What Happens When You Take a New Porsche 911 Camping Deep in the Desert?
When Porsche offers you a chance to take a new 911 Dakar camping, you say yes. Or, at least, I did. The call came right at the tail end of winter in Los Angeles during a cold snap severe enough that snow still lingered on the San Gabriel mountains. Thankfully, It wasn't too frigid for camping on the ground—because no matter what Instagram loves, mounting a rooftop tent on a loaner 911 probably takes the concept of media testing a bit too far.
I'd taken the Dakar for a full week, equally curious to drive the lifted, safari-style Porsche not just off-road, but also in town and through local canyons to find out whether the factory’s surprising project resulted in a legit rally racer or a gimmicky cash-grab capitalizing on recent aftermarket modification trends. This was on the heels of testing out a Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato—a car so stupefyingly fun that even commuting in L.A. traffic transforms into an eminently enjoyable way to waste time. Tough act to follow, right?
Related: Men's Journal Grilling Awards: Meet the Best Grills of 2024
Porsche based the Dakar on a 992-generation 911 Carrera 4 GTS, then essentially added the popular front-axle lift system onto the rear axle. Throw on some knobby Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tires, a roof rack, and faux Martini livery (a fake Rothman’s paint job is also available) and boom—you’ve got a 911 ready for the desert.
Using the Carrera 4 GTS platform means a turbocharged flat-six with all-wheel drive, but Porsche also made the perplexing decision to spec the Dakar with an automatic transmission only. No manual option available. Luckily, the engine puts out 473 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque way down in the rev range, and the eight-speed PDK transaxle is truly one of the very best in the game.
A Porsche Still Needs to Be at Home in the Canyons
Ripping through the Malibu canyons, the whole package inspires incredible levels of confidence despite the additional ride height. The planted rear end seems to defy physics. Are there still three liters hanging off the back axle, or am I driving a mid-engined Cayman with a lift kit? The steering never sacrifices an ounce of sensation, supremely reflexive despite noticeably additional cushion in the suspension and tires versus a lower-slung 911. With the drive mode dial and dampers set to Sport, and the traction and stability control turned down, the flat-six can crank out enough torque to break traction at almost any RPM. As I hustled through quick whiffs of oversteer, the all-wheel-drive system compensated to scoot the rear end back into line.
As well as a Dakar drives at the limit of traction on asphalt, though, the ease and comfort of driving to and from Malibu might just be the car’s main selling point. Even at the normal ride height, I never clunked and clattered over rough sections of road, thanks to the longer travel of the PASM dampers and lower spring rates—when not in Sport mode, at least. Combined with taller tires, the suspension system simply renders anything but the largest speed bumps irrelevant.
The only bummer, especially for city life, can easily get checked off the options list: a set of carbon-fiber bucket seats that make absolutely no sense in a car otherwise so comfortable to drive. In fact, if anything, I found myself wishing the Dakar rode even softer, with more squish in the shocks to allow more body roll, more compliance to absorb anything—anything at all—that I might blast over. I also noticed a bizarre buzzing in the cockpit, from about 1,500 to 2,200 RPM at light to medium throttle. The whole car seemed to vibrate: windows, door cards, dash trim.
I suspect that the firm hydraulic lift system fore and aft is to blame, or that maybe Porsche should have skipped using engine mounts borrowed from the GT3 to help iron out the peculiar reverberations. To combat the buzzing, I just flippy-flapped the paddle shifters down a couple gears and kept the flat-six revved up higher. This did the trick, before embarking on the week's biggest test—departing the pavement and blasting deep into the desert.
Related: 2023 Dakar Rally: Off-Roading's Most Relentless Endurance Test Yet
Packing a Porsche 911 Dakar for an Overlanding Adventure
But first, there was the challenge of packing up the Dakar for a camping trip. Luckily, the 911’s frunk is nice and deep, with plenty of room to hold a Jackery portable power pack—to keep my devices charged, we’re not roughing it too hard here—and a Trader Joe’s cooler bag full of food. I strapped a folding table and chair to the roof rack longitudinally, and threw a couple of backpacks into the erstwhile backseat (deleted to make space for the rear axle lift componentry). Actually tossing the bags onto the rear shelf would have been easier with front seats that folded down, but I knew I needed to pack light anyhow. Much more gear, and I’d need to strip some of the Porsche Tequipment accessories off the roof rack.
After another hour-plus of highway driving, with the Dakar ripping over the worst of the 405 freeway’s rhythmic rollicking with ease, I finally turned off onto a graded desert road. Time to see what this puppy can do, I thought, as I fiddled through the drive modes to select the new “Rallye” setting, then held the ESC button for a few seconds to send the electronic nannies on a time-out. Following my usual protocols, I stepped out to check my roof load in the hope that nothing might go flying, then climbed back in, scooted the carbon driver’s seat a bit further forward and up to improve my visibility, and punched the gas.
Rallye mode clearly keeps the GTS engine higher up in the rev range, where throttle response latency borders on nonexistence. Dirt driving makes the Porsche brand of immediate pickup so valuable (even for a turbo engine) because of how quickly I started sliding around left- and right-hand bends. The drivetrain seemed to bias rearward with the weight distribution, too, which always presents the mental quandary of whether to steer with my right foot and trust the front wheels to eventually hook up—or, more Scandinavian style, truly commit to the squigglefest and start using more countersteering to enjoy wider, longer drifts.
I wasn’t on the clock, anyway, so go ahead and guess what ended up taking place in a brand-new, lifted 911 rally car. Everything that Porsche hoped to instill in a safari-style 911 straight from the factory came true once I started pushing the Dakar harder and harder. No, we’re not at the level of a Polaris RZR or Can-Am Maverick’s suspension travel. Rough washboards do prang and bang through the chassis still. And though I never attempted any jumps—deciding wisdom should be the better part of valor in a one-of-2,500 car destined for customer ownership following my shenanigans—I suspect that doing so would probably result in a bevy of chiropractic appointments on my upcoming calendar.
Related: The Best Sport Watches for Every Type of Adventure
Porsche 911 Dakar in Its Native Habitat
But that kind of hardcore off-roading isn’t where the Dakar shines, anyhow. Higher speeds and sliding sideways fit into the game much more. Think Monte Carlo WRC more than Baja 1000. And, yet, getting to my planned campsite would require a bit of the slower-speed stuff, too—over a short segment of rutted trail climbing carved out even worse than I remembered by recent rainstorms.
The Dakar’s drive mode dial on the steering wheel allows for two selections that a base Carrera 4 GTS lacks: Rallye and Off-Road. Where Rallye keeps the chassis in its original, 50-millimeter lifted ride height, Off-Road pumps up the hydraulics to increase ground clearance by another 30 millimeters. On the other hand, piano keys on the dash can also individually control the ride height, suspension damping, and traction control intervention protocols. As in most cars, while driving the Dakar I eventually settled on my own preferred combinations, depending on the scenario.
While Rallye mode works well enough on flatter graded sections, I actually ended up in Sport mode with the dampers as soft as possible and the PDK gearbox in full manual mode. But to climb up about 100 yards of gnarlier trail, I pumped up the hydraulics and turned ESC back to Sport, with the gearbox still in manual mode so I could keep the revs lower and avoid any wheel slip.
All of my concerns went right out the window on the first aspect, though—during a tight left over the deepest rut of the day. The Dakar just waved the front left tire up in the air about a foot or so, and keeping a slow-and-steady application of throttle, I felt the rear tires chatter for a second. Then the traction control caught up, the rear e-diff locked, and both tires simply stepped right into the ditch. By the time all four wheels hit the ground, the rears had crossed the deep rut without even lifting. Maybe that rear-engined layout that so many Porsche haters love to diss actually does some good while off-roading after all!
Related: Lamborghini CTO Rouven Mohr on Creating the Huracán Sterrato
The rest of the path presented much less of a challenge, though I detected maybe a second and third few moments with a front tire off the ground. Not bad, for essentially a lightly modified sports car. Eventually, I pulled into the campsite having never aired down the Pirellis either, which would have only improved traction and compliance simultaneously. But doing so would have required bringing my compressor kit, and packing the backseat even further to the brim.
Some Final Thoughts on the Porsche 911 Dakar
Despite the impressive performance in the dirt, as on city streets and canyon carving, I ended the day thinking that the Dakar might do even better with even softer suspension, and (obviously) a manual transmission to help differentiate the Dakar from the Huracan Sterrato—even if Porsche is probably correct that off-roading with a stick shift actually kind of sucks. Here, I’d counter that the higher speeds this 911 loves make for more three-pedal fun.
The fact that I’m even considering improvements to an off-roading Porsche 911—straight from the factory, with a warranty—or a lifted Lamborghini all ready to rock, is absolutely laughable. What an awesome, entirely unexpected era of automotive engineering.
After a warm cup of coffee to stave off the chill of night setting in, I crawled into my little REI tent, anxious to doze off for the night. A nylon door flap away, the Dakar awaited more excitement in the form of a sunny morning’s rip back to civilization—its lucky driver contemplating a few rally roadbook adjustments to make the path back to pavement just that little bit longer.
Porsche 911 Dakar Specs
Engine: 3.0 L 6-cylinder
Horsepower/Torque: 473 hp/420 lb-ft
0-60: 3.2 seconds
Top Speed: 149 mph
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
MPG: 16 city / 24 highway
Price: From $222,000
Related: This New Lexus May Be the Best Luxury Off-Roader Ever Made
