911 Baja is Unlike Any Other Porsche Out There
An unloved 1991 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet serves as the starting point for the stunning Porsche 911 Baja.
Porsche and off-road racing may not be two things one would normally think belong together, but the truth is that the German company has a pretty strong history when it comes to racing in the dirt. The Porsche 911 Baja built by TJ Russell is an incredible tribute to what Porsche has accomplished in off-road rally racing. Shawn Davis is the host of the AutotopiaLA YouTube channel and he recently got to spend some time with the Baja 911 and the guy who built it. “A lot of people don’t understand that Porsche has a crazy successful background in off-roading,” says Russell in the video. “In the mid-80s they won the Paris to Dakar race in a 959.”
Russell spent a lot of time and a lot of money to end up with the result shown in the video, which began with a commonplace 1991 Porsche 911 (964-generation) Carrera 4 Cabriolet. “I’ve been full time on this for the better part of a year and two months,” he says in the video. “The idea started about two and half years in the making. The first stages were getting the car and then designing the suspension. That was the biggest part. The suspension was the first part of the whole deal to find out if I could get what I wanted out of it.” Russell was inspired by off-road ready Prerunners, desert trucks and the like. “The premise was what if Porsche continued to do the off road scene in the ‘90s. I wanted to keep that DNA and make it look as if this is something that came out of the Porsche factory and not out of a Jeep shop.” The result of his hard work is an incredibly bad ass, off-road 911 built to a high standard.
“This is a racecar with luxury amenities that an enthusiast can spend a down out in the sand dunes and then drive back to the steak house,” he says. Russell designed a custom widebody for the 911. In the process, he also lengthened the wheelbase for more stability “in the rough stuff.” Thanks to custom dual A-arm suspension and custom coilovers, the Porsche’s suspension travel has also been increased to 12 inches at the front and 14 inches at the rear. Noted Porsche engine builder and racer himself Jeff Gamroth built a 3.8-liter flat-6 Porsche engine that for the project that puts out around 365 horsepower.
The inside of the Porsche is just as well turned out as the exterior and is fully upholstered in a custom green shade that compliments the white exterior. When the Baja 911 was unveiled at the 2019 SEMA show, the Baja 911 was one of 12 to make into the Battle of the Builders (BOTB). “I don’t think there’s another Porsche on planet Earth that can do what this car does,” says Russell, a point that we’d probably have to agree on.
