Porsche has created a special Cayenne with which it hopes to win the Transsyberia off-road rally for the second year in succession. Last year two privately entered Cayennes finished first and second in the gruelling 3,850 mile event.
The rally runs from 2 to 17 of August starting in Moscow and finishing in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, crossing the Gobi Desert in between.
The special Cayennes have a package of upgrades, although the driveline remains unchanged apart from a sports exhaust and a shorter final drive ratio. The transverse diff lock from the offroad technology pack is fitted as standard, and there’s a special offroad mode to the air suspension plus reinforced track control arms.
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The underbody of the Cayenne has been further protected with additional panelling, as has the exhaust, and a snorkel protects the engine when crossing rivers. Naturally, the high performance road tyres have been shunned for a set of dedicated offroad rubber.
Inside there’s a roll cage, no rear seats and most of the interior trim has been gutted. A standard handbrake replaces the foot-operated example of the production car; there’s a dedicated nav unit and trip computer, and a host of useful extras: two 20 litre reserve cans, a hydraulic jack, two fire extinguishers, two sand boards, two full sized spare wheels and two boxes of tools.
Interior kitted out for rally use
Just 26 Cayenne S Transsyberia 2007 models will be made, available in either metallic black or silver with orange coloured wheels and side script in the style of the GT3 RS.