Assetto Corsa: Ferrari F40 vs RUF CTR Review

Chris

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The LaFerrari and 918 of 1987.

1987 was a good year for fans of the supercar for two reasons. Firstly, because the worlds most desired and influential car brand began production of it's all-new, all-conquering, record breaking monster. And secondly because a small German manufacturer produced a car, they said, was capable of beating it.

In terms of performance, these cars are a bit like long lost brothers who have been reunited only to find out that they've led eerily similar lives. I mean, both cars produce around 470bhp, both will crack the 320 kph (200 mph) mark, both have twin turbocharged engines, and both will get you from naught to sixty miles per hour in under 4 seconds. However, driving them on track, they couldn't feel more different.

Nowadays, Ferrari's racing division is a total mess, more specifically, their Formula One team. Three team principles in one year, firing scape-goats left, right and centre. Their ironman lead driver has packed his bags and high-tailed it to potentially greener pastures at McLaren, and to top it off, they've fired the man who has been involved with the Scuderia since the 1970's, and stood steadfast through the good times and bad as the President of Ferrari since 1991.

Thankfully for road car enthusiasts with deep pockets, Ferrari's road division is as of late, as strong as ever, producing arguably the best super and hypercars of any high performance company in the world, with the likes of the 458 Speciale, F12 Berlinetta and the utterly mind-blowing LaFerrari. Really, the Scuderia have been in a 'road-car purple patch' since the inception of the company itself, and one of the shining lights in said purple patch is the legendary F40. A lightweight, twin-turbocharged V8 beast capable of producing 471bhp, with a top speed of over 320 kph (200 mph), cornering performance unmatched by anything other than an actual racing car of the time, all while looking like the car equivalent of Miss Universe.

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As you're driving around, you'll notice that the Assetto Corsa version of the F40 maintains all of the charisma, power, speed, beauty and sound that the real life F40 possesses, and presents it all in the form of a millimetrically-perfect model of a Ferrari F40. The first thing that jumped out at me was the audio, unlike some of the other cars in Assetto Corsa, the sound that the F40 makes is spectacular. Originally, the sounds were created by a highly skilled modder, which Kunos then bought, and added their own little embellishments to give it a fuller, richer sound, like the louder hiss from the turbos, and the gargling and popping sounds on the overrun.

The F40 feels tremendously well balanced. Typically rear-engined Supercars will understeer due to the majority of the weight being over the rear wheels, but with the F40, the understeer is not as bad as you might expect. And if you do get some understeer you simply lift off the throttle and you'll get a good amount of lift off oversteer without it destabilising the car. However, much of the fun with this car comes with getting the tail waggling about. Given the correct approach, you can get this car to misbehave, however you sense that it doesn't necessarily want to, and it's not always easy to control due to the turbo lag, which often makes the throttle response somewhat unpredictable. As a result, the F40 feels like it was built purely for making an exhilaratingly quick laptime, so keeping the F40 in the correct rev range is crucial for power delivery. But once you've mastered it, driving the F40 becomes one of the most soulful and hair-raising experiences in sim-racing.

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Now, on to the RUF, and immediately a mealy-mouthed anorak will say, "Orhh, that's not a Porsche 911", and they'll be right, this is not a 911. Because underneath the Porsche skin you will find a completely different car. The Porsche 3.2 litre flat-six cylinder engine remains, however RUF have tuned it for increased power delivery and output, and then added two turbochargers. Which is a bit like putting wasabi on a habanero chili, and then pouring Tabasco sauce on it. The net result of all of this means that the CTR produces 469bhp and 553Nm of torque, which in the late 1980's was a colossal amount of both.

Now you may be thinking at this stage, how on earth RUF can put this, let's be honest, controlled explosive, in the rear-end of the car, and still expect the CTR to even contemplate going around a corner? Well, thankfully RUF have accounted for that as well by upgrading the suspension, chassis, brakes, gearbox, high performance tyres and wheels, lighter bodywork, a roll cage and a re-positioned oil tank, and that's barely the start of it.

The CTR is an immensely fun car to drive, mainly because it's incredibly easy to get it sideways. It's so easy in fact that it seems as if this car wants to power slide through every corner it devours. The nice thing about it is that it's very easy to control the slide, in fact it's probably the easiest car in Assetto Corsa to do so. However, if your main objective is getting a fast lap, then it's an exercise in throttle control, because the turbo-lag in the RUF compared to the F40 is vastly reduced, meaning the two turbos will kick you up the backside with more immediacy, meaning it'll want to snap the rear end out more easily, so you'll be slower. Under braking the F40 also seems to be slightly better and more stable than the RUF which means you can be pretty confident that when you turn into a corner, you won't come out the other side backwards.

In a straight line, the CTR does stick it to the F40, however at the majority of tracks the F40 will usually be anywhere between 0.500 to 2.0 seconds per lap quicker depending on the track characteristics. This is mainly due to the CTR wanting to enter 'powerslide-lunacy' mode at every instance, which is great fun, but unfortunately being sideways isn't the fastest way around a corner. Meanwhile the F40 feels more planted on corner entry and exit, which helps it to stay ahead of the CTR at most tracks. At Monza however the CTR was largely a match for the F40 and often beat it because it excels on the straight sections... And Monza has plenty of those.

As with the F40, the sounds are very nice. It produces that lovely fruity 'Porche sound' that is loved and recognised all over the world. And when the adjustable turbo is set to 100% (1.4 BAR, stock boost is 1.1 BAR) it makes some fantastic turbo blow-off valve sounds as you come off the throttle. It's highly addictive.

When it comes to the interiors of the two car, personally I prefer the F40's interior as it has more of a racing feel to it with the steering wheel and gear stick, while the RUF looks to be designed around civilian use, but they're both very nice and accurately replicated.

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As far as draw backs go, the gearbox in the RUF is a bit touchy sometimes, but that's really more about myself getting lazy with heel & toe. The Ferrari's gearbox is slightly more forgiving, but will still punish you for slip ups. I'd also think that perhaps the F40's internal turbo hissing sound may be a tad exaggerated, but I've never driven one in real life, so I have no way of knowing.

But, when it's all said and done, these are both utterly fantastic cars, and no matter which one you choose to drive, you'll still come away grinning like an infant. As far as road cars go, Kunos have set an almighty high bar, and with these two, they've managed to top it yet again.

RUF CTR "Yellowbird"
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Porsche should be jealous of what RUF have managed to do with the 911, because this car is mighty impressive. However whilst this is a damn good car, and is arguably more fun to drive, it's just not quite as special to drive as the Ferrari F40.

Ferrari F40
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As an instrument for making you feel special, and providing the rawest, most spine-tingling driving experience, nothing else comes anywhere even remotely close to it. The sense of occasion when driving this thing, even in the virtual world, is truly special. Kunos have managed to replicate the pure motoring essence and joy that the Scuderia managed to achieve with the F40, and for my money, Assetto Corsa's Ferrari F40 is the best road car in all of sim-racing.
 
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Cool article Chris, its just a shame we don't have a Porsche 959 to compare to the F40 since that was the F40's true rival in its day. I'll settle for the RUF though since that's likely as close as we'll get to Porsche.
 
If this RUF CTR really is the easiest car to powerslide then i must be doing something very wrong cause i just no idea how to powerslide this car. Either it wont slide at all or slide too much till go off track.
 
F40 over CTR all day! The inability to fully adjust the differential means you're gonna have extreme oversteer while cornering. The CTR is not going to win a lot of races, but it is still fun to drive.
 
Great, great article, enjoyed reading it!

Apologizing up-front to steer off a bit from the subject, but, was Montezemolo fired? Since i thought it was his decision. If he is the president then who can fire him? Little confused...
 
A nice read well done.
One tiny pedantic correction and some anecdotes.
Correction; The F40 is probably best described as mid engined rather than rear engined.

I had the pleasure of spending two and a half years working for Ferrari in Australia.
Our Chairman there was the owner of a very large motor dealership group with appr 1000 employees.
He owned the F40 and two F50. When you move cars around a showroom normally the junior guy jumps in the car and the senior guy points and gestures where to put it.
However our chairman was a very fastidious guy with his toys and when it was time to move the F40 in the showroom we had to go upstairs to mahogany row and get him and he would drive it as we pointed and guided where he should go. This way his pride and joy would not be over revved or in anyway maltreated in the showroom.

Bear that in mind when we move to Eastern Creek raceway in Sydney where a customer event was planned and our chairman agreed to bring the F40 to personally do some demonstration laps.
As it happened Gerhard Berger was available that day and was allowed to drive the F40 with our chairman as passenger.
After a few laps our chairman decided enough was enough and directed Gerhard to the pits. He stopped, our chairman got out and Gerhard then sped back out onto the track and drove it until he had enough and returned to pit lane, parked it and said "I think the clutch has gone". well reportedly it was more like "the clutch is F....d".
A few short years later he drove Bernie Ecclestone around Albert Park GP course having flatly refused to allow ANY VIPs to drive his car.

I asked him (our chairman not Berger) to compare the F40 and F50.
He said that the F50 was suprememly capable, always felt within its limits when going fast. Almost making it feel dull. Whereas the F40 was pure excitement. You were struggling for traction on throttle, struggling for grip on brakes and listening to the noises it made. I guess it made perfect sense when the F40 was an extreme version of the current road going car the 328 and the F50 was a road going version of the F1 cars configuration. One car tuned up to an extreme and another detuned with both arriving at that eras top of the road car tree.
They were both stunning, I never got to drive either one but sitting in them with a full carbon fibre chassis made me look forever after with derision at carbon fibre trim inserts.
 
Great, great article, enjoyed reading it!

Apologizing up-front to steer off a bit from the subject, but, was Montezemolo fired? Since i thought it was his decision. If he is the president then who can fire him? Little confused...
A clever politician like Montezemolo will always jump before being pushed.
If he quit would he have had 15 million euro severance?
 
Great, great article, enjoyed reading it!

Apologizing up-front to steer off a bit from the subject, but, was Montezemolo fired? Since i thought it was his decision. If he is the president then who can fire him? Little confused...
Well he wasn't fired per se, he announced that he was stepping down. However behind all the spin, he was essentially forced out of the position by Fiat's CEO, Sergio Marchionne.
 

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