From the March 2020 issue of Car and Driver.
When an older Porsche 911’s rear end succumbs to snap oversteer and Newtonian physics, you might just find yourself in a field. Getting back to the road usually requires a humiliating call for a tow. But what if you could drive out of the muck yourself? What if a field is exactly where you want to be?
Porsche began building rally-car 911s in the ’60s, then lifted them in the ’70s and ’80s for off-road races like the East African Safari Rally and the Paris-Dakar. But until recently, few private owners were interested in turning their garage queens into something that could run up a mountain and back down into the holler. Racer Leh Keen decided he wanted to do just that, so he formed the Keen Project and modified his ’81 911 SC with a four-inch lift, custom dampers, shorter gearing, and meaty BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires. He recently delivered his 19th such 911; about 20 more have been ordered. Keen says he loves his Safari 911 because “it’s something I don’t have to worry about. It feels, smells, and drives like a 911, but I can take it off-road and to my cabin in the woods.”
Keen isn’t the only one building Baja-worthy Porsches. Russell Built Fabrication and Kelly-Moss Road and Race sell 911s with similar mods. The traits that make a 911 great on track are also suited to off-roading. The unibody is robust, the engines are reliable, and air cooling means you probably won’t overheat the flat-six when you’re slinging mud. Keen will modify only G-body (1974–89) 911s, as they’re easy to lift: All you have to do is reclock the torsion-bar springs. There’s plenty of setup after that, but it’s still simpler than lifting later coil-sprung 911s. Prices for one of Keen’s creations, including the donor car, start around $ 120,000, about the same as a new Carrera 4S. The latter might be a better daily driver, but only if you keep it on the road.
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