When Luxury Meets Rallying: A 911 Dakar Special

This was conceived a while back but it has taken me some time to come around to actually “committing” to it (yeah, this is a double-entredre – *winking at you J). And it sure does blend in perfectly with the recent theme of the influence of motorsports on production cars. Please do check that out if you haven’t already.

Inspiration: there have been numerous suggestions emanating from different schools of thought over time about whether it is “divine”, simply just “logical mimicry” or even a mixture of both, but whichever side of the debate you represent – one thing is for certain; history is replete with examples of how humans have merged ideas from different sources to create something entirely different and will continually do so as the dominant species on this “floating bubble” of ours.

Now back to this business of the day. I won’t claim to be the most observant but I’ve noticed this tiny niched not-so-new trend of exotic/supercars being enhanced with the capability to engage in serious off-roading activities; giving off that apocalyptic Mad Max/Twisted Metal vibes (there have been a few SUVs in this regard as well) and I’d like to think the OG Top Gear/Grand Tour “Boiz” would be proud as they often carried out such experiments via either retrofitting or upgrading such categories of vehicles thereby enabling them to embark on lengthy trips across challenging terrains, sometimes trans-continental – over the course of their long careers which has spanned more than 3/4-ish decades.

But before talking about the 911 Dakar, let’s visit another car that was probably the reason for its existence – the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato.

Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato

Back in mid-2019, I had read an article about the then concept Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato on MotorTrend – an off-road high-performance sports car which was designed by Mitja Borkert and Nikola Peychich, and as someone who has always enjoyed rallying I remember thinking to myself – “Oh that’s so cool”.

The Sterrato though is simply just a Huracán that has been modified for off-road usage. The production version of the concept car was shown off in 2019 as stated earlier; compared to the standard Huracán it features higher ground clearance, revised suspension, reinforced steel-plate chassis, LED lights mounted to the front of the car which is quite stupendously excessive and incredibly unusual for a “Lambo”, and it’s also got a unique “Rally” driving mode. The Sterrato retained the powerful 5.2-litre naturally-aspirated V-10 engine and quick-shifting dual-clutch transmission of the base Huracán.

Porsche 911 Dakar

Finally! Okay, I agree – I’ve teased you long enough. It is the title after all. Apologies.

Earlier this year – March I think, I came across the 911 Dakar and believe me (at the risk of offending you-know-who) – it was love at first sight… It felt a bit more practical and my first thoughts were – “Ah, dis wan go fit tackle dat Festac 2nd avenue road wella O!”, as I could easily picture myself driving one around town. FYI there is a play on words active because “town” here in my head and mind means – difficult terrain. And like I’ve joked about a plethora of times over the years, the average driver down here in Naija is already an amateur to intermediate semi-professional rally driver! And in the words of the great Bruno Mars – “Don’t believe me just watch”:

The 911 Dakar comes beefed-up with extra cladding/protection (its under steel-plate kind of looks even thicker than that of the Sterrato, but it’s not by any means slower) similar to the Lambo, as well as stiffer suspension, higher ground clearance, grippy purpose-built Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tyres, one more driving mode – Rallye and Off-Road Modes (the Lambo has only Rally Mode as we’ve already established), and an incredibly frenetic Twin Turbo 3.0-litre straight-6 engine which makes for a fantastic driving experience – whether off-road (especially when dune-surfing on the desert), on the streets, or on a track.

A feature which reminds me a lot about the Audi All-Road Quattro (the VW group of manufacturers comprising of Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi, Volkswagen and a host of others often rummage about in each other’s parts bin and sharing of technology is also quite common hence plenty similarities between some production models) is the ability to further increase its height, raising the ground clearance even higher in order to tackle more difficult and challenging terrains. It however allows that only up until 105mph (168km/hr), any speed above that and it automatically starts to lower itself as a lower centre of gravity makes for better handling and the prevention of slips.

Even its iconic name has some rich history to it as it is famously named after the gruesome yet epic Dakar Rally – a rally style race-against-the-clock from Paris-France to Dakar-Senegal, spanning about 10,000-kilometres (6,250miles) and can go for days on end (10 – 15 days actually, please ignore my “flair for the dramatic”). Albeit lately it’s being held and has been held in Saudi Arabia mostly due to insecurity. Oh Africa my Africa…

Naturally, you’d expect a real-world comparison between both cars and you wouldn’t be wrong. Yes, the 911 Dakar isn’t as bodacious as the Huracán Sterrato, some us know the story (and have seen that Ferrari Vs Lamborghini movie starring Frank Grillo) – despite his “humble” agricultural/tractor manufacturing background, Ferruccio Lamborghini was always one for ostentatious aesthetic and wouldn’t even mind sacrificing functionality and or performance which caused frequent rifts and clashes with his engineers and designers. However, like an adage in my native Igbo says – “Ana n’aputa agu ihe o’kpu n’no unu.” – which loosely translates to “You can’t take away what a lion already has in its mouth.” – sure it’s a matter of preference but the Porsche is clearly the stand-out winner here and “you can’t take that away” as this video from Top Gear rightly proves.

Toyota GR Corolla

One thing I intentionally failed to mention in the previous article about how motorsports influences production cars was the ergonomics of seats, as I had the GR Corolla in mind. Now you don’t have to imagine racing-type bucket seats with a high-performance engine out-front in a Toyota Corolla – it’s already a reality!

The GR Corolla is undoubtedly the new kid on the block with its rally-style (World RallyCross Championship ) configurations as there have been other manufacturers before them that have “been there, and done that”, literally. I’d like to think it’s more of a statement from Toyota rather than a cash-grab seeing is how they limited the production units drastically (to about 6,000, and just 70 for the Morizo Edition ‘without rear-seats’ – named after Akio Toyoda’s racing alter-ego). I remember Mercedes doing something similar with the A45S AMG but ultimately the King of hatchbacks/hot-hatches will always be the VW Golf as compared here, it’s simply too iconic to be unseated anytime soon.

I’m not even going waste anymore time spitting any game as Matt Watson of Carwow already reviewed not just one but two variants of the nimble GR Corolla on a track in Japan.

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed putting it all together. Thank you for taking out your more than precious time, out of what I imagine is a crazy and hectic schedule to read no just this but previous posts altogether (yes and yes – pun fully intended, couldn’t resist *winks). All the very best wishes.

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