The Porsche 911 has been a capable performer for decades. Moreover, pound for pound, very few cars can match its on-road performance. At the same time, most 911 variants are perfectly good for daily use, which is why the rear-engine Porsche has been the epitome of a sports car that can be used on a daily basis. But what happens when you want to turn things to 11? What if you want to take your 911 away from its usual habitat that is the asphalt? There are more than a few specialists who can turn your 911 into an off-road adventure machine and the German tuner Delta4X4 has the latest offering on the market.
Drivetrain & Performance
He asked them if they can turn a brand new Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (992) into an off-road machine. The Carrera 4S is a very good platform to work with and the car took obvious inspiration from Porsche’s triumphs at Dakar from the 1980s.
We should get more information soon, as the car is being completed. Although it is not certain, we should expect a bump in power, in addition to the body and suspension modifications. In factory state, the 911 Carrera 4S develops 443 horsepower (331 kW) at 6,500 RPM and 390 pound-feet (530 Nm) at 2,300 RPM, from a 3.0-liter Bi-Turbo flat-six engine. It is unknown at this point whether the donor car features the eight-speed PDK or the seven-speed manual transmission.
Regardless, the 0-62 mph (100 km/h) sprint happens in 3.3 seconds on its way to 191 mph (308 km/h). Of course, the off-road conversion will not do these numbers any favors, especially with a ground clearance raised to 9.8 inches (250 mm) compared to the factory 4.7 inches (120 mm).
Still, it will not be a slow car and if the specialists from Delta4X4 decide to bump the power up, the extra ponies will surely make up for any loss of performance, at least with regards to acceleration. Moreover, the 911 Dakar will feature a reinforced chassis, so it’s not going to be just a simple lift procedure accompanied by visual enhancements.
Exterior
For now, we only have a few renderings to go off, but the off-road specialists from Delta4X4 say that this is pretty much how the car will look, once it’s finished. The most obvious difference to the normal Carrera 4S is the raised height.
And let’s not forget the four rally-lights integrated into the front hood, which are a must for any car made to tackle Dakar. We also see the obligatory mudguards on all wheel arches, where dedicated off-road wheels wrapped around a bespoke set of sturdy-looking bespoke black wheels. The car is still being built, but we should be able to see the finished project in the near future.
Interior
Nothing is said about the interior, but the renderings suggest that it will remain largely the same as in the 911 Carrera 4S. We see the same seats and the same dashboard design. Whether the 911 Dakar will feature bespoke elements on the inside remains to be seen, once the car is ready. Whether or not there are any alterations, we expect it will retain the same driver-centric layout, without any radical modifications, since the normal Carrera 4S already has pretty much everything you need, both for on and off-road driving.
Porsche’s Dakar-winning 953
It’s true that Porsche’s 911 has always been recognized for its great performance and its ability to punch way above its weight, but little did they know, the company has expertise in off-road motorsports. In fact, not just any motorsport, but one of the most grueling motorsports out there – Rally Dakar. In 1984, they actually won the race. Porsche achieved that with a modified 911, called the 953.
It had an increased ground clearance and a manually-controlled 4x4 system, later used on the 959 supercar. The car had a weight of just 2,750 pounds (1,247 kg) and developed 300 horsepower (223 kW) from its flat-six engine.
Conclusion
More and more companies play with the idea of a modern-day off-road version of a Porsche 911. The team from Delta4X4 is going even further and giving the world an actual modern-day version that can easily tackle Dakar. Their experience in radical off-road vehicles coould mean that their Carrera 4S-based Dakar is the closest thing to a 953 successor.
Now, after Delta4X4 has joined companies like RUF and KMR with their own modern interpretation of an off-road 911, we are more curious than ever, whether Porsche will stop sitting on the side bench and give us a 953 successor of their own.