RETURN to DAKAR

Porsche recalls one of its most enduring classics with the cool new 911 Dakar...

- DUNCAN QUINN

Sadly, Ickx blew two tyres on the second day, and suffered an almost terminal electrical fire on the third, leaving him little chance of success. He gallantly made it from 139th to 6th by the finish, but was pipped to the post by a handful of Range Rovers, Mitsubishis-and René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne in one of the other factory 911 Carrera 4x4s. Porsche had done the unimaginable and won the toughest off-road rally in the world in a modified supercar.

As we hurtled over the Atlas Mountains in the private plane I stared into space, certain adventure awaited me as soon as we hit tarmac. And pondered first that 911s have engines in the wrong place, and second that I am no stranger to extreme off-road rallying.

Rallying demanding long travel suspension, sump and differential guards, winches to go up and down slopes too steep to climb or descend, air intake snorkels above rooflines to ford rivers, and roll cages with sixpoint harnesses in case of any real circus acts. This, of course, made me the perfect man for the job at hand: sniffing out the whiff of Chelsea Chariot in a car marketed as the real McCoy with Paris-Dakar DNA in its braided steel veins.