The Porsche Brand Ambassador and former World Endurance Champion has used the occasion to showcase and record the driving performance capabilities of two iconic 911 models to recently emerge from Porsche: the 911 Dakar and the 911 GT3 RS.
Joining Webber on this unique adventure was 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Stéphane Ortelli, who shared the energetic drive to the destination in this entertaining video production.
Titled 911 Dakar Down Under, the story follows the delivery of an important parcel to the 911’s 60th birthday party in Australia.
Porsche Cars Australia chose several spectacular locations to capture the duo’s dynamic driving action in these two iconic 911 models. Rugged Coober Pedy provided the dramatic outback settings to showcase the all-terrain capabilities of the rally-inspired 911 Dakar. This limited-edition model evokes the first overall victory by Porsche in the Paris-Dakar Rally, a 1984 racing success which coincided with the birth of all-wheel drive in the Porsche 911.
The 353 kW (480 PS*) 911 Dakar, driven by Webber in the video, features an extra 50 millimetres of ground clearance thanks to a retuned chassis, and specially developed Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tyres for impressive rough-terrain grip and durability.
The Bend Motorsport Park outside Adelaide hosted some spectacular performance laps by Ortelli, who deployed all 386 kW (525 PS*) of the motorsport-derived 911 GT3 RS on the 7.7-kilometre track when utilising the 911 GT3 RS’s Track mode under controlled conditions.
According to Daniel Schmollinger, CEO and Managing Director of Porsche Cars Australia, 911 Dakar Down Under captures more than a fun and memorable celebration of the archetypal sports car from Porsche.
“After 60 years the Porsche 911 remains the definitive sports car,” he said. “It stands for more than performance and design; it is driving in its most beautiful form.”
“Both Mark and Stéphane are legends when it comes to pushing performance boundaries and in this film, they really show the fun that is embedded in driving the rear-engine 911”.
Click here to watch 911 Dakar Down Under.
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* PS (Pferdestärke, German for horsepower) is the standard unit used in the European Union to measure the power output of a motor in ‘metric horsepower’.
