What is the new Porsche 911 Dakar? That’s a question as simple to ask as it is complex to answer, for this car is so very many things.
A consumer journalist might consider it a shrewd investment, because production is limited to 2500 units, all sold save China’s allocation, and those only because the order book hasn’t yet opened there. A staffer from Practical Off-Roader or some other made-up title might regard it as a brilliant new twist to the long since hackneyed SUV theme, while one from The Engineer might wonder how both front and rear suspension lifts were installed and how it was discovered that the car would be safe while fully extended at 110mph on sand.
But probably most judgements will come from passers-by who may not be aware that the Roughroads livery that fully 70% of 911 Dakars will carry pays homage to the fact that in 1984, Rene Metge won the Paris-Dakar Rally in the very first four-wheel-drive 911 – which wasn’t actually called a 911 at all but a 953 – hence the roundels on the sides. And I fear their reactions may not be as universally warm as an owner may be expecting as they cruise the King’s Road in their jacked-up, war-painted Porsche 911 that cost twice as much as a Porsche 911 Carrera.
Me? I’ve never had much time for cultivating my image, concerningly comfortable as I am with the slightly shambolic, superannuated hack motif that appears to pass for my natural oeuvre these days. It helps, really, because it allows me to assess properties such as this for what they are, without tying both you and me in knots trying to second-guess what image an owner may think it projects of them and assessing the size of the reality gap between that and what onlookers may really be thinking. But I’m guessing that it’s considerable.
So, and at its simplest, what you’re looking at is a 911 Carrera 4 GTS to which a great deal has been added, probably none more than in the area of pricing. From an already steep-sounding £120,800, it rockets all the way up to £173,000, or just £5500 less than for a 911 GT3 RS. That seems a lot to make a fashion statement and buy a degree of off-road ability that you will in almost all likelihood never use, doesn’t it?
What can’t be claimed, however, is that the Dakar is some kind of smoke-and-mirrors job, a cosmetic titivation with no real attempt made to deliver on the promise of its appearance. It delivers in spades – which coincidentally count among the very many extras Porsche will sell you to help accessorise your car. Sand ladders, jerry cans, water canteens and a roof tent are some of the others.
But back to the car itself. Its shell, engine and transmission are standard Carrera 4 GTS, save the regrettable absence of a manual gearbox option. The most obvious change is the 50mm lift in the ride height, which can be raised to 80mm once you’ve beached on a Saharan dune and need to walk away on stilts.
Then there’s the rubber. All-terrain tyres aren’t exactly known commodities on sports cars, so Porsche got Pirelli to design a brand-new one specifically for the Dakar. It has a double carcass and is so puncture-resistant that even after many days in an often very rocky desert, Porsche had had to replace just two, both with cuts in their sidewalls, not actual punctures.
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With each Porsche dealer getting on average less than 4 vehicles, most less than 2, this is like all the other limited edition 911's, somewhat irrelevent. Why? Well you cannot order one, you cannot buy one, there all pre-sold, and the likelyhood that many will ever be used in the ways shown in the photos is slim. The real travesty is that this Dakar takes away production capacity from the 'regular' 911's, you know the ones you cannot get either due to supply and demand. Until Porsche can meet demand for the existing variants of 911, I would rather they hold off on the 'specials'? And in the next couple of months we are getting the 911 ST, and guess what........
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