Operation manual, chapter one. Open the Porsche 911 file inside your head. Hit the reset button and delete everything you know about the product. Scroll down to the Dakar icon. Select it and brace yourself for the unexpected.
The mind boggles in sync with the road that soon becomes a spine-shuddering trail. At the end beckons a soaring dune which partly dissolves upon first impact. The blink of an eye later, the sand turns into dust and engulfs us like floating gauze.
While the driver reaches for his Roentgen glasses, the camera inside the head keeps registering new sightings, like a solitary camel standing proud, a herd of grazing goats, and the silhouette of a stooped Bedouin. The scenery is dominated by a vast mountain range worthy of a National Geographic cover. All the while the lead car is storming ahead, no holds barred, airborne one moment and crash-landing the next.
Welcome to Morocco and two days of serious off-roading in mother nature’s own Dakar lab where Toyota, Audi, Prodrive, Ford, Century Racing and X-Raid Mini conducted the final shakedown tests for the 2022 event merely six weeks prior to the arrival of the big Porsche party.
“Switch to Rallye mode now,” is the first order that comes crackling through the intercom. “And
