Before the Second World War, Loof established himself as both a motorcycle racer and a machine designer, scoring numerous successes for Imperia of Bad Godesberg and for BMW. Equally at home in the workshop and behind the wheel, he built a reputation as one of Germany's more engineering-minded racing figures of the period. During the same era he contributed design work to the BMW 328, the lightweight sports car that came to dominate its class at events across Europe before the war.
In 1935, a rumour circulated in the aftermath of the Coppa Acerbo race suggesting that Achille Varzi — reportedly dissatisfied with the Auto Union's handling — had been replaced on the team by Loof, who was at the time a motorcycle racer. The story proved untrue, and Loof never entered a race for Auto Union.
After the war, Loof became one of the founders of Veritas, a small German constructor that found genuine success in Formula Two. The company's Meteor racer, powered by a developed BMW engine, was competitive in the immediate post-war period and established Veritas as a notable name in German motor racing. The company also produced sports cars, the majority using BMW engines, as well as the Dyna-Veritas cabriolet range built around the Panhard engine. Loof served as head designer throughout the company's existence, shaping the technical direction of each successive Veritas model.
Loof participated in exactly one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix. At the German Grand Prix held on 2 August 1953 at the Nürburgring, he entered as a private individual in the Veritas RS he had himself designed. Qualifying from 31st position on the grid, his race proved brief in the extreme: a fuel pump failure struck almost immediately after the start, forcing retirement after the car had covered just two metres. That distance remains the record for the shortest Formula One career in the history of the World Championship.
By the time of the race, Veritas had already gone bankrupt, and the company's assets had been purchased by BMW. Loof thus entered the German Grand Prix driving a car built by a marque that had already ceased to exist as a functioning business.
Following the collapse of Veritas, BMW absorbed Loof into its styling and body engineering department. He worked there, applying his engineering experience to production and development vehicles, until illness forced him to retire. He died in Bonn on 3 March 1956 of a brain tumour, aged 48, having outlived the company he had helped to create by only a few years.
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