Last December
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:03 2023 was a very special year for Porsche.
00:06 It was their 75th anniversary.
00:08 It was the 60th anniversary of the 911.
00:11 And to mark that, they did some really special things.
00:14 But I think the most special thing that Porsche did last year
00:17 is represented by these two cars on either side of me.
00:20 Let me explain.
00:21 On December 2nd, 2023, Porsche and racing driver Romain Dumas
00:26 set a new world altitude driving record,
00:29 piloting a modified Porsche 911 running on sustainable e-fuels.
00:33 The journey had begun four years earlier
00:35 as a Saturday Club project by a handful of Porsche engineers
00:38 who believed that a not-far-from-stock 992 911
00:41 was capable of besting the current record.
00:44 A Carrera 4S was acquired and the team got to work.
00:47 New suspension components, including a rather clever thing
00:50 called a warp connector, were designed, milled and fitted
00:53 in just three months.
00:54 By month four, the team and the car were in Chile testing.
00:58 It went well. Very well.
01:00 Back in Germany, a second, more focused 911 was added to the team.
01:04 The development car, Car D, had been nicknamed Doris.
01:07 So then, Car E would be named Edith. Naturally.
01:10 A global pandemic halted the project for almost two full years.
01:14 But when the team finally made it back to Chile,
01:16 they had only one thing on their mind.
01:18 Setting a new altitude driving world record.
01:21 22,093 feet above sea level. A new world record.
01:26 The 911 has now been higher than any earthbound vehicle in history.
01:31 And now, it was my turn.
01:33 Porsche tell me that this, Doris, the first of two
01:36 of these incredibly special 911 Altitude record-breaking cars
01:40 is pretty much a street car.
01:42 Let's test the theory on that.
01:44 Is this car pretty much a street car or not?
01:47 [ENGINE REVVING]
01:58 Oh, my goodness. I'm already in second gear.
02:00 Let's go for third. This is remarkable how short these gears are.
02:03 I grew up on a farm, and this feels not unlike a tractor.
02:07 So, I'm quite at home then.
02:09 They told me this was a road car.
02:11 I have never driven a road car that feels like this.
02:13 What an experience.
02:15 What you can hear clanking down behind me to the right
02:19 is that incredible piece of suspension technology
02:23 that we were told about earlier, the warp system.
02:26 And the way that that manages chassis body roll
02:30 without the use of vertical springs is quite remarkable.
02:35 Let's give it a little bit. Let's see what this can do.
02:37 We're in second. Let's go for third.
02:39 Oh, come on. This thing could go forever.
02:42 First little tilt there. First little feel of...
02:44 You get the sense that that vertical bouncing
02:47 is coming more from the combination of the torque
02:50 and the tyres, the bounce of the tyres,
02:53 than it is from the suspension, which is remarkably planted.
02:57 This car, of course, based on a Carrera 4S,
02:59 so it does have that spectacular all-wheel drive.
03:04 And honestly, I feel safe as houses in this car,
03:07 not least because I've got this big old fall cage enveloping me.
03:12 But honestly, the engineering, the way that the factory car,
03:17 the engineering of the factory car
03:19 and the bespoke special, you know, skunkworks engineering,
03:24 the way that that has all melded into one incredible vehicle,
03:29 incredible experience.
03:31 OK, we've got some rocks here to crawl.
03:40 We're going to, with the help of our lovely friend here...
03:45 ..wham, and we're...
03:52 Look at that. Did you feel like we were going over a bunch of boulders?
03:59 Cos I certainly did. Not.
04:01 And now in first gear, we're just going to let the car crawl down.
04:04 That is remarkable.
04:06 What's even more remarkable when you think about it
04:08 is that this is a stock drivetrain.
04:11 This is a stock 443-horsepower, 3-litre flat-six,
04:17 and it's a stock seven-speed Porsche 911 gearbox.
04:22 Of course, they've altered the ratios significantly.
04:26 It's a 4-to-1 ratio, meaning that the horsepower that's given into the box
04:30 is divided by four and the torque is multiplied by four,
04:34 and that, of course, means it can do things like this.
04:37 I'm currently at probably, I don't know, a 20% incline.
04:42 I'm just crawling down, barely touching the brake.
04:46 This incredible first-gear ratio is doing all the hard work for me.
04:51 Now, this is a very interesting section.
04:54 This is going to test the undulation.
04:56 We're going to see...
04:58 Wow, the incredible way that this car
05:03 handles these remarkable left-right, left-right divots.
05:09 And save for a little bit of clunking, there is nothing.
05:13 There is absolutely nothing.
05:15 This car is an absolute rock.
05:20 Just three months from that initial Saturday Club ideation
05:26 over a couple of nice big German beers
05:29 to pretty much what you're seeing here.
05:32 This actual car was the development car,
05:34 was the first car that they took hammer and saw to
05:38 and started carving out the bodywork to allow for
05:41 incredible uprated bespoke aluminium-milled suspension
05:45 and these tyres.
05:46 Just three months, and that is kind of remarkable.
05:49 Of course, visibility is at somewhat of a premium
05:53 given that we're in a low-slung sports car,
05:56 but everything is so confidence-inspiring
05:59 that it doesn't really matter.
06:01 It really doesn't.
06:02 I can't believe that there are open suspension components here,
06:05 proprietary tech developed by the team behind the 918.
06:09 In fact, this suspension technology was pioneered
06:12 during the process of the 918's development.
06:16 So you've got Holy Trinity-level suspension engineering
06:21 in this car, which is just kind of remarkable.
06:23 And let us not forget that this is the development car.
06:26 This is the lesser, you would say, of the two record-breaking 911s
06:33 because this is the one with all factory components
06:38 in terms of its body panels.
06:41 The car we're going to drive a little bit later,
06:43 codenamed Edith, has bespoke carbon fibre doors
06:50 from the 992 TT3 R Cup car.
06:54 It has carbon composite roof.
06:57 It has plexiglass on all the windows.
07:00 This is--and this is where I understand what Porsche was saying--
07:04 this is pretty much, kind of, a road car, this one.
07:08 And it's just eating up this wonderful, wonderful,
07:14 muddy, hilly, rocky aggregate with ease.
07:20 So then, this Doris production car,
07:26 taken and settled with to become the engineering car,
07:30 the development car, has handled this course with ease.
07:36 I cannot wait to see what Edith, the stripped-out, refined,
07:43 lightweight, actual record-setting car,
07:47 the car that not only went to that plateau,
07:51 but summited the peak itself.
07:54 I cannot wait to see what that feels like.
07:58 What an incredible, incredible experience that was.
08:01 Doris, the first of two cars, the lesser spec, you might say,
08:06 though I don't think, having driven this one,
08:08 there's anything lesser about it.
08:10 The car is remarkable.
08:11 The suspension is clearly, clearly next level,
08:15 above anything I've ever driven before.
08:17 Of course, that incredible story that we were told
08:19 by the Porsche engineers, that when they were thinking
08:21 about how to do this, they took an RC car,
08:24 and they said, "This is the level of suspension play
08:27 that we need in order to make this car go up the mountain."
08:30 And that's what they went to.
08:31 So I've actually just driven a remote-control car.
08:34 And of course, over here, this is Edith.
08:38 This is the super-duper, lightweight one
08:41 with the carbon composite doors off of the GT3 Cup car.
08:46 This is the one that actually summited the mountain,
08:50 and this is the one--I can't believe I get to say this--
08:53 I get to drive next.
08:54 How absolutely exciting.
08:56 Wow.
08:57 Oh, first and foremost, I mean, of course, look around.
09:01 It is so much more raw in here.
09:04 Carbon cup doors.
09:06 This is incredible.
09:07 Carbon roof.
09:08 A big carbon panel behind me.
09:10 All of the gear linkage is exposed.
09:12 The suspension components are exposed.
09:14 I get the impression, given that this is idling
09:17 and I can barely hear myself, think that this is going to be loud.
09:20 So then, why don't we give it a go, huh?
09:24 A regular Porsche 7-speed manual gear selector
09:29 in a car like this is just incredible.
09:32 Oh, it's different.
09:33 Oh, I can already tell.
09:34 Oh, wow.
09:35 Okay.
09:37 Wow.
09:39 Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo.
09:41 Oh, yeah, this is different.
09:43 I won't say I can necessarily feel the weight difference yet,
09:46 given that I'm doing about 11 miles per hour.
09:49 I can hear it, by which I mean to say I can't hear anything.
09:53 Oh, there's the weight difference.
09:55 Now I can feel it.
09:58 Oh, wow.
09:59 This is the car that summited an incredible volcano in Chile
10:04 at over 22,000 feet above sea level.
10:10 Second gear.
10:11 And we push.
10:12 And we slide.
10:14 And we catch it.
10:15 Oh!
10:16 [laughs]
10:18 Wow, should I try and set the speed record on this course?
10:21 I think I'm in the mood to.
10:22 Oh, you can push this one.
10:24 You can really push, Edith.
10:29 Again, the chassis is just remarkably composed.
10:36 Oh, my goodness me.
10:38 And I'm approaching that first rocky impasse.
10:51 Wow.
10:52 I mean, I can't feel anything.
10:53 It's the easiest.
10:55 I thought that Doris handled it well.
10:57 But that was just remarkable.
11:00 And here we go again down that incline.
11:02 Look at me.
11:04 Look at this.
11:05 Look at this.
11:06 Oh, this is remarkable.
11:07 I know as a journalist I should probably try and find something to criticize,
11:11 but I mean, what's the point?
11:14 I mean, a bespoke one of two, kind of one of one,
11:19 off-road Porsche factory race car.
11:23 And let's not forget, this car, as well as Doris,
11:27 did the entire altitude summit and are doing this route using fully sustainable HIF e-fuels.
11:36 Now, here we go to these left-right divots.
11:39 I remember feeling ever so slightly like Doris was just clunky and clattering a little bit on these,
11:44 and of course a lot of that is down to the fact that I'm in first gear in this crawler gear.
11:49 When you see the size of these holes that I'm just overcoming repeatedly,
11:55 left, right, left, right,
11:56 brings a whole new appreciation to this incredible suspension componentry,
12:00 which is moving freely down here right by me.
12:03 If you really push this first gear, it does start to spin the tires up,
12:06 and you do sort of crab along a little bit.
12:10 Wow.
12:15 Yes, let's give it some.
12:16 Up this hill.
12:17 We're in third.
12:18 We're pushing.
12:19 We're pushing.
12:21 Oh my goodness me.
12:24 Oh yeah.
12:26 I think that cameraman was a little bit worried.
12:29 He had no reason to worry.
12:31 I'm in Edith, and apparently I'm the greatest driver on earth.
12:34 That's how it feels anyway.
12:36 The team woke up at 3 a.m. on December 2nd, 2023,
12:41 splintered into two groups, one with Edith, one with Doris,
12:44 and made the ascent.
12:48 Doris made it to the plateau,
12:54 where the team discovered icy pinnacles,
12:59 as well as a glacial ice patch.
13:07 That is where the previous expedition had ended.
13:11 Romain Dumas, though, knew that Edith could cope with the trickier ascent,
13:19 so he hooked a left.
13:21 He went down around those perilous boulders and ice formations,
13:26 of course, knowing, along with the engineers,
13:29 that this suspension componentry could handle that incredible lean
13:34 that would come from driving clockwise around a mountain top.
13:38 He found that trickier path to the top.
13:41 It was remarkable what Porsche managed to engineer.
13:44 What's even more remarkable, of course, is the fact that this is still
13:50 a stock drivetrain, a stock 3-litre, flat-six, 443 horsepower,
13:59 a stock 7-speed manual transmission from Porsche
14:05 with the revised gear ratios.
14:09 It's incredible.
14:10 This car saves around 400 kilos for its use of Kevlar and carbon fibre,
14:16 and you can feel the difference.
14:18 Or maybe that's just in my head. Who knows?
14:20 There is absolutely zero common componentry between this
14:26 and the 992 generation Porsche Dakar.
14:30 But I tell you what.
14:32 If the Dakar, which is a road car with a top speed of 150 yards,
14:38 if that car can make me feel even one one-thousandth
14:42 of the sensation that I'm feeling driving this,
14:45 then I would be beyond, beyond happy to own one.
14:51 Factory off-road Guinness World Records achieving 911,
14:58 running on fully sustainable hydrocarbon HIF e-fuels,
15:04 which was produced in Chile, the country where the record was achieved.
15:09 It's a wonderful story.
15:11 Now excuse me while I enjoy my final few moments in this car.
15:15 The only way I know how.
15:17 Just a little bit of power and a little bit of sliding.
15:22 Woo!
15:24 Ha ha ha!
15:28 Oh wow!
15:30 (Music)
15:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]