The Porsche 911 Dakar Is One of the Most Special New Car Driving Experiences
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You might think that Porsche is capitalizing on a trend with the new 911 Dakar, an all-terrain take on the world’s most versatile super sports car. After all, in the last five years, it’s hard to ignore the obvious trend of “Safari’ing” sports cars, particularly air-cooled 911’s. As the former owner of a Leh Keen Safari 911 myself, I totally get it: not only are sports cars so fast now that exploring the limits on public roads falls somewhere between morally reprehensible and downright dangerous, but also with our crumbling urban infrastructure, sidewall and suspension travel have become quite appealing for everyday use. It makes sense that Porsche saw the aftermarket charging big money for Safari conversions and thought, “why can’t we just do that ourselves?” But the truth is that Porsche deserves more credit than that.
Porsche has been rallying for its entire history, and has a long heritage of building dirt-ready 911s for competition use going back at least 40 years. Before the word “Carrera” ever preceded the number “4” on a road-going 911, Porsche tested the AWD system in competition around the world. Even the almighty 959 Supercar was based, in great part, around an AWD system optimized for going off-road, not just driving in wet or snowy conditions.
Even this car, the 911 Dakar hitting showrooms this summer, is the result of development going back nearly a decade, long before the Safari trend came into vogue on a consumer level. From a hardware perspective, there’s not actually much to it: longer travel shocks paired with softer springs, a skid plate package, unique wheels and Pirelli All-Terrain tires, and revised front and rear fascias for approach and departure angles. The cooling system is adjusted to eliminate the center radiator but still works in very hot weather. Everything else is cribbed from the GT3, such as the carbon bonnet and bucket seats, or the GTS-4 on which the Dakar is based.
But, as you will see in my video, Porsche’s attention to detail when it comes to the programming and fine-tuning of the Dakar is why the experience of driving one is way more than just the sum of its parts. It’s why it would be very difficult if not outright impossible to directly replicate the Dakar in the aftermarket, and why the 911 Dakar is actually one of the most special driving experiences on the road right now.
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