RUF just built the world's first boxer-eight, a 1,000 hp flat-eight with a manual
An engine the world has never had before, from a tiny German legend
Now this is properly epic. Independent German engineering house RUF has done something nobody, not even Porsche, has managed before: it has built a boxer-eight engine. Its new B8 is a bespoke twin-turbocharged 4.8-litre flat-eight producing over 1,000 hp, and it fires up for the first time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. For an engine nerd, this is huge.
The B8, explained
The new engine is called the B8, and it is a twin-turbocharged 4.8-litre flat-eight, essentially a boxer with eight horizontally opposed cylinders. It produces more than 1,000 hp and a colossal 1,000 Nm of torque, and, wonderfully, RUF has paired it with its own in-house six-speed manual gearbox. In an era racing towards automation, over 1,000 hp sent through three pedals is exactly the kind of gloriously stubborn engineering we live for.
Why it's a genuine first
This is not just another high-output engine, it is a genuine world first. No production car has ever used a boxer-eight in this form. Porsche, the brand most associated with flat engines, only ever built flat-eights for racing, never for the road. As RUF chairman Alois Ruf put it, a boxer-eight has never been part of RUF's story, or anyone else's in this form, so the company decided to write a new chapter in automotive history. That RUF, a small independent, has beaten everyone to it is remarkable.
The test car
For now the B8 lives in a development mule nicknamed Erprober, German for tester. It is a lengthened version of RUF's rear-mid-engined CTR3, stretched by 100 mm to swallow the new engine, riding on a bespoke Multimatic tubular steel rear chassis mated to a reworked Porsche 911 front structure. It wears a lovely Blossom Yellow livery inspired by the legendary CTR Yellowbird, with flowing eight-pattern graphics, and racing driver Tanner Foust is demonstrating it up the Goodwood hill.
What happens next
RUF says the B8 will go on to shape a future production model, though it has not yet confirmed which car or when. For the moment, this is about proving the concept and, frankly, making a statement. And what a statement: a tiny firm from Bavaria hand-building an engine layout the giants never dared put on the road.
AutoNext Take
We adore RUF, and this is exactly why. Where most of the industry is retreating into turbos, hybrids and automation, this small, fiercely independent company has poured its expertise into creating an entirely new kind of engine, purely because it could, and topped it off with a manual gearbox. The boxer-eight is a proper engineering milestone, and the fact it is coming from RUF rather than a giant like Porsche only makes it sweeter. This is our highlight from a stacked Goodwood, sitting alongside jaw-droppers like Adrian Newey's V10 Red Bull RB17 and the manual Hennessey Venom F5-M. We cannot wait to hear it, and to see which car finally gets it. Bravo, RUF.
