Can You Add Off Road Tires to a Porsche 911?
We know the 911 for being the sporty car from Porsche’s lineup, so an off-road version is confusing. Despite the echoes of the screams from millions of purists, the German manufacturer gave the green lights for this version.
Porsche is a brand with a rich history and pays tribute to its heritage in any way that it can. With the 911 model, it pays tribute to the 953, the winning car in the 1984 Paris-Dakar rally.
The new model is called the 911 Dakar and is a modified Carrera 4 GTS. Most of the modifications are around the suspension, so you’re getting the coupe, but in a raised version.
Enough about the car. What about the tires? I’m glad you asked. Porsche partnered up with Pirelli for this tribute car, and the off-road tire model in question is bespoke.
We’ve seen Pirelli doing something similar with the Rivian tires, so the company is familiar with this. The base for the off-road model is the Scorpion All-Terrain Plus, but with a few tweaks.
Pirelli reworked the tire to make it match the 911 performance. The company used new compounds and optimized the structure. As a result, the tire’s performance on loose surfaces is improved without making the road performance worse. Also, the tread pattern is slightly different, which additionally improves off-road performance.
In terms of other options, Pirelli supplies the P Zero Summer and P Zero Winter models for the 911 Dakar.