A 911 Dakar Porsche Travel Experience roadtrip

The ultimate Namibia roadtrip experience in a 911 Dakar

How the cars are prepared for a unique Porsche Travel Experience

September 11, 2025 | 4 min read

Porsche 911 Dakar driving on Swakopmund beach in Namibia

The gravel roads and desert of Namibia are the ideal terrain for a 911 Dakar. Join the Porsche Travel Experience team as they prepare for a very special experience – Camp 911 Namibia

Just outside the dream-like coastal town of Swakopmund, Namibia there’s a beach that’s 40 metres wide at low tide. Here, Atlantic waves roll in from the west while, to the east, deserts, dunes and mountains stretch deep into the interior. If you wanted to, you could drive north along this beach all the way to the border with Angola or south to South Africa. That’s around 1500 km of sand. It’s a challenge, but one that also offers the thrill of the unknown and an adventure beyond everyday life.

It’s an expanse that’s an exciting playground for Porsche Travel Experience participants to this unique country. But in order to thoroughly plan a journey in a 911 Dakar to adequately cover as many of the highlights that Namibia has to offer, the Porsche Travel Experience scouting team needs to account for both the country’s immense scale as well as its finer details. Find out how they help make a dream adventure like this come true.

Porsche 911 Dakar on dusty road flanked by giraffes — With a heritage that harks back to rallying in Africa, the 911 Dakar is in its natural habitat in Namibia, where it’s surrounded by giraffes, elephants and springboks Photo: Porsche

Preparing a 911 Dakar to drive on gravel roads and sands

For Swen, a long-distance racing driver and experienced instructor at the Porsche Track Experience, the pre-journey is about testing which challenges the guests can later master with their 911 Dakar. How do you prepare the cars to withstand rapidly changing ground conditions? What tyre pressure is required for optimal driving on a sandy beach, where surface conditions can change suddenly – smooth, damp or even as hard as a concrete?

Further challenges abound. Like, what’s the best time of day for the beach segment of the programme, where it’s only accessible at low tide, for example? The answer is that the tyre pressure of the vehicles is reduced beforehand to an extent where the grip is sufficient and an adrenaline-fuelled drift is still possible.

This extensive groundwork forms the foundation of current Porsche Travel Experience journeys through Namibia, helping to ensure that every route delivers maximum driving pleasure, impact… and an unforgettable adventure.

Man in Porsche 911 Dakar talking to man sitting outside — For the perfect trip to the beach in the 911 Dakar, the pressures have to be just right. Here, Porsche technician Nils discusses the ideal settings with instructor Swen (sat in the driver's seat) Photo: Porsche

Which tyres do you use when driving in Namibia?

It’s down to Nils, the technician on the preparation team, to set up the cars to the very best of their outstanding abilities across the different conditions that drivers will encounter. In order to optimise tyre pressures as quickly as possible for the onward journey on gravel roads following their beach adventure, a mobile compressor must be available on site, for example. When it comes to tyres, it’s common practice in Namibia for cars to be equipped with at least two spare tyres. The gravel roads, which make up the majority of the country’s road network, place a heavy toll on a car’s wheels. The team therefore decides that each 911 Dakar should be equipped with an additional spare tyre on the roof rack when the Porsche Travel Experience guests arrive.

At this stage it becomes clear that, despite Camp 911 Namibia being in many ways a typical Porsche Travel Experience, it’s unlike anything that has ever been seen before in this segment. The focus is always on the driving, but the fact that a large part of the route is on gravel roads and loose surfaces means plenty of extra thought and preparation is required.

Porsche 911 Dakar kicking up dust on Namibian desert road — The fountains of dust that kick up on the gravel roads of Namibia make convoy driving extremely difficult, so it’s always important to maintain your distance from the car in front Photo: Porsche

How to drive on dusty desert roads in a 911 Dakar

The bone-dry expanse of Namibia means that cars experience dust and more dust. And that impacts convoy driving – a regular feature of Porsche Travel Experience roadtrips – to such an extent that its nigh on impossible for visitors to do so during Camp 911 Namibia. As a result, the team makes the decision to significantly increase the distance between the individual cars when in convoy. To counteract this, even more precise instructions about the route are delivered via the radio in each car, meaning that no one will have to drive through the dust clouds whipped up by the car ahead. While this alters the schedule, its offset by the thrill of driving in such conditions. In Africa, surprises are the norm.

While the barren nature of much of the landscape is the one of first things that you will notice when visiting Namibia, the overwhelming breadth of nature that abounds throws up one magnificent surprise after another. Those taking part are wowed by the prehistoric rock formations of the so-called Moon Landscape, just a few kilometres from Swakopmund – and especially the abundant wildlife they encounter in Etosha National Park.

Here, elegant giraffes, herds of zebras and knots of springboks strut across the road right in front of the windscreen of our 911 Dakar. Close by, hulking desert elephants capture our attention while rhinos are quarrelling at the waterhole at our lodge, just a few metres away from us. As we lounge on our deckchairs later, it rapidly begins to dawn on us that there’s no more fitting a place in the world to experience the 911 Dakar than here. It’s an experience where adventure is baked in.

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