After Audi became world rally champion in 1982 with its four-wheel-drive Quattro, the writing was on the wall for traditional two-wheel-drive machines.
Although Lancia's 037 Group B special eclipsed the production-based Quattro in 1983, it would be the last time a two-wheel-drive machine would win a world rally title.
In early 1983, Porsche stalwart Jacky Ickx won the grueling Paris-Dakar Rally at the wheel of a works Mercedes 280 G Wagon. In the weeks that followed, the Belgian ace convinced Porsche that he should take part in the 1984 event; Ickx was sure that a four-wheel-drive 911 would have the measure of anything else in the competition.
Despite a busy competition schedule that included the TAG-branded F1 engine for McLaren and the 956/962 sports car, Porsche agreed; Turning a four-wheel-drive system into a 911 would be a useful development exercise for another new race car they had up their sleeve: the Group B 959.
With this in mind (and with the backing of Rothmans), Porsche management approved a three-year Paris-Dakar program for 1984, 1985 and 1986. A machine based on the 911 would be launched at the 1984 event. , followed by 959 prototypes in 1985 and 1986.
Although best known for their exploits in sports car racing, Porsche was no stranger to long-distance rallying. During the 1970s they had embarked on various attempts at the Safari Rally, most recently with a suitably modified Martini-backed 911 Super Carreras splint that finished second and fourth in 1978 at the grand African World Championship-ranked event. Rallies that every car manufacturer had a strong desire to win.
Helmuth Bott (Director of Research & Development, and chief coordinator of “experimentals” at the Weissach Center with the Porsche Firm from 1977 to 1988) declared: “The Porsche 911 SC have just failed in Kenya! On the strength of our experience, we will then win in Paris-Dakar! Let the engineers get to work. >>
Back in Stuttgart, the entire team and the three Super Carreras in the Zuffenhausen workshops receive a visit from Ernst Fuhrmann - President of Porsche:
“Gentlemen, you have come close to victory. This close miss is not tragic because the valuable experience gained will serve Porsche in the near future. We will come back and tackle the Safari-Rally again. We miss this title and we want to win it one day. >>
In three sentences... The challenge was met!!
Six months later, in September 1983, a first 911 SC 4x4 was ready to face the sands in the oases of southern Algeria for life-size tests!
For this, they used a prototype based on SC (registered BB PW 992). Technically, the 911 is completely overhauled. It receives the naturally aspirated 3.2-litre engine whose power is limited to 225 HP at 5,800 rpm in order to guarantee reliability.
Ickx and Brasseur rode in the Porsche and Goossens (CEO of TXACO) and Helmuth Bott (Chief Technology Officer of Porsche) accompanied the team in a Jeep.
Finished this week of "atmosphere", the team left the Porsche to Roland Kussmaul who was going to complete the technical tests.
After this work carried out in the first months of 1983, the brand then decided that it would participate in Dakar but it had to be done in 4x4.
A trio of 953s were then assembled: WPOZZZ91ZES100020 (BB PW 604), WPOZZZ91ZES100021 (BB PW 846) and WPOZZZ91ZES100022 (BB PW 528).
Participation in the Paris-Algiers-Dakar Rally 1984
1984 is the sixth edition of Paris-Dakar. The event crossed eight countries during which participants were able to experience some of the most difficult and inhospitable terrain imaginable.
Led by project manager Roland Kussmaul – as well as a racer himself, the 911 Carrera 3.2 4x4 Paris Dakar (953) has been developed to compete against the best off-road racers and cars in the world. What would transpire when the checkered flag was waved 20 days later next to Lac Rose in Senegal was perhaps beyond even Ickx and Kussmaul's wildest dreams. Three cars were entered in this epic race, around 11,000 km long – one driven by Ickx and his co-driver Claude Brasseur, another by Frenchman René Metge and Dominique Lemoyne, while the third was driven by the central man of its creation, Kussmaul, and his co-pilot, Erich Lerner.
After nearly three weeks of intense driving, Metge and Lemoyne steered their car to a stunning overall victory in the inaugural race outing of a 911 – the first time a sports car had won an event that had by then become the one of the highlights of the motorsport calendar. Despite dropping to 139th after a cable fire, Ickx and Brasseur eventually managed to climb back to sixth by the end of the race, thanks in large part to speed, agility and all-wheel drive capability of the 911 Carrera 4x4 (953). Kussmaul and Lerner, meanwhile, finished in a very creditable 26th place.
“Engaging a 911 against four-wheel drive, classic off-road vehicles in the Ténéré desert and the [high plateau of] Assekrem in Algeria seemed absolutely crazy to people. No one would have bet a penny on it,” Jacky Ickx said later, reminiscing about the race.
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