Retro tech 80 years of o -road Porsches
From portal axles to painfully complicated four-wheel drive, Porsche’s engineers love the rough stu .
1940 Ferdinand’s unstoppable ‘bucket car’
Ferdinand Porsche gets the nod to develop a Beetle-based army car. The Kübelwagen – or ‘bucket-seat car’ – is ruthlessly pragmatic. Beetle DNA dictates two-wheel drive, and two-wheel drive only works o - road if the car’s light – Porsche brings the Kübel in at 700kg. Portal axles drop the gearing while boosting ground clearance, and a smooth underbody lets the thing skim over tough terrain.
1975 Big game hunting: 911 SC Safari
After years of broken cars and dreams, Porsche goes after Safari Rally glory one last time. The cars boast the proven 3.0-litre six, die-cast aluminium rear-axle swingarms armoured with steel plate, engine covers sealed with tape and a full-length under-body skid plate in 6mm aluminium.
2011 Second-generation Cayenne
The second-gen Cayenne is a big leap forward, ditching the transfer case, shedding nearly a quarter of a tonne of weight, sitting lower to the road and boasting a Panamera-inspired cockpit. It drives almost as well as it sells – European Cayenne sales double in a couple of years, from 10,000 units in 2009 to over 20,000 in 2012.
2021 Cross Turismo… and 911 Safari?
Shown way back in 2018, the Cross Turismo concept took the Taycan’s fine fundamentals and re-mixed them with jacked-up air suspension and a fast-estate roofline. The production car will likely ditch the allroad pretensions. Not dirty enough for you? Then fingers-crossed the Safari 911 mules spotted testing recently (jacked-up 992s with bolt-on arches) preview an imminent dirt-ready 911…
1965 911 does the full Monte
Four months after entering production, the 911 makes its motorsport debut in the ’65 Monte Carlo rally. Porsche fettles the car in-house: the engine’s tuned from 128bhp to 160bhp (Weber carbs, a lighter flywheel, polished ports, and increased compression) and in go bigger brakes, a rear anti-roll bar and a vast fuel tank. The rear of the car’s also fitted with a bar and straps to let the co-driver ride the back axle, husky sled-style, for more traction.
1985 959 does the Dakar
Porsche first tackles the Dakar in ’84 with jacked-up Carreras. The ’85 and ’86 entries are closer to the production 959 and stu ed with advanced desert-beating tech; sequential twin-turbocharging, aluminium bodies and clutch-based Porsche-Steuer Kupplung four-wheel drive with a hugely flexible front/rear torque split. A Dakar Rally 1-2 in ’86 proves their might.
2014 Macan: Porsche’s hot hatch
Unveiled at the 2013 Los Angeles show, the Macan goes on sale in 2014 – and immediately becomes our favourite SUV. The platform’s shared with the stodgy Q5 but you’d never know it. The Porsche drives like a lifted Golf R with most of the power punted rearward; tight, agile and fun. Everyone loves it, and sales are stellar – 350,000 cars in its first four years, with nearly a third of those sold in China.