13 minute read
Porsche 911 Dakar A factory-built off-road 911… and you can buy one
Words: Olly Sack Pictures: Porsche
There are SUVs. There are SSUVs. And now there’s the Porsche 911 Dakar.
Described as an ‘off-road sports car with the genes of a winner,’ this is a version of the existing 911 with all-wheel drive, raised ground clearance and Pirelli all-terrain tyres. It’s available with an optional roof basket, complete with auxiliary lights and off-road accessories, as well as a Rallye Design Package which echoes the look of the 911 which won the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally.
Nothing like a 38th anniversary to get the juices fl owing, after all.
Unveiled at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, the 911 Dakar is a limited-edition production vehicle of which 2500 examples will be sold worldwide. Its resting ground clearance is 50mm higher than the standard Carrera S on which it’s based, then on top of this its suspension can be raised by an additional 30mm. Porsche says that this gives it ‘ground clearance and ramp angles which rival those of more conventional off-road vehicles,’ and that the lift hardware ‘is not designed merely for driving over obstacles at low speeds, but is an integral part of the re-tuned suspension.’ As if to prove the point, the vehicle can be driven in high-level mode at speeds of up to 106mph.
The 911 Dakar is equipped with a 3.0-litre fl at six, with twin turbos wringing out 480bhp and 420lbf.ft for a 0-62 time of 3.5 seconds. The vehicle’s top speed is limited to 149mph – because of those tyres, which are of the Pirelli Scorpion All-Terrain Plus variety and measure 245/45R19 at the front and 295/40R20 at the back. These have a 9mm tread depth when new and their sidewalls’ two-ply construction helps protect them from off-road damage.
Between the engine and the tyres is an eightspeed sequential box, which of course drives all four wheels. Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control is part of the standard spec list, as are rear-axle steering and dynamic engine mounts – as well as two extra settings in the drive mode menu. These
Bucket seats are the biggest giveaway that this isn’t the cabin of your average 911. From the outside, on the other hand, there’s defi nitely something going on. You don’t have to have it with the two-tone paint, rally stripes, comp number and roof rack, but if you’re going to spring £173,00 on the car why would you not spend a bit extra on getting the image to go with its ability?
are Rallye mode, for fast driving on loose, uneven surfaces, and Offroad mode, for high-clearance driving. Both of these feature Rallye Launch Control, which can handle loose surfaces and wheel slippage of up to 20%.
The result of all this is, in Porsche’s own words, that the 911 Dakar is ‘just as capable on sand and gravel as it is on the Nordschleife.’ So will people buy it more for tracks or trails?
The answer of course is that mainly, they’ll buy it for putting in a climate controlled stowage facility and selling on at a huge profi t in ten years’ time. But some of them might actually take their Porsches out to play, and for both sets of owners you’d think the main appeal will be the opportunity to dress it up like a real one from the Dakar.
That’s where the Rallye Design Package comes in. Specify this and you get two-tone blue and white paint, red and gold stripes, a ‘Roughroads’ door logo and the opportunity to choose your starting number for the doors. Anything from 1 to 999, says Porsche, though with 2500 vehicles being made that means the danger does exist of bumping into another one with the same number as yours. Especially if, let’s just say, you support Swindon Town and want a two-digit number to commemorate the year you beat Arsenal in the league cup fi nal…
If you’re going the whole hog, up top you’ll also choose the optional roof rack. This is ideal for things like jerry cans, shovels and sand ladders; Porsche says you can also get a roof tent for the vehicle, though the rack’s capacity is only 42kg so presumably this doesn’t mount on it, at least not if anyone wants to actually sleep in the thing.
If you’re really going for it, you can even spec the 911 Dakar with a Rallye Sport Package including a roll bar, six-point seat belts and a fi re extinguisher. This comes on top of further standard kit such as a lightweight fi xed rear spoiler, aluminium recovery points front and back, widened wheel wells and sills, grilles protecting the air intakes and and stainless steel bash plates beneath the front, rear and sills. The vehicle uses lightweight glass, too, as well as a lightweight battery, keeping the weight down to just 10kg more than the equivalent 911 Carrera 4 GTS with PDK.
Something that doesn’t appear to have been kept down in any shape or form is the price for the 911 Dakar. You can place your order now by summoning £173,000 from one of your wealth repositories; Porsche says this includes VAT, which is sporting of them, though if you want the Rallye Design Package (or to put it another way, because you want the Rallye Design Package) there’s an extra £18,434 to fi nd. Do it now and your new toy will be delivered in the spring.
Jeep’s new Grand Cherokee Trailhawk talks the talk and walks the walk. All without using
The Lion’s Back, Moab, Utah. If you’ve ever been there, you know. It is, without any doubt, the single most scary thing I’ve ever attempted in a 4x4.
Scarier than being navigator on a comp safari, fl ying into a massive body of water and stopping dead; we were both slightly concussed but could clearly hear the vehicle behind powering towards us, knowing that it would get airborne and land on top of us at speed.
Scarier than being navigator to Colin McRae on a national rally, watching helplessly as we slid sideways at 70mph towards a big pile of timber which was neatly lined up to impact my door.
The fi rst of those didn’t happen – thank you to the marshals; the second one did – thank you to Prodrive for making such a strong cabin. But like I say, Lion’s Back was considerably scarier. You had to crawl up this monstrous rock which at times was near vertical, get to the tiny top, then turn round in a space little wider than the length of the vehicle, hundreds of feet in the air, and then drive back down.
I was in a modifi ed Wrangler and you could feel the rear wheels starting to roll over the weather-worn edge at the summit, so there was just enough room to get turned round. A fi ve-point turn seemed to last days and I can still remember a slight shake in my clutch leg as we fi nally began the perilous descent. Slight whimpering may have been involved.
Why am I sharing this with you?
Because Moab is exactly the sort of place Jeep has in mind for the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. So much so that the company chose the annual Easter Safari, which is held there, to show it to the world in concept form.
Now, this is going to be confusing, so listen carefully. The new Grand Cherokee hasn’t been launched in the UK yet; it’s due during the fi rst part of 2023. You can already confi gure it online, and the Trailhawk model is on there at £73,900. But for some reason, in America it was available as a 2022 model but for 2023 it has disappeared.
Perhaps this has something to do with 2022 models being powered by a choice of 3.6-litre V6 or 5.7-litre V8 petrol engines, while the one we’ll get here is exclusively plug-in powered. Which brings us back to the Trailhawk in these pictures. It’s the aforementioned concept, which rather oddly came out after the production model was already on sale. But then you see its full name and it makes sense: Jeep calls it the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk PHEV Concept, meaning it’s an attempt to sell American customers the idea of a hardcore hybrid.
Now, obviously, seasoned hands (who probably have seasoned bodies to go with them) will scoff gently at this point. After all, we’ve all seen apparently tough 4x4s that make all kinds of macho claims. But fancy badges and a plastic bash plate don’t make them ready for the rocks.
Well, it’s true the Trailhawk does have some extra badging and highlights, and its exposed towing points are a suitably rugged bit of bling. But when you look at it overall, one of the things that might strike you is how clean the lines are, a purity that is so often lacking in models that are pumped-up versions of more modest vehicles. Ground clearance is clearly good, helped by some of the standard body panels being replaced with leaner versions.
Jeep’s Quadra-Lift air suspension does no harm, either.
At its full height, the Trailhawk’s approach angle is an impressive 35.7 degrees. And when even this isn’t enough to keep it clear of the rocks you’re scaling, there are discreet Mopar rock rails
a drop of fossil fuel, as demonstrated by the Moab-bred PHEV Concept that heralded it
Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Jeep
to keep the sills from taking one for the team. There isn’t a side-step option.
But at the same time, the exterior hints rather than shouts about what it can do. There’s an absence of external roll cage, jerry cans and high-lift jacks, and an absence of anywhere to put them on the sleek lines. It’s a bit of a street sleeper, but it’s a rock-crawling sleeper too.
It’s not any kind of sleeper inside, where a set of custom saddle-colour upholstered seats comes complete with houndstooth inserts, 4xe Trailhawk badges (ah, badges) and contrasting blue stitching. Your eyes may struggle to rest. Safe to say that’s not what you’ll get on production ones – think black vinyl and suede and you’ll be, well, right.
It might not be as lavishly eyeball-scorching in production form but you will get Jeep’s Uconnect 8.4” touchscreen system featuring the Off-Road Pages that mark a true Trailhawk from a mere Jeep. Rather than being your favourite newspaper, this is where you get a wealth of data that will be useful if you really are nearer to Moab than Morrisons.
The Trailhawk PHEV Concept features custom seats trimmed in saddle tan leather with houndstooth inserts and contrasting blue stitching. What do you get on the production version? Black
On the screen are all kinds of insights into everything from wheel articulation to suspension height and drive modes. This shows you what the Quadra Drive II 4x4 system is doing, whether it’s in High or Low range and what’s locked or unlocked. The Trailhawk, unlike other models, gets the Active Drive Lock as standard, so you can electronically lock the rear diff when things get cheeky.
In another nod to Moab, there’s a Rock Mode for the traction management system which allows you to better crawl over those smooth and immense boulders. To our disappointment, that mode doesn’t automatically add a soundtrack from AC/DC or Five Finger Death Punch but perhaps that’s available as an upgrade.
Or maybe the music should come from Radiohead or Jack Johnson. Because this is a Trailhawk for an era that’s become aware of its carbon footprint. Adios, big petrol engines: welcome aboard, 4xe.
This plug-in powertrain features two electric motors, a 400-volt battery pack, a 2.0-litre turbocharged, four-pot engine and a TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic gearbox. It’s able to run in fully electric mode – so much so that prior to appearing at Moab, Jeep used the concept vehicle to conquer the benchmark Rubicon Trail without ever firing up the petrol engine.
On the Trailhawk Concept, the 4xe system turns a set of 295/55R20 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains. Sounds to us like too much wheel and not enough sidewall for rock-crawling, but Jeep knows about this stuff so we’ll keep it shut and merely mention that as these bad boys stand at 33” tall, you needn’t expect them to be appearing in a dealership any time soon. No, not even on a Trailhawk.
The air suspension allows the vehicle to sit high enough for these monsters to look at home with its proportions. You can have more than 11” of ground clearance, and Jeep has previously quoted a wading depth of two feet for production-spec Trailhawks.
While you might not want to bury 33 inches of knobbly rubber too far up into its wheelarch, Jeep also promises that its system has the articulation to go with its sheer height. In this, it’s aided by a front anti-roll bar which can be disconnected from inside the cabin, freeing up yet more articulation and even more ability to keep those wheels in contact with whatever is beneath them.
Best of all (well, maybe not actually the best thing of all, but a good one), Jeep says the vehicle will return 56mpg and has a range of 25 miles in EV mode. So while we’d all sooner be doing it with that 5.7-litre V8 throbbing away, to put it bluntly at least this way we can still be doing it at all.
This particular Trailhawk may just be a concept, but as we’ve already mentioned it heralds a showroom model that will be an integral part of the four-strong Grand Cherokee line-up when the vehicles finally make it to UK dealerships.
At which point you’ll be able to climb aboard a true rock-crawling hero – which is also a pleasingly superior way of getting to work the day after your adventures on the trails.
Those trails won’t include the Lion’s Back, though. Apart from the small matter of Moab being about 6500 miles distant and there being an Atlantic Ocean in the way, since those heady and terrifying days when I inched my way up and down that mad piece of rock it has been closed to all vehicles. Now, that really is scary.
Still, the rest of Moab is as open as ever, and the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk is ready for it.
Are you? I’m not.
