Porsches modified for safari-style rally racing may be all the rage on the mean streets of Los Angeles these days—here's looking at you, Matt Farah—but the rest of the world has always known that lifting a 911 and blasting it around on dirt tracks is a surefire recipe for a good time. Porsches were involved in private rallying even well before the 953 brought all-wheel drive into mix; in fact, some purists might claim that today's highly technologies supercars have been an overly cautious mistake ever since the 953 transformed into the world-beating 959. Case in point comes via Porsche itself, in a recent exploration of the East African Safari Classic Rally and Tuthill Porsche, which entered a ridiculous 10 cars in the 2019 race.
Serious Fun
Three decades ago, the East African Safari Classic was part of the World Rally Championship. With stretches in Kenya and Tanzania, the ten-day race only includes one rest day right in the middle. Today's iteration, which is a privateer-only spectacle, only allows cars built before 1986. But Richard Tuthill, the namesake of Tuthill Porsche, strictly enters G-series examples of the 911, complete with 915 gearboxes and the original 3.0 liter of displacement from their flat-sixes.
Not Just Cars
So, what happens when cars nearly half a century old blast through Africa? Well, other than the fun, the whole extravaganza sounds absurdly expensive. Tutthill ships his cars from the UK to Africa in six shipping containers—but it's not just the cars themselves. He says, "We have one container per car that holds everything from wheels and tires to jacks, axle stands, jerry cans, gearboxes, whatever it is. Probably 100,000 Euros of spares per car.”
Little Details, Fast Work
But no one wants to get stuck in the middle of nowhere in East Africa with a car that can't handle the heat. In 2017, none other than Stig Blomqvist was on hand to witness the efficiency with which Tuthill runs his squad: "Stig Blomqvist had an engine problem. Now, no-one likes an engine problem, but that year we changed an engine and gearbox in 13 minutes, which also involved me driving six hours straight through the night to pick a new engine up.” If that's not diehard Porsche enthusiasm to put West Los Angelenos to shame, nothing is.
Source: Porsche