Singapore - The worst thing you can do is to think of Ruf as just another tuner brand.

Old-timers will recall the brand's tenure under a different entity in Singapore well over ten years ago, but our first thought of the brand comes from an early video called 'Fascination Nurburgring Ruf CTR Yellow Bird', where Stefan Roser demonstrated masterful car control and obviously had great fun going madly sideways around the many corners of the Nurburgring – I've linked it here so you can check it out after this article!

If you didn't know before, Ruf is recognised as a manufacturer  – much like Alpina – which means its complete cars can be homologated for road-use in Singapore, a stark contrast from the average kit-car or tuner brands.

Today, Ruf returns to Singapore (10 Chang Charn Road) under Specialised Automobiles, which is owned by avid petrolhead, Porsche enthusiast and businessman, Mr. Justin Tay (that's him on the extreme right in the photo above).

Of Ruf, he tells us, "You can read all about Ruf and even hear it from the man himself, but nothing best describes the brand until you have driven one. I have owned many sportscars from various marques and I can say I love my Porsches: the way they handle, the feedback you get from the steering wheel ' well-balanced cars overall, but I always felt they were underpowered at times... that is until I discovered Ruf. Of course I had known about the brand previously, but the turning point was when I actually test-drove the cars ' there was no turning back after that!"

Ruf models are built on Porsche platforms, such as the 3800 S for instance – which is based on Porsche's mid-engined Boxster/Cayman, albeit with a 911 powertrain.

However, the brand even has its own bespoke model, the CTR Clubsport, a ballistic technical high-performance sportscar engineered from the 911 Turbo but transformed into a mid-engine configuration, which was incidentally launched during the Singapore showroom opening.

Not only is it the only right-hand drive variant in SEA at the moment, it is also the only one PDK version (out of three cars) in the world ' the other two are LHD, with one belonging to a certain Mr. Ralph Lauren, who even has a second with the sequential transmission.

The husband and wife team that currently runs Ruf comprises Mr. Alois Ruf Jr., the son of the founder, and his lovely wife Estonia, and we manage to have quick words with them during their whirlwind trip to Singapore for the showroom opening.

"Ruf models are about tamed performance and this isn't as big a contradiction as it may sound. The performance of a sportscar isn't just about the pure numbers – the whole thing has to be well-rounded and well-tamed, so the whole car feels in harmony, from the suspension to the way the engine delivers its performance. We love Porsche from the bottom of ours hearts; we have for decades. Of course, we're not sure how much Porsche loves us – sometimes more, sometimes less; but we always love them. However, Porsche models like the recently-launched Cayman GT4 only help to confirm and validate what we've already been doing since 2000, when Ruf put the entire 911 powertrain into the Boxster."

PHOTOS Ruf Automobiles