The Porsche 911 Dakar comes with tow hooks at the front and back.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
The corner of Eglinton and Oakwood Avenues in Toronto is low-key famous for at least two reasons. First, it’s home to some the smokiest, tastiest, charcoal-grilled, late-night jerk chicken in the city. For those not stopping to eat, however, the intersection is better known as a vehicular bottleneck, a choke point for commuters trying to go into or out of the city.
Eglinton and Oakwood is a gateway to Allen Road, which in turn is a gateway to Highway 401, North America’s busiest highway. And yet, the road surface at the intersection looks as if there’s just been an earthquake. It’s more abstract sculpture than road. Jagged dips, ridges and crests in the pavement bring to mind some of the great impasto paintings of Jackson Pollock, with globs of thick paint creating its own kind of terrain.
Perhaps the intersection’s poor state of repair is a casualty of the never-ending Eglinton Crosstown light-rail transit (LRT) line, which, as the Toronto Star reported, has taken more time to construct than it took to put a man on the moon or to build the Roman Colosseum.
The city is facing serious financial difficulties and smoothing bad roads should rightfully rank lower on the agenda than, say, solving the housing crisis, making sure food banks are fully stocked, funding public transit and reducing the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed on our roads.
Instead, cars must change. They must adapt to the fact that so many roads are bad, and have been for a long, long time now.
Consider this an invitation to German chassis engineers, then. Please come to visit this Toronto intersection or similar ones in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and elsewhere across this country. We don’t have the speed limit-less and perfectly paved Autobahns they have in Germany. Come and see how the rest of us drive. My lower back is begging you.
Too many cars – but especially sports cars and German luxury models with oversized engines and high-performance pretensions – make me feel like the proverbial princess in The Princess and The Pea. I can feel every flaw in the road surface. Too often, it ruins the joy of driving because, to get to a smooth road where these cars can shine, you and your passengers – who are almost certainly regretting their decision to come along – must endure 30 or 45 minutes of kidney-pummelling, butt-kicking ride out of a city. (Cue the world’s tiniest violin for all the sports car drivers who are, occasionally, uncomfortable.)
Porsche seems to have found a solution to this First World problem almost by accident with the ridiculous new 911 Dakar. It’s a $247,200 rugged limited-edition of the 911 that lets wealthy enthusiasts cosplay as daring adventurers, ready to tackle the famous and deadly Dakar Rally from which this car takes its name.
The interior of the Porsche 911 Dakar.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
The example I drove was $296,560 as tested, including optional roof rack, Porsche-branded shovel, jerry cans, and the $32,490 Rallye Design Package. The latter dresses the car in a Rothmans-inspired livery that imitates Porsche’s great rally-racing machines of the 1980s, except, because this is 2023, the cigarette brand name Rothmans has been replaced by “Roughroads” writ large across the doors. (A vintage Paris-Dakar Rothmans 959 would cost around US$6-million at auction, if that helps anyone justify the new Porsche’s asking price.)
It’s the first 911 – except, perhaps, for the 911 Turbo S – I’ve driven that’d make a great everyday car. The increased suspension travel and much softer springs of the Dakar work wonders, transforming the 911 into a car that’s fun to drive anywhere, on good roads or bad, at low or high speeds, just as I’d hoped. On roads where a 911 GT3 Touring or even the less-extreme 911 GTS would be bouncing occupants around the cabin, the Dakar does a remarkably good job of soaking up the choppy, nuggety, uneven pavement. Bigger dips and undulations won’t punish occupants either.
The steering still feels deliciously direct, albeit slightly more removed from the action than in a GT3. That the car rolls side-to-side more through turns as a result of the softer suspension is a non-issue.
Best of all, the knobbly all-terrain tires offer less grip than sticky sports car rubber, so the Dakar squirms under power much more than a typical 911. That’s a technical way of saying it’s more fun to drive, more of the time.
It’s worth noting this car would be an absolute champ in winter too, on account of its all-wheel drive, extra height and extreme tires.
There’s no way the Dakar is worth $300,000, though, and I’ve never felt more silly driving a car than I have in this “Roughroads” rally-racer cosplay version. Apart from that, the Dakar is the 911 I’ve always hoped Porsche would make. If the company has any sense, it’ll make a jacked-up, softer 911 a regular model in the lineup.
The Porsche 911 Dakar comes with optional roof rack, Porsche-branded shovel, jerrycans and spiked pads to help get out of snow or mud ruts.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
Ford is onto something similar with the Mustang Mach-E Rally. And, because my own budget won’t stretch to a 911, I’d love to see Subaru offer a lifted BRZ on upgraded long-travel suspension. Same goes for the BMW M2, Nissan Z and Toyota Supra.
City roads aren’t getting better any time soon, so, automotive engineers, please have some pity for the pothole people.
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