Porsche’s daring 911, formerly known as the Safari, will now be formally known as the “Dakar” in honor of the company’s victory at the arduous Paris-Dakar rally in 1984. A year before the 959 was released, René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne’s 953 was the first 911 to have an all-wheel drive. Of course, the new 992 variants will come standard with AWD. The Los Angeles Auto Show in 2022 has scheduled its global debut for November 16.
Porsche doesn’t go into specifics regarding the car’s mechanical characteristics, but it does state that prototypes of the 911 Dakar have traveled more than 500,000 kilometers (310,685 miles). In diverse off-road settings, more than 10,000 kilometers (6,213 miles) were covered. Both at Arjeplog at the testing grounds and on the Château de Lastours test track in southern France, test cars were put through their paces. On the ice lakes of Sweden, rally legend and Porsche ambassador Walter Röhrl participated in the testing with the engineers.
The high-riding 911 was also taken to Dubai and Morocco, where it had to contend with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and climb dunes as tall as 50 meters (164 feet). According to reports, the new Dakar version sports custom off-road tires and an upgraded ABS system for better braking on gravel. It is not as extreme as the prototypes that used portal axles and thick rubber to scale the largest volcano in the world.
Dakar is not the only new member of the ever-expanding 911 family since Porsche is also developing its first-ever hybrid, a non-PHEV variant that spies have repeatedly seen in testing. The folks at Zuffenhausen have stated that a completely electric 911 won’t be released until 2030, so we’ll just have to wait.
Speaking of fast vehicles on stilts from the Volkswagen Group, Lamborghini will soon reveal the Hurracan Serrato, a naturally aspirated V10 supercar with all-wheel drive and a suspension raise. It will be the Sant’Agata Bolognese automaker’s final ICE-only vehicle.
