2023 Porsche 911 Dakar Almost Called ‘Safari’ Until It Is No More

• The Porsche 911 Dakar 2023 named after the famous Dakar Rally, but it was originally called 911 Safari.
• Indian car manufacturer Tata Motors holds the copyright to the Safari name and refuses to allow it porsche use it.
• To use the Dakar name, Porsche needs permission from the Dakar Rally organizers and must pay an undisclosed amount for the rights.

Porsche named it New terrain-oriented 911 after Dakar Rally makes sense. After all, it’s one of the most popular motorsport events. What some people may not know, however, is that the 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar is pretty much known as the 911 Safari. That is until it fails.

Name of the game

Since its inception in 1978, the Dakar Rally has earned a reputation for being demanding on vehicles and riders. Marrying 60-year-old Spanish racer Carlos Sainz Sr. This year, he won a race, had a punctured tire and ended up breaking his spine when he flipped over. Back in 1984, though, Porsche won the rally completely with the 911—adding a stamp of company history to the name.

Despite all that, Dakar was not Porsche’s first naming choice. Instead, the company originally wanted to call it the 911 Safari, according to Edmunds. Unfortunately, the Safari name is not available as it remains locked behind a copyright owned by Indian car manufacturer Tata, which makes an SUV called Safari.

“We talked to them [Tata],” 911 Dakar program director Thomas Krickelberg told Edmunds. “But they don’t allow us to do that. That was option A. And then we switched to Dakar.”

A bumpy ride

When the Safari name was no longer active, Porsche had to look for other equally stirring names. That’s when Porsche landed on Dakar. However, in another unfortunate turn of events, that moniker was also used. So the German automaker had to jump through some hoops.

To use the Dakar name, Porsche must obtain permission from the organizers of the Dakar Rally (Amaury Sports Organization or ASO), which owns the rights to the name in the automotive sector. Porsche then had to pay the organization an undisclosed amount in order to borrow the name. That’s when the Porsche 911 Dakar was born.

“It was fine after that,” Krickelberg joked with Edmunds.