2024 Porsche 911 Dakar Street Check: The place’s this been all our lives?
The 2024 Porsche 911 Dakar is sort of merely probably the most enjoyable 911 I’ve had the pleasure to drive on the highway. Sure, much more so than a GT3. It’s such a revelation of a sports activities automobile that it’s actually a disgrace Porsche is limiting manufacturing to solely 2,500 examples. I’d run out tomorrow and purchase one as my each day driver if I had a spare quarter-million laying round.
I’ll additionally admit to a wholesome dose of skepticism when the concept of a lifted 911 on all-terrains was first broached. It’s not as if there isn’t precedent for off-road-capable Porsches, nevertheless it was arduous to think about Porsche taking over such a distinct segment mission and nailing it on the primary attempt. In actuality, the Dakar is akin to what Apple’s accomplished within the tech house time and again. Introduce a product that few suppose they need, just for it to change into a product that everybody wishes after getting a style.
It could appear apparent, however the Dakar’s secret sauce is that beneath all of its off-road add-ons, it’s nonetheless a 911, particularly a 911 Carrera 4 GTS. One of many finest engines in any new sports activities automobile – Porsche’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six – lives within the rear. The eight-speed PDK is identical transmission that continues to set the bar for shifting excellence in different 911s. Its brakes are typical Porsche, or in different phrases, one other standard-setting function. Even within the suspension’s high-clearance mode, you possibly can sit down low in a standard sports activities automobile setting with the standard 911 fixings round you. But it surely’s the whole lot added to the Dakar equation that makes this 911 one of many biggest of all time.
It’s usually essential to train excessive warning round curbs, velocity bumps or roadkill whenever you drive a 911. Not so with the Dakar, because it gives as much as 6.3 inches of floor clearance in its most top mode – merely press a button, and the suspension will elevate 1.18 inches. That’s a lot to make it a stress-free each day driver. The super-steep driveway at your buddy’s place? Who cares. Huge pothole developing (a frequent Michigan incidence) out of nowhere? Simply ship it by means of, and don’t suppose twice. With the ability to drive a 911 such as you would a typical crossover is liberating in the easiest way.
Plus, the suspension setup itself makes for the best-riding and most snug 911 on the market whenever you’re simply popping round city. It makes use of longer spring struts that provide higher compression and extension journey throughout, and the spring charges themselves are additionally decrease than an everyday 911. Don’t suppose that makes the Dakar waft down the highway like a Mercedes-Benz on air suspension, nevertheless it does make it probably the most agreeable 911 to absorb miles in on tough roads.
Some of the sensible features of the Dakar, although, is its bespoke, engineered-for-Dakar Pirelli Scorpion All-Terrain Plus tires. Becoming all-terrain tires to a automobile is a reasonably straightforward technique to kill any aspirations of sports activities car-like dealing with, and I went into driving the Dakar with the expectation that it could deeply compromise the 911’s historically very good dealing with dynamics and steering. That assumption was confirmed fallacious from the primary nook. Pirelli says this new tire for the Dakar has a considerably strengthened construction to enhance the contact patch. The tread sample can be specifically designed for dry asphalt efficiency, which makes it appropriate even for circuit use. It’s an oxymoron of a tire, as a result of no chunky all-terrain with nine-millimeter-deep tread ought to really feel the way in which it does whenever you hustle it round paved roads.
Regardless of having the all-terrain functionality that we examined on the Dakar’s first drive, the tires by no means roll over whenever you begin pushing arduous. Nor does the Dakar really feel prefer it suffers from an absence of road-holding grip. After all, the steering isn’t the identical as a 911 on its normal summer time tires (it’s utterly reworked for the Dakar), nevertheless it’s nonetheless very 911-like with a shocking quantity of really feel getting back from the highway and spectacular straight-line stability at freeway speeds. In contrast to most automobiles on off-road tires, the Dakar’s are sports activities car-like to the purpose that they encourage you to swing it by means of corners quicker and quicker with a confidence I wasn’t anticipating to really feel. After all, they’re nonetheless nothing like a high-performance summer time tire (which Pirelli additionally specifically developed for the Dakar alongside a winter tire choice, too). However having pushed the automobile on these all-terrains, I may hardly look after operating it on the rest within the dry.
Among the Pirelli all-terrain’s attract is akin to when the Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S/Toyota 86 shipped with low-grip Prius tires. With limits so low for a sports activities automobile, the 911 turns into much more approachable and simple to toy round with on the road at civil speeds. Goose the throttle, and its re-tuned traction and stability management methods allow you to swing its rear finish round with little or no provocation and shocking casualness. The 911’s usually straight-laced and buttoned-up demeanor is thrown out the window to a level, and it’s all because of “worse” tires. It’s simply one of many many the explanation why the Dakar is probably the most amusing 911 you possibly can drive on the road – no racetrack is important to expertise its sensible chassis at its finest.
The Dakar shines even brighter away from paved roads. The various grime and gravel roads of southeast Michigan will make anybody really feel like an newbie rally driver from behind the wheel of this Porsche. “Rallye” mode is finest used on this surroundings, because it loosens traction management permitting for extra slip angle by means of turns, which is abundantly straightforward to induce with the 473 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque on faucet. One of the best half, although, is the truth that you’re driving a Porsche 911! We (and the remainder of the off-road world) are accustomed to doing this kind of factor with pickups and SUVs. And positive, it’s a blast to swing round autos just like the Colorado ZR2 or F-150 Raptor R, however doing the identical in a automobile solely weighing 3,552 kilos with the 911’s beloved rear-engine dynamics is one other degree of enjoyable fully. You’re topic to the ripping engine and exhaust be aware, its razor-sharp reflexes and a chassis that makes you by no means need to go away the motive force’s seat. No off-road truck or sporty SUV can come near being its equal.
There are protecting parts throughout and underneath the Dakar to make sure kicking up gravel, sending it flying and bounding by means of tough roads is a secure exercise. Even all of its grille openings are specifically designed for this mannequin to make sure you don’t trigger injury to the radiators and extra in excessive off-road situations. And belief me, you’re going to be flinging rocks in all places as quickly as you understand what foolish enjoyable it’s to expertise a lifted 911 on grime. Even the model-specific Rallye Launch Management is a hoot, because it permits for much more slippage (by 20%) earlier than rocketing you ahead with grip you most actually weren’t anticipating to have. The additional “dig” it does into the highway floor earlier than jetting you away goes to make you chuckle and smile each single time. It goes 0-60 in 3.2 seconds on pavement, however positive doesn’t really feel a lot behind that on grime.
Essentially the most spectacular factor in regards to the 911 Dakar is that there aren’t any evident issues or compromises made within the pursuit of such an outlandish automobile. It’s an engineering train that proves as soon as once more how competent Porsche is and its skill to screw collectively automobiles to make those that care about driving joyful. We noticed it but once more just lately with the new 2025 Porsche 911 GTS T-Hybrid, as that automobile proved hybridizing the 911 does nothing to tarnish its pure driving expertise. The one big-ticket merchandise I want the Dakar may present are rear seats, that are deleted and inconceivable so as to add again in because the house is required for the suspension carry system. Moreover that omission, I can’t consider a greater each day driver for the well-off Porsche fanatic.
It’s virtually ironic that so a few years in the past Porsche launched the Cayenne so people may drive a Porsche product in any given situation (and for the corporate to print cash). Now, there’s a 911 that may fill the identical objective, offered you don’t want the additional seating and cargo capability. It may be your tenting automobile and simply traverse tough terrain into the wilderness. You possibly can highway journey it in good consolation and never fear in regards to the valet scraping up your entrance splitter in a parking storage. The probabilities for sheer enjoyable are higher than every other 911, and you are able to do all the identical issues that different variants excel at – hitting the canyons or attending a observe day – with no need to swap automobiles. The Dakar is the Swiss Military knife of the sports activities automobile world, and the worst factor about it’s that Porsche is simply constructing 2,500 of them. We are able to solely hope that modifications someday.
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