As customers continue to demand more and more SUVs, carmakers are starting to make rugged, jacked-up versions of every other car, including hatchbacks, wagons and everything in between. Even sports cars are not immune to this trend – Alpine has just shown us the A110 SportsX concept, and over in the United States, racer Leh Keen has been modifying old Porsche 911s, turning them into Safari-spec rally monsters.
Clearly seeing the success of the latter, Ruf – which builds its own cars out of Porsche bodies and engines – has presented its own take on the Safari 911 formula with the Rodeo Concept. Using the same bespoke carbon fibre monocoque as the new CTR Anniversary and SCR models, it features longer-travel suspension, larger all-terrain tyres and all-wheel drive to give the rear-engined sports car actual off-road prowess.
On top of all this, Ruf has given modern 964-style body a two-tone beige and olive green matte colour scheme with red pinstriping, and festooned it with a roof rack, mud flaps, leather bonnet and boot straps, a front wrench and even a rear-mounted shovel. Also fitted are quad driving lights and a beefy bull bar – wrapped in leather, of course.
No technical details have been released, but the company says that the car has been designed to accommodate either a naturally-aspirated or turbocharged engine. This means it should fit the CTR’s 710 PS/880 Nm 3.6 litre turbo flat-six or the SCR’s 510 PS/470 Nm 4.0 litre NA mill, both matched to a good ol’ six-speed manual transmission.
Still no word on whether the Rodeo will enter production, but given how exclusive Ruf’s cars are, an extremely well-heeled customer should have no problem commissioning one.
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Wow, what a great looking Porsche. I like the shovel at the back!!!
If Porsche could produce Bull-bar wrapped in leather, they should make shovel made from finest silver…