959 & RUF Yellow Bird motors related?

[911st]

I believe the 959 and RUF Yellow Bird twin turbo's both hit the market in 1987.

Looking at the pictures it sure looks like a fair amount of similarities.

Both Porsche and RUF had to be working with key vendors like Bosch for the fuel injection controls and KKK for the turbo's at the same time.

Wonder if it was a vendor driven coincidence or if Porsche orchestrated the whole thing.

Even the air filter can's look similar.

Yellow Bird:


959:


Yellow Bird:


I know there are big differences like water cooled heads and sequential turbo's on the 959.

[GG Allin]

I believe the 959 uses a 67mm crank. I don't believe any other Porsche engine had that length stroke.

[gled49]

Beauty is skin deep, the engines might share the basic crankcase. Both are wonderful pieces.

[Mocker]

Doesn't the 959 have water cooled heads? I don't think these engines are closely related at all...

[dannobee]

Not even close. Yellow Bird had a true air cooled 3.4L (98mm x 74.4), 959 had a 2.8L ( 95mm x 67mm) with water cooled heads. Turbos were sequential on the 959 and not on the Yellow Bird.

There are a LOT of other differences. Not even close.

[jac1976]

Glad we got this cleared up almost 13 years down the road.

[pmax]

Originally Posted by 911st

Yellow Bird:

Timeless.

87 was a great year.

The fuel regulators are right there, nice.