For the past four years, Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) has put on its annual Porsche Classic Restoration Challenge. Taking place during Rennsport Reunion 7 at WeatherTech Raceway in Laguna Seca, California, the 2023 competition saw around 70 vehicles from all over the country competing. And while many of these rides have been retained by local clubs or builders, one model is now going under the hammer at Bring a Trailer auction house. 

To Safari or Not to Safari

Up until recently, it was viewed as sacrilegious to chop up a vintage Porsche in order to create a safari-style one-off for taking off the road. Luckily, the community became more open to these customizations around a decade ago, to the point that now, these go-anywhere 911s are seemingly a dime-a-dozen, with simple additions merely including a lift kit and light pod. However, every once in a while we’ll see a special safari build that makes us pause and take notice, such as the one up for auction right now.

Safari-Style 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe Basics 

Built by Oregon-based pre-owned dealership Porsche Beaverton, the beautiful custom up for auction this week is based on a 1986 911 Carrera Coupe. The safari build includes a suspension lift and spring plates from an Elephant Racing kit, RSR sway bars, a skid plate, a Dansk sport muffler, BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K02 tires, a custom-fabricated front bumper, a whale-tail spoiler, and TRE Motorsports rally lighting. Highlighting the build is a classy wooden slat roof basket up top.

Aesthetically, the adventure-focused additions enhance the vehicle but the restomod doesn’t stop there. The shop also repainted the exterior in black and reupholstered the inside to feature black leather seats with houndstooth cloth. Even the dashboard and door panels got an upgrade.

Under the hood, Porsche Beaverton disassembled and rebuilt the 3.2-liter flat-six and Type 915 5-speed manual transmission of the original. You’ll notice the red tachometer on the gauge cluster, as well as an odometer that reads 124k miles. 

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

Currently up for auction via Bring a Trailer, this safari-style 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe is currently up to $133,000 at the time of this writing. Head over to the website to learn how to bid before it ends on January 2.

Safari-Style 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe

An Oregon-based Porsche dealership built this safari-style 1986 Carrera Coupe for the annual Porsche Classic Restoration Challenge.