50 years Porsche 911: a frog in the desert

At the beginning of the 1980s, a revolution shook the small world of rallying: Audi launched its quattro, which quickly proved unbeatable in the world championship, and forced other manufacturers to Peugeot , Lancia or Ford, to also adopt four-wheel drive transmission. At the same time, large traditional 4x4s, such as Range Rovers and others Mercedes G, find in the “Paris-Dakar”, as they say then, an adequate playing field. At the confluence of these two trends, the Stuttgart brand will be drawn into a fairly brief but technologically and sportingly quite successful adventure.

Under the influence of Jacky Ickx, who discovered the Dakar with a Citroën CX 2400 GTi, then won in 1983 with a Mercedes 280 GE, Porsche allows himself to be convinced to tackle this challenge. “I met Helmuth Bott, the brand development boss, explained Jacky in a recent interview. DThe two-wheel drive 911s had been prepared for the Kenya Safari, providing a solid foundation. Porsche was then developing its first all-wheel drive, and I convinced them that the…”

The full article can be found in our summer series “50 years of the Porsche 911 in competition”, published in the latest issue of AUTOhebdo, n°1921, available now in digital version and on newsstands.