Previously referred to as the Safari, Porsche's adventurous 911 will officially carry the "Dakar" suffix as a nod to the company's 1984 triumph at the grueling Paris-Dakar rally. The 953 driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne was the first 911 to feature all-wheel drive, a year before the 959 came out. AWD will obviously be standard on the new 992 derivative. The world premiere is set for November 16 at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show.
Porsche doesn't go into details about the car's technical specifications, but it does say prototypes of the 911 Dakar have racked up more than 500,000 kilometers (310,685 miles). Over 10,000 km (6,213 miles) were done in various off-road environments. Test vehicles were put through their paces at the Château de Lastours test track in southern France as well as in Arjeplog at the testing grounds. Rally icon and Porsche ambassador Walter Röhrl joined the engineers and test drivers on the frozen lakes of Sweden.
2023 Porsche 911 Dakar teasers
The high-riding 911 was also taken to Dubai and Morocco where it had to endure temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and climb dunes as tall as 50 meters (164 feet). We're being told the new Dakar version has bespoke off-road tires and a recalibrated ABS system to improve braking on gravel. It's not as hardcore as the prototypes that climbed the world's tallest volcano courtesy of portal axles and chunky rubber.
Dakar is not the only new member of the ever-growing 911 family because Porsche is also working on a first-ever hybrid, a non-PHEV model spies have spotted testing on numerous occasions. A fully electric 911 will have to wait as the peeps from Zuffenhausen have said it won't come out before 2030.
Speaking of sporty vehicles on stilts from the Volkswagen Group, Lamborghini will soon unveil the Hurracan Sterrato as a naturally aspirated V10 supercar with all-wheel drive and a suspension lift. It'll be the last pure ICE model from the Sant'Agata Bolognese automaker.
