The Porsche 911 Dakar is the greatest idea in motoring history | GRR Cars of the Year 2023
It's been an incredibly exciting year for the motoring industry. We here at GRR have driven so many brilliant cars over the past 12 months, and everything we’ve always loved is still right here, it’s just arguably better than it’s ever been. To evidence our point, we’ve pulled together nine cars that we consider to be among the very best of 2023, and we’re going to celebrate their brilliance right here at Goodwood.
The amount the motoring media bangs on and on and on about Porsche 911s, you could be forgiven for feeling entirely sick of them. But they just are fantastic in all the ways people say. What is not necessarily highlighted in the most basic possible terms, is just how versatile the thing is. Our selection of cars of the year features two 911s. One is a track-prepped downforce monster with a big wing. The other could shame most current large SUVs across a proper slippery field or over a rough trail. It is of course the 911 Dakar, a jacked-up, rubber-arched tank of a thing, harking back – as its name suggests – to the 911’s lesser-celebrated motorsport exploits over the decades off the beaten path.
So what makes it great? Well, unless you’re expecting to take delivery of a Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato any time soon, there’s nothing like it on sale today. It really is a proper sportscar – the Porsche 911 Dakar takes the 480PS (353kW) Carrera 4 GTS as its base – turned into a rally raid weapon, that retains its numberplate and all the road car frippery.
In theory the Dakar with its knobbly tyres and 50mm extended travel should walk away with honours on the road, taking the UK’s smashed road network in its stride. It also makes on-limit driving more accessible, given its limits are so far below those of conventional sports and supercars. Then, when you’re bored of the black stuff, you can hoss it up your local green lanes or, if you’re a land-rich farmer, across your fields and around tracks. All, remember, with Apple CarPlay playing your tunes and with the climate control set just so.
This is quite possibly the most exhilarating off-roader we have ever driven on the road. It’s a genuinely impressive feat of engineering that delivers an incredibly rare experience. If you want a capable car that can be driven quickly on any given day, regardless of the weather, then this might just be the new number one pick.
Simon Ostler Website Editor, GRR
In fact, to put it to the test, we intend to do just that, by throwing it at the Goodwood Forest Rally Stage you might have seen at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. Yes, Porsche have agreed to this and yes, they’re excited to see how it fares. We can’t wait.
Our favourite thing about the Dakar, though, is this. It is quite clearly the product of the company that builds the world’s most famous, most celebrated sportscar, that’s also famed for its effervescent internal combustion engines, as it stares down the barrel of an all-electric future. The Dakar – and all the other weird, wonderful and just downright delightful 911, Boxster and Cayman variants we’ve seen of late – is a “screw it, now or never” car. It’s a car very much without a prequel and surely, one without a sequel. In other words, it’s incredibly special – a moment in time for car enthusiasts in 2023. Need we say more?
Be sure to watch the Goodwood Road and Racing Cars of the Year video when it launches on Friday 15th December.
Photography by Joe Harding.
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