911 safari

Porsche 911 Vision Safari

Year: 2012      Devolopment stage: Drivable prototype

“We believe that there is hardly any other car brand that can combine sports car and off-road characteristics as credibly as Porsche,” says Chief Designer Michael Mauer. In the 1970s, the Porsche 911 had already proved its astonishing off-road capabilities in the legendary East African Safari Rally. The race took competitors on a journey covering almost 5,000 km across the Kenyan wilderness. In 1978, Porsche works drivers Björn Waldegård and Vic Preston Jr. were right up in the leading group in their Porsche 911 SC Safari, which boasted increased ground clearance, all-round reinforcement and some pretty characteristic Martini stripes. They proved that the air-cooled 911 is almost as unstoppable in the desert as it is on a motorway or a race track. The images of these Porsche 911 Safari cars covered in the red dust of the African savannah, splashing through water holes and mud pools will never be forgotten.

And that is why the Porsche design team decided to pay tribute to the legendary off-road sports car with a contemporary re-interpretation in 2012. The Porsche 911 Vision Safari was created on the basis of the 991 generation of the 911. With its raised suspension, reinforced wheel housings, massive bumpers and a spartan rally cockpit with race seats and roll cage, it fully reflects its historic rally predecessor. The designers even planned a special shelf mounted above a fan behind the seats – to cool down your crash helmet between especially hot stages.

The Porsche 911 Vision Safari completed its maiden drive “Out of Africa” on the gravel track at the Weissach test facility, where normally the Porsche Cayenne and Macan prove their off-road capability. Chief Designer Michael Mauer was the co-driver in the Safari 911, with its uniquely soft suspension setup, when it performed its first drift and remembers enthusiastically: “I have rarely had so much fun before!”

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2023 Porsche 911 Safari spy shots and video: High-riding sports car hits the 'Ring

Perhaps the best sign the crossover craze has taken a step too far, Porsche is out testing a high-riding 911.

Porsche hasn't confirmed plans to launch a high-riding 911, though the automaker's sales and marketing chief, Detlev von Platen, said in a 2018 interview that such a car “ could be a good idea .” He even said such a car could be launched as a limited-edition model.

The testers are riding on much taller suspension than normal, which stands out in our latest shots thanks to a prototype for an updated 911 Carrera also present. The testers are also fitted with widened wheel arches and on some of them there is a prominent rear spoiler whose design has never been seen before. Some of the earlier testers also had thick foam lining the wheel arches, a feature typically seen when testing suspension systems. It helps the engineers determine how close the wheels get to the vehicle body. It's possible the foam was also added to hide whatever suspension setup was being used.

Porsche has been down this road before. Recall, the automaker launched the 911 SC Safari rally car in 1978. Porsche also built a trio of 911-based 953 rally cars which it entered in the Dakar Rally and eventually took home the victory.

The first all-wheel drive Porsche 911 and winner of the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally

The popularity of those early rally cars has led to some companies offering Safari-style conversions for old 911s . Several famous Porsche tuning houses, such as Gemballa , Ruf and Singer , have also teased their own modern successors.

Porsche itself investigated the idea of a modern 911 Safari with a secret concept developed in 2012 . Known as the 911 Vision Safari, the concept was based on the 991-generation 911 but never ended up receiving the green light for production. It looks like this won't be the case with the current 992-generation 911.

Porsche 911 Vision Safari (2012)

The 911 Vision Safari concept featured raised suspension and flared wheel arches, just like we see on these testers. It also had underbody protection and roof-mounted lights.

A Safari-style 911 from Porsche would likely be aimed at buyers in markets like China and Russia, where drivers are often faced with poor road conditions that make it difficult to daily a low-slung sports car, hence the popularity of performance crossovers in those markets. We’re sure a few would turn up in the U.S., too, given the popularity of high-riding models here. Heck, it could even prove popular in Porsche's home market of Germany where parking with two wheels up on the curb is often necessary. Currently we expect the car to be revealed in 2022 as a 2023 model. Lamborghini is also working on a similar concept, using the Huracan as the basis .

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This 996 Porsche 911 Safari Build Is Seriously Impressive

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911 Carrera

There's almost nothing more satisfying than seeing a car doing something it has no business doing, especially when it's done well. Some in the Porsche community agree, and over the years, many enthusiasts have heavily modified 911s to go off-road. Known as safari 911s, the cars feature raised suspension, beefy tires, and a host of other upgrades. However, very few safari builds reach the level of detail and craftsmanship that South African Johan De Bruyn put into his 996 build, courtesy of SafariProjek. The green Porsche features numerous upgrades and custom-fabricated parts, and the result is a car that has completely stolen our hearts.

De Bruyn said the pandemic gave him time to brainstorm the project he wouldn't typically have had. As he notes, many safari builds rely on older 911 models , such as the 964 and SC, so his 996 build is quite unique. His view was that the much-maligned cars are future classics , so the time was right to approach a build.

The project started with a 996 Carrera 4S. The car's four-wheel drive and wider body made it ideal for a safari build, but as De Bruyn quickly found out, most parts and support for such cars in the community centers around the older 911 models.

To turn the 911 into a mud monster, De Bruyn and his team had to redesign the car's suspension system and custom fabricated many of the components needed to raise the ride height and provide a comfortable off-road ride. The team turned to Reiger in Europe for shocks, the same units used by some Dakar Rally teams.

The 911's bodywork had to be modified, but again, no off-the-shelf solutions existed. De Bruyn said his team used a unique foam to form the bumpers and fabricated the bronzed steel inserts. Underneath, the car carries skid plates to protect it from bumps and bangs on the trail. The brakes were left alone, and OZ racing rims were added for an authentic rally look.

The safari movement is alive and well here in the States, too. Leh Keen turns out gnarly 911 conversions from his shop in Georgia, and Porsche itself will soon be in on the game with a factory-lifted 911 . The cars make relatively common appearances on auction sites, with the best selling for exorbitant sums.

Despite its reputation as a track- and backroad-killing sports car, the 911 makes a surprisingly excellent off-roader. The relative light weight and the unique balance created by its rear-engine design give the 911 a fun, tossable personality in the dirt.

911 Safari Tease: Porsche Drives Up World’s Highest Volcano

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Porsche took two specially modified 911s to Chile. One even drove 20,000 feet up the side of a volcano.

Porsche put the 911 to a new and almost unimaginable test. The sports car team went to Chile to drive up the side of the highest volcano in the world.

This PR stunt showcases how rugged the modern 992 generation of the Porsche 911 can be with the right modifications, and it also elevates the excitement level for the soon-to-be-revealed 2023 911 Safari, although Porsche has not officially announced that production model yet.

Latest in Long History of Off-Road 911s

The Porsche 911 started its off-pavement racing career way back in 1971. Porsche entered five cars in the 4,000-mile-long East African Safari Rally that year, and only one of the five managed to finish.

The off-road 911 really took off when Porsche built the 953, which was a heavily modified 4×4 version of the 911. That car entered and won the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally and was the basis for the legendary 959.

When the 959 followed up that 953 racing car, the roadgoing AWD Porsche was born. The 911 got its first AWD system in 1988, badged Carrera 4, and since then the option for all-wheel drive has been a key part of 911 performance.

Porsche 911 Volcano Climb Preparation

For this Chilean challenge, Porsche started with two copies of its 911 Carrera 4S. They deliver 443 horsepower from their factory-stock turbocharged flat-six engines and are equipped with the available seven-speed manual transmission .

Porsche’s R&D crew in Weissach then worked with Romain Dumas Motorsport to create these volcano-climbing beasts. First, the cars were fitted with roll cages, carbon seats, and full harnesses. Safety was paramount, running to extremes in the remote region.

Then Porsche fitted a massively raised suspension and portal axles. Portal axles add a gearbox at each corner and lower the wheel centers compared to the axle centers. The effect is more ground clearance, and these Volcano 911s now have 13.7 inches of it. That’s half an inch more than a Ford Raptor pickup.

New gear ratios were picked to allow for more gentle throttle inputs at lower speeds. The new gears also work well to help spin the big tires. Porsche didn’t say the size, but we can see Cooper Discoverer STT Pro and BFG All-Terrain tires in the photos.

Extremely modified bodywork does its best to cover the tire package. The bumpers have been cut away to let them clear terrain, and massive air inlets where the rear side glass used to live help the engine breathe at these great heights. An aramid fiber undertray lets the 911 slide over rocks when things get a little too hairy.

The last big change is a bit of a mystery. Porsche calls the device the “Warp-Connecter” and says it’s a mechanical link that makes wheel loads constant when the suspension flexes. It sounds like a center diff-locking device accompanied by manual lockers in the front and rear axles.

20,000 Feet Challenges Car and Driver

The trek was far from your ordinary test session. Porsche brought the cars to 19,708 feet above sea level. At that height, the team needed to bring its own accommodations . They also had to cope with half the oxygen you’d find near the ocean.

Endurance racer Romain Dumas drove one of the two 911s and was the team leader. He drove his rally-ready 911 up the side of the volcano. The cars were stopped not by a lack of air, but when they reached walls of ice and snow, they couldn’t get through.

“This was a truly memorable and special moment in a place that’s both beautiful and brutal at the same time,” he said. “I guess the only machines anywhere in the world higher than us today were aircraft!”

Porsche says the point was to show off what the 911 was capable of. We know the real reason for this impressive PR stunt is to tease and get people excited about the forthcoming 2023 911 Safari, Porsche’s first consumer-available Safari-style sports car.

While they haven’t officially announced such a production model, they have long teased it. And we have it on good authority that it will be revealed at the 2022 LA Auto Show  in late November.

Watch the Only Porsche 911 We Want to Drive Off Road

James Bond meets Mad Max in this cool, custom-built Porche 911. It's stylish, fast, and outfitted to escape the bad guys in a rocky desert. Read more…

Evan Williams has been drooling over cars since the time he learned to walk. He went to school for engineering, but transitioned into a more satisfying career in automotive and outdoor media, and has been at it for nearly a decade now. Evan is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and is the Motors News Lead at GearJunkie. He spends his non-automotive time walking his dog, hiking, cycling, jogging, and trying not to be too much of a hack mechanic.

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Matt Farah's Safari 911: Everything You Need To Know

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Graffiti Transforms This Porsche 911 GT3 Into A High-Speed Canvas

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15The guys and gals who were once writing for small online auto news sites, in the beginning, are now among the very best journalists in the world. This was the process in which a man named Matt Farah came to be prominent in the enthusiast cosmos.

Farah first got traction with a group known as Garage419 , mostly a YouTube channel with press car content and challenges regarding enthusiast cars. After several years of work at 419 he would eventually start his own entity, known as The Smoking Tire.

Doing reviews of his fan's cars and press cars, along with track days and fun trips, he earned himself a spot at nearly every big performance press launch. Considering his love for cars, he has recently launched his newest gig, West Collector Car Storage .

It will be a state of the art facility that accommodates all types of customers who need a place to store their special cars in the LA area. It will include some of the best car stacking machinery in the state and have accommodations for other activities as well.

Luckily for him, he will now have room to store one of his own special builds, the Porsche 911 Safari.

Related:  10 Rarest Porsches Currently Owned By Collectors

Inspiration

Starting out as a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera with the 5-speed G50 gearbox and the 3.2 Liter flat 6, this car was clean. 90,000 miles and redone everything made Matt Farah's Porsche dreams come true, especially for what had in store.

What is most eye-catching about his beautiful G-series car, is the color. Cassis Red paint lies atop the sheet metal on the little car, which helped him get a better deal considering the color's unpopularity in the Porsche community. From the picture above, you can see that it is more of a pastel-like purple with sparkly undertones that gleam in the sun. Farah likes to call it "grape soda lipstick", a description so good that I wish I thought of it first.

His entire inspiration for buying the 911 came from a trip he had with world-renowned journalist, Chris Harris. Harris introduced Matt to his buddy who goes by the name of Leh Keen. Keen buys G series 911s, works his safari magic, and creates some of the best off=road race-style Porsches in the world. And after a ride-along in one of Keen's low tier builds, Matt decided he needed one immediately.

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The safari build in its entirety  includes the existing Fuchs Wheels with BFG All-Terrain tires, a 4-inch lift with the Elephant Racing bypass shocks, redone front suspension, rally light pod, ducktail spoiler, and ski rack. Matt had the car built as a daily driver for LA, so he opted for a much needed A/C unit, Bluetooth stereo, and comfortable seats.

As for the oily stuff, the engine sits at 3.2 liters and is connected to the famous G50 Porsche gearbox. Farah had BBI Autosport do a complete engine rebuild including, of course, the internals, full header-back exhaust, heat exchangers, a Danske muffler, lightened flywheel/clutch, and a bunch of other detail-oriented changes. These mods will make any older 911 feel smoother, lighter, and tactile in its controls, which is an amazing feat considering these cars feel so good already.

And finally... the glorious interior. Matt's taste in cars is according to us, fantastic, and his interior scheme for the safari car only solidifies his keen eye for style. '90s transit-bus cloth covers the interior as not the secondary trim, but the primary interior color! Calling it a bold statement would be the bold understatement of the century.

Related:  Modded 911 Safari Is Insane, And Can Be Yours For ...

A lot of people would have you believe that all Porsches are sacred, holy pieces of history that cannot be touched unless by the hand of Porsche themselves. The truth is, these people have invested their energy into an ideal that only proves them wrong in the end.

Enthusiast culture is about enjoying cars for what they are designed to do, and when it comes to Porsche, finding a better driving car is difficult. So, the notion that keeping one in your garage forever makes you an enthusiast, is slightly contradictory.

Matt Farah underwent scrutiny for modifying his own example into something he loved, which is wrong. To most people's surprise, 911s are some of the greatest loose-surface cars ever made. The weight over the rear tires, light steering, and impeccable control, is why Porsche won rally and why people like Leh Keen and Matt Farah preach the word of the Safari 911.

Source: The Smoking Tire

Next:  Matt Farah's Porsche Safari 911 Is The Perfect All-Arounder, Off-Roader

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