Porsche 911 Dakar to debut on November 16

The new 911 Dakar will make its international debut on November 16, 2022, at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Porsche's adventurous 911, formerly known as the Safari, will now officially bear the 'Dakar' suffix as a homage to the firm's 1984 victory in the arduous Paris-Dakar rally. A year before the arrival of the 959, the 953, driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne, was the first 911 to have all-wheel drive. The new 992 variant will undoubtedly come standard with AWD. The new 911 Dakar will make its international debut on November 16, 2022, at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Porsche has not provided specifics regarding the car's mechanical details, but it does state that prototypes of the 911 Dakar have travelled more than 500,000km, of which over 10,000 kilometres were covered in varied off-road conditions. Test vehicles were put through their paces at the Château de Lastours test circuit in southern France and the Arjeplog testing grounds. Rally veteran and Porsche ambassador Walter Röhrl accompanied the engineers and test drivers to the freezing lakes of Sweden.

Moreover, the high-riding 911 was taken to Morocco and Dubai, where it had to contend with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius and climb dunes as tall as 50 metres. According to some reports, the new Dakar version features custom off-road tyres and an upgraded ABS system to help it stop on gravel. 

The Dakar version is not the sole new addition to the ever-expanding 911 family, for the brand is also developing its first-ever hybrid, a non-PHEV variant, which has been repeatedly seen being tested. The folks at Zuffenhausen have stated that a completely electric 911 won't be released until 2030, so we'll just have to wait for that one.

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