Desert-ready Porsche 911 Dakar confirmed

Porsche has locked in the launch of its new 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar at the LA motor show on November 16, announcing the date overnight and releasing the first official pictures of the mud-loving sports car undergoing final testing off-road.

Confirming that it will pay tribute to Porsche’s outright victory of the 1984 Paris-Dakar rally, Porsche hasn’t yet released full details of its high-riding Porsche 911 Dakar, other than it will come with all-wheel drive.

The German car-maker did confirm the 911 Dakar has undergone more than half a million kilometres of extreme testing – as we’ve seen this year in a variety of spy photographs – including 10,000km off-road on the tortuous Chateau de Lastours test track in southern France, the same rocky test circuit both WRC and Dakar racers use for pre-season testing.

Helping develop the off-road 911, endurance racer Romain Dumas and rally legend Walter Röhrl have both driven the Dakar on sand, snow, mud and rocky terrain.

Perhaps the most extreme part of the 911 Dakar’s testing was in Dubai at high speeds over 50-metre-high dunes in temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius.

“This car is incredibly fun to drive,” remarked Röhrl after extensive testing on a frozen lake in northern Sweden.

“Everything works so precisely and calmly. No Porsche customer will believe all the things you can do with this car before they’ve driven it themselves.”

Thought to feature a height-adjustable suspension, it’s still not known what powertrain the 992-based 911 Dakar will run, but the latest images show off its unique front bumper, bonnet-mounted air intakes and plastic wheel-arch extensions.

You might also notice the wider side sills, while at the rear a redesigned bumper, wing and new exhaust outlets are other tell-tales.

All will be revealed on November 16 at the LA motor show ahead of deliveries beginning in early 2023.

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