DAKAR VIA DARLING

Born of Porsche's lauded exploits in off-road racing, South African company SafariProjek offers its customers the ultimate test drive

- Stefan Kotze

A brand with a proud motorsport heritage, while it didn't take long for the original Porsche 911 to arrive on the start line of prestigious annual cross-country race meetings, events like the Monte Carlo Rally, which was won overall for the first time by a Porsche in 1968, remain suited to relatively low-slung, dynamically inclined sports cars fitted with road-going (including snow studs) rubber. Not content with these 'limitations to entry' and as track-based and on-road plaudits continued, Porsche's ambitions would turn towards the world of gruelling cross-country competition, including the East African Safari Rally.

More than the credible fifth place it achieved in this first attempt at competing in Kenya's harsh and unforgiving terrain, international headlines were all but guaranteed thanks to the modifications made to the five factorybuilt 911 ST entrants ahead of the start of the 1978 event. These included 254 mm of ground clearance, underfloor protection, auxiliary lighting and timing equipment.

Fresh from victory behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz 280 GE at the 1983 Paris-Dakar Rally, a visit to Weissach by legendary racer Jacky Ickx that coincided with testing of the all-wheel-drive 959 Gruppe B prototype sparked a conversation about Porsche "ramping up" its rallying prospects.

After covering more than 11 000 km in 20 days, a striking Rothmans-branded Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 4x4 (type 953) driven by René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne emerged as the somewhat unlikely winner of the 1984 edition of the Paris-Dakar Rally.