The Porsche 953
The Porsche 953, sometimes referred to as the Porsche 911 Rally or the Porsche 911 4×4, is one of the most famous skunkworks 911s to ever depart the Stuttgart factory.
The car started life as a regular 911 SC before undergoing a comprehensive rebuild in the hands of Porsche’s best and brightest.
The unibody shell was reinforced throughout to handle the brutal forces generated when racing in the desert, a new manually controlled four-wheel drive system was fitted, and bespoke suspension was developed and installed – giving the car its characteristic high ground clearance.
The Rothmans-liveried Porsche 953 took overall victory in the 1984 Paris–Dakar Rally driven by René Metge and co-driver Dominique Lemoyne, with Jacky Ickx finishing 6th, taking 9 stage victories along the way. A Range Rover V8 would take second, followed by a Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution.
Today we remember the 953 as the testbed for the legendary Porsche 959, it would be the 959 that would race in the Paris-Dakar in 1985, and a year later it would take a 1-2 finish.
The Porsche 953 INK Print
The 953 you see here has been painstaking recreated with no livery – to showcase the car itself. It’s the work of INK, an award-winning creative studio based in England, and they’ve created a series of prints called the “Plain Bodies” series.
Each poster measures in at A2 size and there’s a series of three in total, showing the 953 from the front quarter angle, the side, and the rear quarter.
Images courtesy of INK
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