Porsche Drove an Off-Street 911 Increased Than a Piper Cub Can Fly

When growing a brand new automotive, automakers should do a variety of testing. They should see how a brand new mannequin will fare in excessive warmth, chilly, rain, and snow, to make sure prospects who take their shiny new automobiles as much as Alaska or right down to Demise Valley don’t get stranded. However Porsche, maybe getting ready for its upcoming Dakar-themed high-riding 911, determined that the rear-engined sports activities automotive wanted some testing that’s way more in-depth and torturous than regular — say, climbing the world’s tallest volcano.

In order that’s precisely what Porsche did. A closely modified 911 Carrera 4S, piloted by Pikes Peak report holder Romain Dumas, got down to scale the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile searching for what 911 boss Michael Rösler referred to as “the harshest attainable environments.” Dumas drove the modified Porsche to an elevation of 19,708 ft above sea degree was an achievement, and modifying a 911 to make that attainable created one extremely cool automobile.

This 911 is, as you’ll have guessed, extremely modified. It began life as a regular Carrera 4S, however was labored over by engineers from Porsche and Romain Dumas Motorsport to construct an ideal volcano-climbing machine. What makes it so completely different from a inventory 911? Let me rely the methods.

Inside, the automotive has a full roll cage and carbon-fiber race seats. The engine is inventory, however the seven-speed guide transmission has been modified with lower-ratio gears for that candy, candy torque. That energy reaches the bottom by way of portal axles and chunky off-road tires, which bump the 911’s floor clearance to almost 18 inches.

The underbody is protected with aramid armor (which you’re extra more likely to acknowledge by its trademark title, Kevlar) and the physique was widened and reduce for max clearance. It’s bought a winch up entrance, locking entrance and rear differentials, and one thing Porsche calls a “Warp-Connector” — a “mechanical hyperlink between all 4 wheels” that sounds an terrible lot like a locking middle differential.

With all these modifications, it’s unclear what a part of the inventory automotive Porsche is definitely attempting to check right here. The chassis, suspension geometry, energy supply, and extra have been massively altered to provide this 911 a shot at climbing the world’s tallest volcano. But when the crew meant to check Porsche fanatics’ urge for food for off-road fashions, take into account the check successful — I would like this automotive so, so unhealthy.