The 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar debuted in November. It broke cover at the Los Angeles Auto Show wearing a rad two-tone metallic white and blue paint scheme reminiscent of Porsche’s 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally winner. Livery was an available option for the car, but it wasn’t the only way to honor the company’s past. . The automaker will offer wraps that harken back to the looks of the 1971, 1974, and 1978 East African Safari Rally entrants.
The 1971 Rallye Package honored the company’s fifth-place finish while entering the rally for the first time with a work team. The original Porsche race car stands out with just a pair of black stickers on the hood. The new livery dressed the car in a similar way, adding the number 19 on the doors and Porsche branding. The decal set costs $5,260.
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The 1974 Rallye sticker set costs the same, and gives the coupe a bold black outline with a narrower blue stripe underneath. They run down the sides of the car – from the headlights to the rear fenders.
The final sticker set revives Porsche’s fluid-looking 1978 Martini livery for the modern era. The bright orange and deep blue waves look amazing in the Dakar. Porsche added the number 14 to the door. This sticker set is only available as a factory option. It’s also the most expensive at $7,510, but it adds more style than the other two.
Powering the 911 Dakar is the company’s 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six. That produces 473 horsepower (353 kilowatts), sending the coupe to 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) in 3.2 seconds. It has a top speed of 150-mph (241-kph). Porsche sends all that power through an eight-speed PDK gearbox to all four wheels.
Porsche will only be building 2,500 Dakars, but its success could result in more – and hopefully cheaper – high-drive 911s in the future. The 911 Dakar will go on sale this spring in the US for a starting price of $223,450, which includes destination fees. The price tag can be over $270,000 with all the boxes ticked. Customers can purchase all three decal sets from the factory or the 1971 and later 1974 sets through an authorized Porsche dealer.
