Chris Weeg, 33, a tax and estate-planning attorney in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on his 2003 Ruf RTurbo, as told to A.J. Baime.
I have been a car guy my whole life. From age 16 to 29 I drove a Mitsubishi Eclipse. I modified every part on that car. Six months into my first job as a lawyer, I was living in Dallas and I was finally ready to buy something I really loved.
I found this 2003 Ruf online. Like most people, I first pronounced Ruf like a dog bark, but people corrected me. Ruf is a German company and it’s pronounced “roof.” I did not know much about it at the time, but when I started googling, I learned that Ruf is a high-profile Porsche tuner with a hugely devoted following.
The car started out as a 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo, and Ruf gave it something called a 550 conversion—all kinds of interior and exterior modifications. The engine was bumped from 415 horsepower to 550.
The day I bought the car, something amazing happened. I drove it spiritedly for a couple hours around Dallas. I smile now just thinking about how excited I was and how well the car drove. I pulled into a gas station and a stranger came up to me.
“Did you just buy this car?” she asked me. I was thinking: Am I in trouble or something? I said, “Yeah, I did.” She said, “I know the previous owner, and I know this car. This is an awesome car. You are going to love this car.” She was right.
A year later, my first son was born. I had a friend in my office named Anthony who also loved cars and had owned a Porsche 911, and he had to sell his Porsche when he started a young family. He said to me, “Chris, you’re going to have to get rid of this car just like I had to get rid of mine.” I said, “No way.”
He bet me a bottle of wine that by the end of the year, my Ruf would be gone. I won that bet. A year after that, my wife, Lisa, had our second child. Again, my buddy bet me that I would have to get rid of the car. I won a second bottle of wine.
I have now driven this car every single day for the last 4½ years. I joke with my wife that this is my family car—only it can go over 200 mph. She does not think it’s as funny as I do, but she is a team player and knows how much I love the car. In case you were wondering, yes, I have had a car seat in the back of it. I have taken this car to Costco. I treat it like any other vehicle, only it is absurdly fun to drive.
My wife is pregnant with our third child now, and she knows I will never sell this car. This is the car that my kids will learn to drive stick in.
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