Long before Ken Block or Clarkson, before HD, YouTube and 4K there was a video that started it all. The world’s first viral car video and it was called Faszination on the Nürburgring. It featured a little known (for the time) car manufacturer from Germany called Ruf. A manufacturer that would soon be known on both sides of the Atlantic, for all the right reasons. Faszination would also give worldwide publicity to the Nurburgring Nordschleife.  Oh, and you had to watch it on a physical VHS tape that was played on a VCR.

Follow Double Apex on Instagram and Facebook where we share more car content.

Buy now and take advantage of free delivery in South Africa on orders over R349.

The World’s Fastest Car

The world’s first viral car video featured a modified 911 Carrera codenamed ‘Group C Turbo Ruf’ (shortened to CTR). Ruf company had built a reputation in Germany for tuning 911s. But these cars were not called Porsches as Ruf is an automaker in its own right. The car in question, a company demonstrator, was one of 29 ever made. It featured a 3,4-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six. The engine developed a peak of 345 kW and 553 N.m of torque all delivered to the rear axle through a manual transmission.

Incidentally, one of the 29 recently sold for $6,1. It was the lowest mileage example in existence with just shy of 1 700 km on the odo. The car has reportedly been kept in meticulous condition with regular fluid changes and run up to temp to ensure the health of all piping and seals.

Click here to read our Ferrari F40 driving review.

In 1987 the CTR, or Yellowbird as it became known, lined up against the most powerful cars from all the top sportscar manufacturers. And it blew them all away. Yellowbird blasted from 0-100 km/h in 4,0 seconds flat, to 200 km/h in 10,5 and flat out it did 340 km/h. In the process it beat the likes of the fearsome Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959. American auto title Road & Track declared it the The Fastest Production Car in the World. A year later the same car managed an unofficial 346 km/h at the Nardo test track.

Sideways and Smokey

But real fame was achieved when test driver, Stefan Roser, flung the bright yellow 911 around the ‘Green Hell’. In fact, it was Roser’s idea to conduct and film the laps. Company boss Alois Ruf, Jr said in an interview: Stefan said ‘oh we should maybe go to the Nürburgring and make a few shots, that would bring in a little more dynamism to our presentation of the Ruf company’. And that’s how the world’s first viral car video was born.

Click here to read about an unlikely Nurburgring hero.

Roser, the unseen hero of this 20 min clip, saws at the wheel of the 911. There are no paddle-shifters either, just a long-throw manual gearlever to manhandle. Furthermore, the expert wheelman does it wearing loafers with white socks and no helmet. He has to contend with understeer, power induced oversteer and traffic as his slides the yellow missile around the world’s most famous racetrack. Although Ruf takes some credit for that. “I think we made the Nürburgring very famous, because at that time nobody knew where it was. We put it on the map for the whole world through that movie.”