The 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar Is Everything I’ve Ever Wanted in an Off-Road Sports Car

It’s one hell of a parts bin special, you have to admit.

Everyone knows that Porsche has spent the entire history of the 911 (some 60 years at this point) racing the ever-loving hell out of the rear-engine sports car. What fewer people know is that a good chunk of that racing has taken place off-road. In fact, in 1984, Porsche took a 911 Carrera, added four-wheel drive, and took that car, dubbed the 953, to first place in the grueling Paris-Dakar race. Why am I talking about a race that happened 38 years ago? Because Porsche — always a company to lean on its heritage — has decided to bring the Dakar treatment to the current 992-generation 911. The result is this: The 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar, and it’s utterly goddamned incredible.

The 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar features the engine from the Carrera GTS, albeit with a few modifications for off-road driving. These modifications include the deletion of the center intercooler (for improved ground clearance), replaced with side intercoolers from the 911 Turbo. This, coupled with a new airbox designed to prevent dirt and dust intrusion means that the 911 Dakar is good for 473 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. This drivetrain is paired exclusively to an eight-speed PDK automatic gearbox and the all-wheel drive system from the Carrera 4.

Read more

• These Are Your Guilty Pleasure Cars

• The 15 Most Successful Formula 1 Cars of All Time

• These Cars Should Never Have Been Killed Off

Of course, as you might expect, it’s the suspension setup where things get really interesting. The two-mode height-adjustable suspension offers 6.3 inches of ground clearance in standard mode, rising to a genuinely impressive 7.5 inches in high mode. Interestingly, the height adjustment for the Dakar comes not from air-ride suspension. Instead, Porsche used the same technology it uses for its front-end lift system and applied it at all four corners. Hopefully it will end up being more robust than air, at least.

The Dakar’s altitude offers up some decent (for a sports car) clearance, including an approach angle of 16.1 degrees and breakover angle of 19 degrees in high mode. (We asked Porsche about the departure angle, which is important and probably kinda tough to pull off in a rear-engine sports car, but company reps didn’t have a firm number on hand.)