The 959 Heritage Never Dies
Those crazy Germain designers over at Porsche really went over the top with this one. This ‘Macan Vision Safari’ takes the first-gen Macan crossover and brings two doors and some hefty off-roading upgrades to make this thing a true Dakar star.
The designers state that they pulled heavy inspiration from the 911 Safari and the 959 Paris-Dakar race car (the coolest rally car ever made in my opinion – Don’t believe me? One recently sold for close to $6 million).
With the Macan’s small form factor, it was destined to be an off-road star if given enough attention and re-design (who am I kidding, It’s a commuter SUV). Porsche’s designers did exactly that, and took the pre-existing all-wheel-drive system, dual-clutch transmission, and packaged it into a little off-road SUV devil.
The vehicle features bigger tires, a custom roll-cage, and a few offroad goodies to keep the ‘beaten path’ a little more interesting.
This Macan concept from 2013 was never fully realized, but the 911 Vision Safari developed in 2012 was recently unveiled last October; carving a path down the Nurburgring with a lift-kit and LED lightbar strapped to the roof.
Both vehicles are equally interesting, and it’s unfortunate that today’s climate doesn’t allow for as much ‘custom fun’ as we used to see in the early days of race car development.
