Porsche’s 2023 high-riding, off-road 911 might have been conceived with dirt roads and not race tracks in mind, but like every Porsche, it still has to cut it at the Nürburgring.
That’s where our spy photographers captured the car recently. The still-secret coupe flew past the camera then stormed up the next straight, giving us a clear view of its raised ground clearance, moulded wheelarch spats and boomerang rear spoiler before vanishing from view.
Something else that vanished from view, at least according to the photographer who took these pictures, is an Instagram post from Walter Röhrl in which the rally legend and Porsche ambassador added the hashtag “Dakar”.
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Credit: Andreas Mau/CarPix
This isn’t the first we’ve heard that name in relation to the mysterious off-road 911 prototypes. Although originally expected to be called Safari in recognition of the lifted Safari Rally-spec 911s of the 1970s, which have recently spawned a number of tribute conversions by classic 911 owners, we’ve already reported that Porsche was actually planning to call the model Dakar.
That name also makes sense, Porsche having competed in what was previously known as the Paris-Dakar Rally in the 1980s, and winning the event outright in 1984 and 1986. Porsche and Röhrl have recently been bigging up those exploits in social media, with posts like the one below featuring the all-wheel drive 953.
But our spy photographer Andreas from CarPix, spotted that Röhrl had hashtagged one of his posts “Dakar” but then quickly deleted it. Well, we say quickly but if Walter is anything like my dad, who’s of a similar vintage, it probably took the two-time WRC champ a similar length of time to delete his post as it does for him to lap a 918 Spyder around the Nordschleife. Unfortunately, he didn’t managed to screenshot the post before it was pulled, presumably after some frantic calls from Porsche execs to Walter’s cellphone, but if he said it was there, we believe him.
Although it’s possible that Porsche might fit the 572 hp (580 PS) powertrain from the 911 Turbo to the Dakar, it’s more likely that it will feature a milder, though still turbocharged, 443 hp (450 PS) 3.0-liter flat six from the Carrera S or perhaps the 473 hp (480 PS) version from the GTS. Visually, the raised ride height and arch trims will make this 911 and out from every other new model, but we also expect to see some subtle changes to the bumpers when it’s unveiled later this year.
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