STUTTGART: When Porsche published the first photos of the latest 911 variant a few weeks ago, there wasn't much of the usual shine to be seen. Instead, the car was dirty and dusty.

While such premieres usually aim to show the vehicle in the best possible light, on this occasion the car wasn’t even cleaned before the photo shoot.

But that look was carefully calculated because this isn’t just any other 911. The 911 Dakar is intended to go off-road rather than stay on track.

With its chunky tyres and increased ground clearance, the all-terrain sports car is reminiscent of the German manufacturer’s rally cars of the 1980s when they took part in races such as the famed Paris-Dakar event.

The main difference being that this latest racer is aimed at the general public. Those who can afford to pay prices starting at €222,020 (RM1mil) can own one of these 353 kW/480hp cars starting this summer.

Even though Porsche only plans to build 2,500 Dakars, this car certainly has a symbolic significance. Twenty years after Porsche became the first sports car manufacturer to launch an off-road vehicle, they’re doing it again and they’re not alone.


Lamborghini gets in on the action

Lamborghini is also joining the tentative countermovement. The Italian sports car manufacturer has beefed up the Huracán to produce 1,499 units of an off-road car called the Sterrato.

The sports car has a good four centimetres more ground clearance, a wider track, plastic planks along the wheel arches and beltline, and two distinctive additional headlights on the hood.

There is also a new air intake on the roof. In the rear, the 5.2-litre, V10 engine still rages, but its output has been slightly throttled back to 449 kW/610hp.

Is this just an attempt to squeeze even more money out of an already widely diversified model family based on a comparatively small outlay? Or is there more to it than that?

Design professor Lutz Fügener from the Hof University of Applied Sciences in Germany certainly sees sense in the concept.

For one thing, an off-road-proven sports car is always superior to an SUV, no matter how well designed, simply because of its proportions and shape.

In addition the protective equipment and the elevation can increase the utility value of the vehicle while the cost in poorer aerodynamics is marginal.

It also makes economic sense, Fügener says, because the world has become more complex for manufacturers of sports cars and off-road versions of their classic models can help them to compete against the flood of new electric sports cars.

These off-road sports cars are conquering new, somewhat rougher terrain, and with it new groups of buyers. They are certainly slower than their road-going counterparts: Porsche limits the Dakar to 240kph instead of 309kph, and Lamborghini’s Sterrato tops out at 260kph instead of 325 kph.


Not everyone is enthusiastic

But there are also dissenting voices such as design professor Paolo Tumminelli. He says that the jacked-up sports cars can be seen as a necessary consequence of the proliferation of traffic circles, speed bumps and potholes.

"In this sense, the intersection of SUV and sports car is the contemporary way to counteract the demise of the open road," he says.

He also sees it as a fresh sign of the car industry's inability to develop meaningful visions for a social, economic and ecological automobile. "Instead, the automobile is celebrated here as a toy of a pseudo-elitist fringe society," he says.

However different their assessment, both design experts agree on one thing: The idea of an off-road sports car is not as new as manufacturers like to pretend.

Fügener sees it as the logical continuation of what started with cars like the Audi Allroad or the Volvo Cross Country. "You put the rubber boots on a car, set it a little higher, cover it with plastic, and thus equip it for bad roads and against minor damage."

And Tumminelli thinks first and foremost of the original Safari Porsche, the 1973 Lancia Stratos, and, more recently, the Italdesign Parcours study that turned the Lamborghini Gallardo into an off-roader in 2013.

"At the time, the VW Group didn't dare go into series production," he says. "But 10  years later, Lamborghini and Porsche are suddenly waking up and reinventing their past."

Fügener says that cars like the Dakar and the Sterrato will occupy only a niche segment "but attention, and thus the potential to radiate to the masses, is definitely there."

If the cars are successful, we may soon see similar concepts in vehicles with lower prices and higher unit numbers, he believes: "Perhaps the long-awaited counter-design to the currently all-dominant luxury SUV is just emerging."

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