BUILT FOR ADVENTURE
Porsche came tantalisingly close to winning the East African Safari Rally in the 1970s. Along with the Middle East Rally Championships of the mid-1980s (dominated by Saeed Al-Hajri and his 911 SC RS) and the Paris-Dakar Rally (won in 1984 by Rene Metge and Dominique Lemoyne in the 953), the Kenyan classic is one of the most challenging motorsport events ever devised. Today, encapsulating the spirit of the tough Porsches put through their paces on these demanding contests, 911s customised to ‘Safari’ specification are hugely popular, as demonstrated by Singer’s megabucks All-terrain Competition Study (ACS), revealed this time last year. Back in the real world, Kyrre Birkeland has just spent a week scrambling across rugged Alpine passes more than three thousand metres above sea level, all from the comfort of his altered 964.
Like many of us, Birkeland has been a fan of Porsche products since he was young. His story starts with a 911 Turbo (930) depicted in a poster stuck to his bedroom wall, and reached its zenith a few years ago, when he achieved a lifelong ambition by becoming the owner of a 911. Taking the form of a 991 Carrera 4S, the car more than lived up to expectation, but Birkeland soon came to the realisation his dream 911 was a Carrera 3.2, which is why he bought an example of the 964’s predecessor to keep his
