other than the noise from the tires (which is a little louder than what’s emitted by winter rubber), it’s all 911. Sure; you sit a little higher but the 911 already has a pretty upright seating position and windshield, so lifting it up 50 mm doesn’t really tell a tale. Even if the Dakar doesn’t equal the performance of the GTS in more “911” conditions, it doesn’t matter so much because anyone who owns one of the 2500 they’re building for ’23 (at about $250,000 a pop) probably also has a GTS or Boxster. Or both. Through the few turns we did have, the Dakar felt planted and communicative, as anything with “911” on its bootlid should feel. It sure doesn’t feel more “Macan” than “911”, and that’s crucial. Off road, the feeling is almost eerie. You look down at the familiar gauge cluster and interior details and think “what’s the big deal?” but then you look at the road ahead – well, the path ahead, anyway, and the camels currently traversing it – and you’re like “oh – now I see” because what you’re looking at is a terrain no sports car should be on. It gets eerier still as you start to push forward over loose gravel and softball-sized rocks and feel, well,
almost nothing. The suspension and heavy tires are so well tuned that everything is swallowed up with gumption. You’re doing about 70 km/h on this stuff like it’s cotton candy. It’s uncanny – but just wait... ..because it’s time to hit the dunes. Like deep snow, the goal here is not to stop because if you do, you will sink into that ultra-fine sand and have to be hauled out by one of the gamely Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUVs tagging along. You have to keep those tires spinning to stay atop the sand, which we had no problem doing. Make use of the paddles, keep it in gears 1-3 and mash the throt- tle, focusing on your steering inputs. There is little I’ve done in the world of performance car driving or off roading that can prepare you for the feel- ing of drifting a 911 through sand, the front wheels flinging the stuff across your windscreen as you counter-steer your way to the top. The route chosen didn’t feature that many precipi- tous ledges to tumble off of, so we were able to contently push forth, pulling off bigger and bigger drift angles and using the mass slung out over the rear wheels to whip our tails from turn to turn. All
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