New off-road Porsche 911 Dakar revealed: everything you need to know

• New Porsche 911 Dakar revealed
• Twin-turbo flat 6 engine
• 480hp and 570Nm of torque
• All-wheel drive
• Special jacked-up suspension
• Stripped-out interior
• Optional Rally Design Pack
• Costs from £173,000
• Limited to 2,500 cars

This is the Porsche 911 Dakar, and it’s what happens when Porsche decides to build a supercar that can go offroad.

This jacked-up 911 is based on the Carrera 4 GTS but uses parts from the hard-core GT3. However, this racy sports car is built for rallying, not race tracks.

It’s on sale now and costs from £173,000. If you fancy one, you’ll have to be quick – Porsche is only going to make 2,500.

New Porsche 911 Dakar design

The standard Porsche 911 is a low-slung Coupe, but this new Dakar definitely isn’t.

It still has a sleek body, but the jacked-up suspension and huge knobbly tyres are all new. It also has the same vented carbon-fibre reinforced bonnet as you get on a GT3 and plenty of new stainless-steel skid plates.

Down each side, you’ll spot plastic wheel arch extensions and Dakar exclusive 19-inch alloy wheels at the front and 20-inch rims at the back. These are smaller than the wheels on a Carrera S to help make space for the massive off-road tyres.

At the back, there’s a new black bumper with a second towing eye. All 911 Dakars come with a unique fixed spoiler.

If you want your 911 Dakar to stand out even more, tick the box marked ‘Rally Design Pack’ on teh options list. This gets you a new paint job inspired by the 911 that won the Paris Dakar rally in 1984.

You might recongise it as the Rothman’s livery, but Porsche has given it a healthy rebranding and called it the ‘Rough Roads’ paint job.

New Porsche 911 Dakar engine

This limited-edition 911 comes with the same 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six as the 911 GTS.

That means it has 480hp and 570Nm of torque. It also comes with an 8-speed PDK automatic gearbox and all-wheel drive.

Porsche also fitted the same dynamic engine mounts as you get in the 911 GT3.

These normally help stiffen the GT3’s rear end to make it as agile and as predictable as possible on a race track.

Watch Mat’s review video to see just how good this 911 GT3 is to drive…

Extra stiffness will also help this new Dakar model’s suspension work more effectively to maximise grip.

Speaking of which, the Dakar sits 50mm higher than a normal Carrera S, and you can raise it up an extra 30mm if you need to crawl over serious boulders. This gives you about 205mm of total ground clearance. That’s only 5mm less than a standard Porsche Cayenne.

Porsche has limited the Dakar’s top speed to 106mph in jacked-up mode, though. It’ll drop down automatically if you accelerate past that speed.

New Porsche 911 Dakar performance

Porsche has developed a couple of exclusive driving modes for the 911 Dakar including a Rally Mode designed for loose surfaces like gravel and sand. This sends most of the engine’s power to the rear wheels rather than split it evenly front-to-back.

There’s also a new Rally Launch Control mode that’s allows 20% more wheel slip to give you the best possible start on slippery surfaces.

So, how quick is it? Well, the new 911 Dakar will do 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds. That’s only 0.2 of a second slower than the standard 911 Carrera 4 GTS.

Watch this Porsche drag-race video to see how the quickest 911 you can buy compares to other rapid Porsche models…

Those fat tyres do affect the top speed though. The standard 911 Carrera 4 GTS will hit 192mph but the 911 Dakar tops out at 149mph.

New Porsche 911 Dakar Roof Rack

There’s another weird upgrade you can get for the new 911 Dakar. It’s a roof rack with Porsche-branded jerry cans, water bottles, folding shovels and traction boards.

These are like grippy snow shoes that you can stick under a car’s wheels if they get stuck in deep mud or sand.

The roof rack also comes with built-in fog lights and a 12V power supply and you can buy a roof tent if you’re the sort of 911 driver who prefers camping to 5-star hotels.

New Porsche 911 Dakar interior

The new Dakar-spec 911 doesn’t just look wild on the outside – it comes with some pretty racy interior upgrades, too.

Porsche has completely removed the standard GTS’s back seats. Instead, you get a meaty roll cage, just like in the GT3 and GT3 RS. The Dakar also comes with fancy carbon-fibre bucket seats like in those cars.

Check out the hardcore 911 GT3 RS in Mat’s review video, below…

Unlike its ride height, Porsche tried to keep the 911 Dakar’s weight as low as possible. All these interior upgrades help, and so does the carbon bonnet from the GT3, but you also get lightweight windows and a lightweight battery.

This means the Dakar weighs 1,605kg. That’s only 10kg more than a Porsche Carrera 4 GTS with an automatic gearbox.

New Porsche 911 Dakar price

Fancy a new 911 Dakar? Well, you’ll have to be quick. It’s on sale now and Porsche is only going to build 2,500 of them.

They aren’t cheap either – the ‘standard’ Dakar costs £173,000. That’s over £50,000 more than a standard 911 Carrera 4 GTS, and it’s over £4,000 more than a 911 Turbo S.

And that’s before you add things like the Rally Design Pack. That’ll set you back £18,434.

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