We absolutely love the latest trend of taking sporty cars, jacking them up and throwing them at the wilderness. There have been a few players but most famously, Porsche and Lamborghini are now selling production sports and supercars with lift kits and skid plates. The latest to tease such a thing? Nissan at SEMA 2023...
The 9 best off‑road sportscars
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1. Nissan Safari Rally Z Tribute
The Safari Rally Z Tribute is a bit more than a SEMA mudder, though, as the name suggests. An homage to the 1971 Safari Rally-winning 240Z, this show car features KW suspension with a two-inch lift, omore than 400PS (294kW) from its modified twin-turbo V6, a load of spotlights up front and a load of skid plates underneath. Inside we see a roll cage, Recaro seats, four-point harnesses and a map. Yes, a paper map. Please do this thing for real, Nissan. Please. Come to think of it, a good start would be to bring the normal one to Europe...
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2. Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato
It’s been in the works for a coupe of years and we still can’t quite believe this has actually happened. Using the 610PS (449kW) 5.2-litre V10, the Sterrato sees the Huracan raised to the point of a 44mm boost in ground clearance and the addition of special Bridgestone run-flat tyres. There’s also a new ‘Rally’ mode on the LDVI to optimise the car’s AWD and suspension systems. May the Goodwood rally stage echo to the howl of V10s forever more…
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3. Porsche 911 Dakar
The idea of an off-road 911 is, as you’ll see with the number of variations on this list, not new. Porsche has been rallying its most iconic model for most of its life, with great success. The Dakar however celebrates Porsche’s escapades in the Paris-Dakar, which it won twice, first in 1984 and again in 1986. Like the Huracan, the Dakar pumps up the 911 by 50mm compared to a Carrera S. It’s powered by a GTS-spec 480PS (353kW) twin-turbo flat-six and grips via special Pirelli Scorpion tyres. It’s slower than the Huracan, topping out at just 149mph compared to the Lambo’s 160mph, though we reckon the 911 will be a bit better in the rough stuff. There will also be more of them – 2,500 compared to the 1,499 Sterrato’s being made.
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4. Ariel Nomad
Of course the most famous off-road capable sportscar of the last few years has to be the Ariel Nomad. Take Ariel’s tube frame titan, the Atom, pull off the track suspension, wings and cut slicks and replace them with long-travel shocks, rubberised bump panels and knobblies. It also sports a torque-rich 2.4-litre Honda four-cylinder which is plenty for getting its sub-700kg mass scrabbling up the dunes.
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5. Marc Phillip Gemballa Marsien
Of course, Ariels have never been quite as glamorous as one might hope. Enter Marc Philip Gemballa. A last name you’ll recognise and a familiar penchant for Porsche’s what once was associated with crazy plastic body kits and big turbos, now builds off-road spec 911s. Described as “the ultimate adventure sportscar” the Marsien is an even more extreme tribute to the mad 953 and 959 Dakar monsters Porsche campaigned in the 1980s, with bespoke bodywork over a 911 Turbo base and using RUF power. Dare we say, it looks even cooler than the Dakar? With between 750PS (552kW) and 830PS (610kW), it sounds like it’ll go harder too.
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6. Prodrive Hunter
Prodrive know a thing or two about rallying as we well know and what better civilian off-road supercar, than one based on Prodrive’s Dakar-attacking machine, driven by Sebastien Loeb? That’s what the Hunter is, sporting twice the power of the Bahrain Raid Xtreme seen at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. Prodrive calls it an “everyday” off-road hypercar – just one that can tackle such terrain at “unimaginable” speed, thanks to 35-inch wheels and twin coilover suspension. Its 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 puts out 600PS (441kW) to all four wheels, for a 0-62mph time of under four seconds and a 186mph top speed. Oh yes, though £1.25million plus taxes is pretty tasty…
7. Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer - All-terrain Competition Study
The 911 Dakar and Huracan Sterrato are cool, but their transformation for rallying duty isn’t the most comprehensive. Likewise the Prodrive is highly impressive, if a little industrial. If you’re looking for such engineering fetishism but still in a sexier 911-based package, the 'Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer - All-terrain Competition Study is what you want. It's a collaboration with 911 expert Richard Tuthill to create a near-pornographic carbon-clad modern take on Porsche’s old Dakar weapons. Officially, the power output seems somewhat modest at 450PS (331kW) but you can definitely have more. What a stunning thing.
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8. Aixam Mega Track
The what? This is the Aixam Mega Track, the original off-road-ready supercar powered by a Zonda-esque Mercedes V12. It also has a maximum ground clearance of 330mm with the air suspension stretched out fully. With four seats the Mega Track was quite practical for a mid-engined V12 supercar, though the 6.0-litre V12 didn’t reach the heady heights it did in the Zonda, putting out only 390PS (287kW) for 0-62mph in 5.8 seconds on the way to a 155mph top speed. Less than 20 were sold in five years from 1995, meaning it’s a whole lot rarer than the new Lambo and Porsche.
9. Morgan Plus Four CX-T
Is a Morgan the last or the first sportscar you’d expect to get the off-road treatment? Weirdly, for us, it’s a bit of both. Yet back in the early 20th century, they were popular and successful choices for trials and hillclimbs. Today there’s another mud-ready Morgan: the CX-T. It’s a Plus four that’s been rally-ified by Dakar experts Rally Raid UK, with rally-spec springs and dampers, a roll cage, fog lights and much more. As we found out, it’s an uncanny machine for the business for ripping through rough stuff.
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