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Porsche 911 Safari Offers Muddy Flat-Six Drifting, "Previews" Factory 911 Dakar

One of the things that makes the Porsche 911 the legend that it is has to do with the rear-engined layout of the thing keeping the driver on his or her toes at all times. However, snap oversteer can often backfire when you're driving on tarmac, as pavement cars usually don't go well with scratches.
Porsche 911 Safari drifting on gravel 5 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
Porsche 911 Safari drifting on gravelPorsche 911 Safari drifting on gravelPorsche 911 Safari drifting on gravelPorsche 911 Safari drifting on gravel with Matt Farah driving
Well, US Porsche racer Leh Keen seems to have found a solution, offering something like an unlimited oversteer plan for Neunelfer drivers. This is called the 911 Safari and sees a classic incarnation of the Zuffenhausen coupe getting a lifted treatment and then some.

We're dealing with a 1981 Porsche 911 SC and while the 200 hp three-liter flat-six and the five-speed manual gearbox (yeah!) of the thing are still in place, the suspension setup now offers about four inches of extra travel.

Leh wanted to keep the costs under control, so don't expect any tech-fancy custom suspension pieces - even so, the cost of the Safari conversion sits anywhere between $35,000 and $40,000 (yes, on top of the base car).

That's not a problem though. The part of the story that you won't see in the Drive video below, which sees Matt Farrah hooning the hell out of the 911 Safari, is that Ken has received multiple orders for such a contraption.

A few years ago, this was nothing more than a personal project for the man, but, tons of internet memes later, people found out about the thing and loved the idea so much that Ken is now building Safaris for other aficionados.

And with mudflaps, skid plates, smaller door mirrors and offroading tires wrapped around the infamous Fuchs wheels, there's no reason to worry about the paint while pulling delicious slip angles on rugged terrain inside this Neunelfer.

Interestingly, the 911 Safari is part of a trend we decided to call jportscars, simply because this describes jacked-up sportscars. Even more interestingly, the rumor mill (that's why we used quotes in the title) talks about the next-generation of the 911, which will debut closer to the end of the decade, bringing us a factory-lifted nine-eleven.

Heck, given Porsche pedigree bits such as the Dakar-winning 953, such a derivative joining the already-generous 911 line-up almost seems normal, so here's to hoping the rumors are true.

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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