Valkyrie Racing Project 356: A Porsche-Badged Snowmobile on a Quest To Conquer Antarctica

The journey started in 2013 when Renée Brinkerhoff ran her first race in Mexico at the La Carrera Panamericana. Since then, she had felt a strong sense of purpose to continue the vintage racing passion she developed over the years and, at the same time, raise awareness towards one of the major predicaments facing developing countries all over the world, namely child trafficking. Vectors of this grand scheme are Renee's own vintage rally racing team dubbed Valkyrie Racing and its charitable entity, Valkyrie Gives.

In the past eight years, the team has enjoyed unmeasurable fulfillment during demanding competitions such as East African Safari Classic Rally, where they faced the wettest season in 40 years, or while battling the unforgiving tarmac during the Targa Tasmania Rally in Australia.

Furthermore, Valkyrie Racing and its owner and driver Renée Brinkerhoff overcame the staggering altitudes of the Caminos del Inca Rally and the tremendous distance of 10,000 miles during the Peking to Paris Rally, one of the most challenging events of its kind on the planet.

The vehicle of choice for these dangerous competitions is maybe one of the most iconic Porsches ever built, the charming 356A. Coincidence or not, Renee Brinkerhoff’s Porsche and her share the same birth year, 1956. The model's history dates back even further than that, though.

The first generation of the 356 actually hit the market in 1948 and proudly holds the title of Porsche's first production automobile. At the time, it was a nimble rear-engine, rear-wheel drive, two-seater sports car which enjoyed great popularity among enthusiasts and was inspired by Ferry Porsche's (the son of Ferdinand Porsche) own supercharged Volkswagen Beatle.

The 356A came later, in 1955, designated as the "Type 1" or "T1" by enthusiasts of the brand. It boasted a selection of powerplants ranging from a 1.3-liter unit to the most popular 1.6-liter four-cylinder air-cooled boxer engine, which developed 59 hp and a maximum torque of just 81 lb-ft (110 Nm) and came mated to a 4-speed manual transmission.

The next event Renée Brinkerhoff and her team plan to conquer is their most extreme hurdle yet. This year, on the 5th of December, they will partake in the Antarctica Ice Challenge, a troubling 356-mile trip across the frozen continent. The journey will be fully unsupported, and the team will have to spend their nights on the ice, sleeping in tents.

The adventure starts at the Union Glacier, on the Blue Ice Runway, and then stretches 178 miles towards the South Pole and back. Nature is unforgiving, the temperature can reach as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit/ Celsius, and winds can blow up to 200 mph (321.8 kph). Finally, the brave Valkyrie Racing team may attempt to set a land speed record on the Blue Ice Runway.

Of course, to cope with this much abuse, Renée's Porsche 356A had to be heavily modified. For its next journey, the vehicle went through an extreme 18-month makeover, with the help of the UK-based Tuthill Porsche workshop, which held a technical preparation role in nearly all of Brinkerhoff’s endurance rallies and senior chassis design engineer at Lotus, Kieron Bradley.

"The Polar Porsche," as Valkyrie Racing calls it now, stars a full-on snowmobile architecture, featuring a pair of massive snow tracks in the place of the rear tires and a set of skis in the front, and even a crevasse bar with a dual-sided solar panel.

The chassis had been extensively reinforced to cope with the harsh glacial conditions, and the overall design of the vehicle gives off an aggressive but bold demeanor. It enables this snow machine to achieve a 30-degree approach and a 45-degree departure angle. The prime engineering focus of the Polar Porsche is to reduce its impact on the snow as much as possible.

"The ski and track combination increase the flotation by a much as 300% when compared to Antarctic 4X4 support vehicles on the 42" tires -and the 356 will be gliding and leading the tracks throughout the entire journey", explains Bradley. The ski system deployed in this build is pretty unique. It manages to be supported by all the other vehicle components in order to minimize its impact on the snow. Essentially, they do half the work, compressing and preparing the snow for the tracked assembly to follow suit.

On the other hand, the vehicle must also withstand the freezing temperatures and extreme environment on the South Pole. Even more, there are also several restrictions which the Polar Porsche must respect in order to qualify for this event. The spiked ice tires must be pre-approved, and the wheel alinement must remain unchanged. The car must use its original rally prepared single-arm coilover suspension and steering system, only adding complementary parts to control the tracks.

Not least, the entire trip must be completely carbon positive, a matter that makes the 150-watt dual-sided solar panel on top of the crevasse bar quite handy. Other auxiliaries that will equip the Polar Porsche during this endeavor include a complete roll cage, a rear-engine winch point, a four-ton bag jack for soft snow airlifting, and a GPS tracking system.

We are looking forward to the 5th of December and gladly wish Renée Brinkerhoff and her navigator, British explorer Jason de Carteret will succeed in their ultimate attempt to conquer the harsh Antarctic environment. Their journey is one of the most inspiring modern automotive stories, and the fact that they fight for a higher cause makes it even more praiseworthy.

The mighty Polar 356 project they have created is by far one of the most impressive builds to ever wear a Porsche badge. So much passion and engineering skills have been put into conceiving such a snow conquering beast that it deserves its own place in the custom vehicle culture.

Surely, when the rallies will be over, this extreme example of bespoke engineering will become widely collectible among avid enthusiasts of its more than 20,000-mile altruistic journey around the world.