand.
That perseverance, the ability to achieve a lot with little resources, characterizes the Ruf family and makes Alois Ruf Jr. the businessman he now is. As a child, Alois Ruf knew he wanted to be like his father, so he studied mechanics and did his apprenticeship in his father’s company.
In 1962, Alois Ruf Sr. bought a Porsche 356 Karmann Notchback that was involved in a crash, right before his eyes. And despite having to run a business, he repaired the car and kept it for a while just because it was so much fun to drive. Ruf Jr immediately fell in love with the sportscar his father acquired. But after a while, a rich student offered a little fortune to buy the car, and Alois Sr. sold it. Even that impressed the young Ruf, as he realized even at that young age, that money could be made by buying, fixing, and repairing cars.
His love for the brand only became bigger, sitting next to his father on the autobahn in the family Opel, when a prototype Porsche overtook them at an insane speed. Just a few months later, at the 1963 Frankfurt car show, the brand-new Porsche 911 celebrated its world premiere.
Many American military people visit the family’s business, to fuel up or have their cars repaired. And quite often that car is a Porsche. So father and son drive on a regular base to Stuttgart, to pick up parts. And one of those trips results in a first encounter with Ferry Porsche himself. Alois Ruf Sr. has always pushed the young Ruf upon learning languages, mainly English. And when Alois Jr. is 20, Ruf Sr. sends his son to Los Angeles, together with some Porsches to be sold in California.
After his return to Germany, the young Ruf not only mastered the English language, but he matured mentally too. In 1974, after the sudden and unexpected death of his father, Alois Ruf took over the family business. Just one year later, they slightly adapted a Porsche 911 3.0 RS to make it even better, and more elegant.
That is the start of what finally became RUF, not a car tuner, but a real brand. And what is so unique about RUF is that Porsche supplies shells and parts to them.
Now in his 70s, the RUF company in Zuffenhausen is still active, and still makes some amazing, and sometimes extremely fast cars… the story continues, and Alois Ruf still lives the dream, while he enjoys one of his many cars.
Recommended literature :
We highly recommended the book ‘RUF – the limited one’ to read more about Alois RUF and RUF Automobile.
Pictures courtesy unknown and RUF AUtomobile
