At The Autopian, we’re no stranger to mishaps with car transporters. We’ve seen haggard Nissan taxis flung into trees due to embarrassing trailer mishaps. However, we haven’t seen anything quite as tragic as a big-dollar Porsche smacking into the ground from six feet in the air.
As shared by Spike Feresten on Instagram, the disastrous scene went down in the Bay Area earlier this week. On the back of a transporter truck, we see a black Porsche dangling from a raised ramp by its front wheels. Someone haplessly walks out to the edge of the ramp to see that, yes, the car is very obviously screwed. As the video pans around, the driver inside the Porsche flashes the camera the bird.
Had this been any other Porsche, this video would probably have wound up in some “epic fails” compilation and otherwise gone unnoticed. However, this isn’t just any Porsche. As discussed on Reddit, it appears to be an ultra-rare RUF Yellowbird.
View this post on Instagram
If you’re unfamiliar, the Yellowbird was a highly tuned version of the Porsche 911, first built by tuning house RUF in the 1980s. The very first version of the Yellowbird, more formally known as CTR for “Group C Turbo RUF,” was based on the 1987 911 Carrera 3.2. RUF heavily modified the vehicle with aluminum body panels, composite parts, and big ducts to force air into the engine compartment. The engine was bored out to 3.4 liters, fitted with twin turbochargers, intercoolers, and a Le Mans-bred fuel injection system to push power to the moon. The fearsome flat-six was paired with a custom five-speed transmission because Porsche didn’t have a gearbox that could cut the mustard.
The result of RUF’s transformation? A 911 with a barnstorming 463 horsepower and 408 pound-feet of torque, and a bonkers top speed of 213 mph. In this regard, it bested every other production car on the market, Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 included. Just 29 original examples were built.
As the name implies, the RUF Yellowbird was typically sold in yellow. That might raise questions given the vehicle seen on Reddit and Instagram is black. However, commenters identified it as a Yellowbird by its RUF wheels and body kit. Speculation suggests this may in fact be the 10th Yellowbird built, which is believed to be the only example painted in black. That particular car was sold by RM Sotheby’s in a 2018 auction.
We don’t know for certain that this is the 10th Yellowbird. It could be a very convincing replica, or it could have been repainted at some time in its life. Notably, John Clay Wolfe of Give Me The VIN took to Twitter to post that the vehicle was a real Yellowbird, and was “just delivered back from Germany for a 150,000 color change repaint from RUF.”
Oh man. I can only imagine. So is this is not the original one of one that left the factory black but a color change? Incredibly rare car. Crossing seven figures right? I
— Zerin Dube (@SpeedSportLife) July 16, 2025
Either way, Yellowbirds are worth big money, whatever the color. A yellow example sold at Gooding Christies for $6,055,000 earlier this year.
The good news is that the car is so expensive, it’s obviously worth fixing. Of course, insurance will be paying out the nose to do so. Beyond the damage to bumpers, paint, and the underbody, the owner may demand the chassis be placed on a jig to ensure it’s still straight after the incident. Then there’s the potential cost of damage to the vehicle’s ongoing value, now that it has been publicly seen to have been in an embarrassing transport incident. You wouldn’t want to be the insurance adjuster dealing with this one.
Image credits: Spike Feresten via Instagram screenshot
34 comments so far and no “RUF day at the office” jokes?
Apparently the guys that handled the Nissan taxi drop-off at Torch’s place move to the West Coast?
I am always surprised. . .everytime I see one of these trucks, there are never removable bump stops on the ramp. You would think there would be for A) Safety. That guy or a by stander could have been hurt pretty good. And B) to prevent this.
Should be SOP (worked in industrial plant for many years. Safety First!). . .Install bump stops, back car onto ramp. (Kinda surprised the company doesn’t require the car to be secured before lowering the ramp too) Lower. Remove bump stops. Drive away.
I get that some local, unskilled labor, towing company might send a POS taxi van down a hill into a tree… but why does this look like just two guys and a truck unloading a car that cost more than my neighborhood? Why isn’t this a team of movers in matching haircuts and white coveralls, with the police blocking traffic? Why would you cheap out on transporting?
I think in the Nissan-meets-tree article Torch (or someone in the comments, I cant remember) said that when you contract a company to do car shipments they usually do the logistics and contract it out to whoever presumably bids the lowest. It looks like a more professional operation than the guys who wrecked the taxi, but maybe it’s the same shlubs with a nicer trailer. But someone’s insurance premiums are going up real soon.
I’ve watch someone back out a Bugatti out of a transporter. very. very. slowly. Clearances were millimetres between the car and the sidewalls of the transporter.
Looks like it handled the drop significantly better than a hummer ev out the back of a railcar
If nobody passing by failed to yell “WHY DID YOU TURN?!” then I’m flying out there right now to correct this wrong.
Here’s to hoping it’s just some minor bumper/exhaust damage. Too bad about the Carfax, though.
Came for this. Thank you.
Today the delivery driver learned trying to recreate the Furious 7 scene where cars drive out the back of an airplane was ill advised.
I don’t care if the car in the pic was the shittiest shitbox that ever shitted, I’d still be pissed.
Attenborough: “When the RUF Yellowbird reaches the right level of maturity, the mother will start to coax the chicks out of the nest and train them to find food for themselves. But not all of the chicks are up to the task, like this poor runt, who seems to have fallen out rather than fly along with the family.”
One of the cooler cars ever built imo. The old Nurburgring promo video is worth a watch if you’ve somehow missed it until now.
That ring lap is CRAZY. I’ve watched it a few times. The guy is driving the wheels off the car.
“Just drop it in front of the house, I’ll take it from there”. Some people don’t understand that every instruction can’t be taken literally.
Porsche consultants: “People get excited by companies dropping vintage products at random intervals, it builds excitement!”
Porsche: Einverstanden.
Shipping company will probably try to claim act of god and say they aren’t liable.
The act of god in question: gravity.
The transporter driver – “Huh, no wonder I couldn’t see the road in the rear view mirror”. Maybe the owner has a backup camera fitted after it’s repaired.
This is what happens when delivery drivers get a little tipsy.
To be fair, they were probably instructed to drop the car off.
“Why Everyone Is Upset…”
I’m part of the group “everyone” and this does not upset me at all.
The car is ‘upset’. I am amused.
Being an insurance adjuster sounds awful, being an insurance adjuster that deals with pissed off rich people sounds like the 3rd circle of hell.
I was one for a year, my first job out of college. The pay was not worth the stress.
What is a “150,000 color change repaint”? Is that how much it cost in dollars? Euros? For paint? For boring AF black paint?
I’m actually more upset it isn’t yellow than I am by the delivery fail.
No, they painted it 150,000 different colors. Frankly, I would have expected it to be a little thicker.
Well, good news is that they should be able to buff that out, then.
I originally thought it was repainted at 150,000 miles, but in retrospect this isn’t seeing anywhere near that duty.
Just like another famous yellow bird (Big Bird), Porsches can’t fly.
I guess that lift-ramp thing should probably have non-marring rollers at the end. Just to reduce the damage caused by getting the car out of that predicament.
If this were my car, I sure as hell would insist that it be put on a Celette jig.
When the transport employee told his boss he’s having a bad RUF day, I don’t think the impact of that statement set in initially.
Expensive Ooopsie.
If I’m to believe the Fast and Furious movies and Dukes of Hazzard, that is nothing to worry about.
He just wasn’t backing out fast or furious enough.
… and his car needed a parachute. Obviously.
Oh, he backed out too fast, and the owner is furious.