The notion of making an updated version of the legendary Porsche Safari rally car seems to have occurred to everybody at once. And now, Porsche’s possible attempt has been seen testing at the Nurburgring.
Between the legally disputed Singer ACS, Marc Philipp Gemballa’s Project Sandbox, and this raised 911, the odes to the rally-ready Porsches are coming fast and loosely sprung.
This tester, seen sporting a bit more sidewall, taller suspension, and widened wheel arches has been seen before. What we’ve never seen before are the GT3 RS seats inside. As with previous versions, there’s a big difference between the width of the front and rear tires, which is interesting, as well.
Read Also: Porsche Not Happy With Singer Design’s ACS, Car Pulled Off Website
Although we’re not aware of any official plans for an off-road capable Porsche, the brand did recently serve noted Porsche tuners with a cease and desist over its ACS.
“We have a responsibility to our customers to ensure that Porsche products – designed and engineered by us – can be clearly and easily identified,” Porsche told us in March. “This can range from an individual component or piece of clothing using our name through to whole cars. We do this by allowing only products created or directly licensed by us to carry the Porsche name.”
Even Porsche noted the benefit it receives from brands like Singer keeping its cars in the cultural conversation, so it’s interesting that Porsche chose to pick a legal dispute over this car in particular. It’s possible that Porsche just felt the ACS was too modified to be considered a restomod and allowed to use the Porsche name, or maybe they didn’t want Singer stealing their upcoming thunder.
Late last year, Porsche also the drivable 911 Vision Safari concept out of storage. It looked an awful lot like this one.