Porsche 911 Dakar: Porsche’s go-anywhere sports car cometh

It nods to the 953 model of the olden days…

911 Dakar: Porsche’s go-anywhere sports car cometh

Forget about the Safari nameplate. Porsche is naming its all-terrain sports car the 911 Dakar, and it is earmarked for a global debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in the coming weeks.

The Porsche 911 Dakar pays homage to the AWD 953 model that claimed victory in 1984 at the Paris-Dakar rally with Rene Metge and Dominique Lemoyne at the helm.

Porsche isn’t saying much about the new 992 model, but we know that it will have a standard all-wheel-drive system and will be the first two-door sports car to have off-road capabilities. The new Porsche 911 Dakar has undergone significant development testing worldwide under extreme conditions and over 500,000 km plus more than 10,000 km done off the tarmac.

Porsche 911 Dakar Testing TopGear SA
If you ever wanted a 911 that could take to the Namib…

For example, the Château de Lastours test track in southern France, where all Dakar teams test their vehicles before the rally, was used to test the car’s handling on typical rally courses for fine-tuning the suspension.

According to Porsche, the 911 Dakar’s suspension and chassis handled the jumps and sweeping drifts with aplomb thanks to a robust design that is further complemented by enhanced ground clearance.

Porsche 911 Dakar Testing
Sani Pass shouldn’t prove too much of a challenge either.

Unfortunately, details regarding the new Porsche 911 Dakar remain under tight wraps, and we will have to wait for its premiere on 17 November. Soon after, it will debut at the 2022 Icons of Porsche festival in Dubai on 26 and 27 November 2022.

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