1983 911 SC Tackles Off Road Park in California: Off-road Wednesdays
Watch a stock, 30-year-old Porsche bash some trails alongside ATVs and SUVs.
While some people may think of a Porsche as a fragile, high-strung sports car, loyal fans know otherwise. A 911 is a tough, robust vehicle that is capable of much more than just cruising city streets. This is demonstrated perfectly in this video posted on the Trav Johnson YouTube channel. The most impressive thing about this video from 2012 is not just how well the little Porsche did. What is impressive is that the car in the video is a stock 911 SC that was nearly 30 years old on the day the video was shot.
Porsche has a rally history and has modified a number of cars over the years to compete off-road. This was back in the day before they were churning out nearly 200,000 SUV’s a year. Today, the modified cars have been enjoying a resurgence. There are even rally cars being modified with the latest technology. This car though is not one of those heavily built-up vehicles. Outside of some rally lights on the hood this is not modified with aftermarket parts. This is a humble, black SC taking on trails that a lot of Jeep owners would think twice about.
The trails the Porsche is taking on are in the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area in Borrego Springs CA. There is plenty to explore with 85,000 acres of magnificent desert open for off-road fun. The 911 seems to be having no issues scrambling up some of the steep and sandy trails. Having the weight of the engine sit right above the drive wheels is certainly a boon for traction. While the car was not modified the adjustable front and rear suspension was raised to its maximum height. The tires used are a set of 205/70/15’s in the front and a set of 195/60/15’s in the rear.
One of the most satisfying parts of the video comes right at the end. A crowd of people begins to wander up to the Porsche and look at it with amazement. They are staring at it as if it just landed from outer space. You can almost hear them thinking, did that little sports car just drive through the same trails as the lifted pickup trucks? Yup, it sure did.
Ferry Porsche once described the exceptional versatility of the Porsche 911 by saying: “The 911 is the only car that you can drive from an African safari to Le Mans, then to the theater and onto the streets of New York.” On this day in 2012, a group of people at a California off-road park got to witness firsthand exactly what he was talking about. It is unlikely that the driver hosed the car off at the end of the day and then drove across the country to catch a show in New York. However, he certainly could have done so. Either way, we think that he made some people believers that day and they may never look at the Porsche 911 the same way again.
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