The Porsche Dakar – Offroad Excellence

A story of how we went from this…

To this, in the Nevada desert.

When it comes to Porsche, offroad usually isn’t the first surface that comes to mind. Until you drive the Porsche 911 Dakar, then offroad driving and finding more loose surfaces to drive on becomes the only thing on your mind. Join us as we cover more in-depth and behind-the-scenes of the STEK Dakar Video Shoot on our way to the 2023 SEMA Show.

This beautiful Dakar was provided by the team at Glaswerks DMV in Sterling, VA, who were willing to take their machine through the wringer thanks to our DYNOmight PPF they installed across the entire body. DYNOmight is our extra-thick, 10mil TPU-based PPF, offering 25% more protection than traditional clear bra and other protective automotive films, which, needless to say, you want every percent of when driving this vehicle like the engineers intended.

Our teams met up in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas a few days before the start of SEMA. We were bringing this Dakar into our STEK booth, but not before testing its abilities offroad, earning its coating of dirt, and pushing the limits of traction those poor tires would give us. It already seemed like a win-win-win for the enthusiasts onboard… i.e. all of us.

We mean, where else do you take your barely broken-in Porsche 911 Dakar? Months of planning and preparation went into driving this vision over the finish line, into our booth, and to your screens. We were also impressed by the number of folks who didn’t believe the dirt on this STEK booth car was real; we can assure you it was very real and put on in the best fashion possible, going sideways on loose surfaces. We should probably pause here to say, if you haven’t seen our full-length action video of this Porsche, your serotonin receptors are waiting for you to click below:

The goodies Porsche didn’t tell you about…

Porsche did a phenomenal job engineering a machine that is geared (literally) to go fast over loose surfaces. For those who are waiting to find out more about it, there were some goodies the press releases left out we took full advantage of, and we figured we’d tell you about.

That beautiful roof rack sports one of the sleekest LED light designs we’ve seen, incorporated directly into the rack and shining incredibly bright. A magnetic connector makes it easy to plug and play and add or remove the rack, pending the clearance you need. In true rally car fashion, Porsche also added extra armor around the rear control arms to ensure they withstand the blasting of rocks and sand even at speed. When you’re playing outside (our favorite playground), trailing behind any other ORV, the constant spray of dust and debris can cause some major breathing problems for your toy. Porsche knew this and engineered additional features on the Dakar’s airbox that help protect those contaminated from being sucked into the motor or clogging your filters.

A lot of times, durable protection will add weight and take away from the car’s performance; that’s why the underbody and mudflaps were reinforced with Carbon Fiber so that you can take this agile 3,552 lb machine dancing across a huge variety of terrains with no bogging characteristics to speak of. Tastefully, the roof rack and the gear on it, including Porsche water tanks, traction boards, and dry bag, were optioned from the factory, called the Dakar Adventure Package. And if you are fortunate enough to come across the Dakar, adventure is exactly what it calls for. Glaswerks also installed a full Kline Inconel exhaust system, shaving an additional 39.19 lbs from the OEM package and allowing the twin-turbo flat-6 to sing.

The Route.

We had a busy schedule, and we’re excited to tell you about it. We started in the infamous Valley of Fire to get your classic canyon cruising shots. This was tastefully done before trying to pumble the machine with rocks, dirt, and sand. Enjoy a behind-the-scenes shot, first seen here:

Next, we were off to a beautiful gravel quarry we had scouted in the days before our shoot. It offered an extremely tough terrain of large and sharp rocks, but the 911 ate it up, and DYNOmight fought off any of those impacts from taking paint with it. The car was in it’s first natural habitat. The Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) also got nice and warmed up rocking between wheel-spinning gears.

After this, we shot over to the Amargose Big Dunes, where we really got to see the capabilities of this all-wheel-drive monster. It sailed through the sand dunes like it belonged. We were grateful for Glaswerk’s creativity and engineering too , adding their custom fiberglass flag poles, Glaswerks, and STEK flags to stay in compliance with the ORV park rules. The boys in the car were having so much fun it was hard to interrupt their laughter and smiles to get the shots we wanted, but we got it done for your viewing enjoyment.

One of the last stops of our 911 Dakar Offroad Aventure was at the Jean Roach Dry Lake Beds. We learned dry lake bed is another way of saying, go as fast as you can and get sideways. We had a heck of a time keeping up for some roller shots in our STEK sprinter van and were so impressed by the center of gravity that kept the 911 on all fours, even when the goose got lost in its own roost.

The dry lake bed and the roads to it were the cherry on top of an already epic two days of driving off-road. The Dakar owner and our counterparts got to experience speed and g-forces best otherwise left to the professionals. Not only did the 911 eat it up, but everyone else out enjoying their recreation were breaking their necks, mesmerized by the beauty that is a Porsche being completely planted while sideways at above high-way speeds.

This environment is where the majority of the soot and dirt grabbed onto every single surface, delivering the visual of what this car was really made for. We apologize to the folks getting married on the lake bed, but hope you enjoyed the scenic background of this supercar ripping, it felt just as special to us.

Under the Spotlight.

We weren’t kidding when we said this dirt was real and earned real well. The next stop wasn’t the wash bay, though, it was right into the SEMA show. With a handful of highway miles back to Las Vegas, we convinced the SEMA organization there was no more dirt going to fall off the car, and with that, we could drive it right into the STEK Automotive booth in the West Hall of the Convention Center.

We weren’t judging anyone looking our way, just those who decided they needed to touch it to see if it was real… despite the do-not-touch signs and caution tape around the car. That didn’t stop us from capturing the attention of thousands, though. We were extremely grateful for the opportunity to bring in such a show-stopper. From one group of enthusiasts to the next; thank you for coming to check it out.

After the SEMA show wrapped up, an initial clean and wash were given to the mean machine so its transportation back to Glaswerks DMV for the deep clean, was a little less daunting a task. As we continue to go through our content, here is some more behind-the-scenes of the first wash.