The Runge RS is a hand-built, aluminium-bodied sports car created by Christopher Runge in a rural Minnesota barn, inspired by late 1950s racing Porsches like the 550 Spyder and 718 RSK. Each car is shaped entirely by hand over thousands of hours, with prices starting around $75,000 and only a handful of cars built per year.
Runge Cars is the workshop of Christopher Runge, a former snowboarder who turned out to be a true master of hand-built automobiles, founded in Minnesota. It is not even really a garage: it is a barn. Never judge a book by its cover, because what comes out of that anonymous Minnesota barn will blow your mind.
Who builds the Runge RS?
Chris's passion for post-war racing Porsches and metal shaping led him to give up a professional snowboarding career and start building hand-shaped aluminium-bodied vintage cars from scratch. Following traditional "Superleicht" principles, every panel is formed by hand over bucks and shaped with an English wheel, much the way coachbuilders worked in the 1950s. You can see more of his craft on the official Runge Cars site.
What inspired the Runge RS design?
The Runge RS is the product of a year-long building process and was completed in fall 2016. It is everything a late 1950s racer represents, and that is not hard to understand: as Christopher himself admits, the design was inspired by legendary cars such as the Porsche 718 RSK and 550 Spyder, with Maserati and Ferrari styling cues. As covered by Silodrome, Chris put roughly 2,500 hours into the build, and the all-aluminium body keeps the weight to around 1,240 lbs, about half that of a Mazda Miata.
What powers the Runge RS racer?
The only things you will miss in a car like this are comfort and modern gadgets. A newly built air-cooled flat four-cylinder engine capable of 159 horsepower and two hand-crafted smoked leather seats are all the technology you can count on while driving the RS racer. That purity is exactly the point of a bespoke, hand-built car.
How much is a Runge RS, and can you buy one?
Runge takes only about three orders per year, since this masterpiece requires an enormous amount of work to complete. Pricing has historically started around $75,000, and each car is bespoke to the buyer, with build times measured in months.
Discover bespoke and coachbuilt cars at TheArsenale
If the hand-built artistry of the Runge RS speaks to you, TheArsenale curates a rare selection of coachbuilt and restomod automobiles. Explore the Nardone 928 Porsche restomod, the Project M Ferrari 308 GTS restomod, and the Salaff C2 coachbuilt supercar.
Browse the full cars collection and the automotive art collection to find your own piece of rolling sculpture.
