Porsche 911 Dakar is an off-road 911 TEASED ahead of next week’s debut

The Porsche 911 Dakar – a Porsche 911 with real off-road chops – is teased ahead of a debut on 16 November at the Los Angeles Motor Show.

As we said when we reported on Porsche’s mission to climb the world’s highest volcano in a modified off-road 911 last week, “after this outing, a 911 Safari looks more than likely“. And here it is.

Not the Porsche 911 Safari, as we expected, but the Porsche 911 Dakar – named after Porsche’s 1984 Paris-Dakar triumph – it’s a less extreme take on the 911 that took on the volcano, but looks very capable nonetheless.

Porsche is yet to confirm much in the way of detail – we’ll have to wait until the official revel in Los Angeles next week – but it seems likely the Dakar will come with the same 4S powertrain as the volcano 911, but Porsche has confirmed a raised ride height and tweaked ABS to deal with loose surfaces.

Ahead of the 911 Dakar’s debut, Porsche has been testing for more than 500k kilometres – 10k of them off-road – including on the Château de Lastours test track in southern France used by Dakar teams to test their cars, in the cold in Arjeplog, Sweden, and on the dunes of Dubai.

Porsche brand ambassador Jörg Bergmeister said:

I wouldn’t have thought that a vehicle with such ground clearance and all-terrain tyres would still feel like a Porsche 911 on asphalt. At first I didn’t have the nerve to push the car to its limits. But I am very satisfied with the handling on loose surfaces. Even the ABS is optimised for braking on gravel. It’s amazing how much traction the off-road tyres deliver. The car is a blast to drive.

All will be revealed next week – if not before.