Not that long ago, we featured a safari-built Porsche 911, which has become a regular occurrence in both the air-cooled and water-cooled Porsche communities. Now, I may have been a bit critical of that particular build because it didn’t seem quite robust enough to make it worth converting an otherwise decent 911. This 1976 Porsche 911, however, has changed my mind almost instantly in terms of how I feel about these overland builds, as this conversion looks absolutely killer. Find it here on eBay with a Buy-It-Now of $97,000 and the option to submit a best offer.
The seller embarked on what sounds like an amazing road trip when his build was done, taking it from Vermont to California and back again, covering some 8,000 miles and taking some epic photographs in between. The 911 sports an awesome Martini-inspired livery along with the requisite light pod on the hood and roof rack, along with beefy tires mounted on OEM-style wheels. This 911 looks far tougher than the previous Safari edition we featured here, which I suspect has more to do with wheel/tire choice than anything else. The listing mentions several upgrades to the chassis, including Bilstein dampers, Sway Away heavy torsion bars, and fresh wheel bearings and axles.
The interior has been tastefully upgraded as well with one of the best Recaro seat designs ever made, known as the “Confetti” model, which just demonstrates overall attention to detail that was lacking on the previous build. A terrific three-spoke steering wheel, RS-style door cards, Rennline pedals, and Bluetooth along with wireless phone charging make this 911 a willing road trip sidekick, and both the headlights and driving lamps are outfitted with HIDs, which should make nighttime stages a blast. Overall, you get the feeling the seller built this 911 with the road trip already in his mind.
Mechanically, it’s also shown a lot of careful planning, as the 911 is equipped with the desirable combination of a G50 manual transmission with the workhorse 3.2L flat-six. The upgrade to the later transmission is practically a must-do for a cross-country drive, and the 3.2 engine has long been heralded as one of the most overbuilt air-cooled mills ever stuffed in the back of a 911. Overall, this looks like a very fun way to spend $97,000, and I would love to spend a few weeks behind the wheel of a safari build like this one.
If only there were a way to get from Vermont to California and back again on paved roads in a normal car.
That’s awesome!
Where does “the” spare reside?
That would be “Spare Tires,” two on the roof. I did paintings to be used for sponsorship proposals, back in the day. The car ran the Repco Rally, that ran the entire perimeter if Australia, drive by then U.S national SCCA Pro Rally Champion, Hentrik Blok.
I don’t get the hate for the 915 transmission. Def don’t agree that a G50 is a “must” for a cross country drive. The 915 is lighter and not over stressed at all by a 3.2 Carrera engine. Mine did fine on a drive from Tacoma to Winnipeg and on a bunch of other distance drives.
Mmm, let’s see the engine compartment. And a video of a cold start.
$97k, no AC, for basically a Volkswagon. I dunno.
You either know, or you don’t.
The 1984 Paris-Dakar rallye winner was a Rothman’s all wheel drive Porsche with a similar setup to this one….
This is what a Porsche SUV should look like.
In about 1974-1976 Zobislaw Sazada (I know that the spelling is no where correct) Who was the Polish National Rally Champion. Came over to the US to run the POR (Press On Regardless) rally in the Upper Peninsula in late October. Watching him blast through the woods with his 911 based Safari style Porsche was a real treat. One interesting thing happened at the rally. US rallys usually have some “spectator stages” so that the local citizens get to see a rally car in anger. Since back then almost all Pro Rallys were run at night and going out in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night did not “light the fire” for most local people. This particular spectator stage was at a local paved circle track for 4 laps. (1/3 mile if memory serves correctly) EVERYONE knew that the Porsche would be the fastest. The Porsche ran second to last and was in fact the fastest by a wide margin. The last entry to run was a last minute entry by Scott Harvey. (yes that Scott Harvey of Chrysler R&D fame and corporate rally driver in the ’60s) His regular rally car ( a fiberglass bodied, Hemi powered, AWD Dodge Aspen) was not ready in time for the rally. So he chose to run his tow vehicle “The Rhino” which was a pretty much standard Dodge Ramcharger. ONLY, a week before he had Petty Enterprises send him a Nascar engine to pop into the Rhino for the rally. Scott took off on his run and was really flying. (It was scary to watch a Dodge Ramcharger on a paved oval.) at the end of lap 3 the engine seized up and Scott had to coast the balance of the last lap. HE BEAT THE PORSCHE! So much fun those days!