The Porsche 953 ranks as one of the finest off-roaders Porsche has ever made. The Porsche 953 was a heavily modified variant of the 911, designed and built specifically to compete in the 1984 Paris–Dakar Rally.
Just a year later, it was replaced by the 959. But despite its brief run, it still managed to make quite the impression. Built around a massively enhanced suspension and a supremely powerful 300 bhp (224 kW), 6-cylinder engine, the 953 was a superb example of how Porsche was capable of delivering way more than nimble sports cars… something that, at the time, very few people would have believed possible.
At the prestigious 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Ollie Marriage from Top Gear got behind the wheels of a 1984 Paris-Dakar winning Porsche 953 to give us a first-hand experience on what it feels like to drive this car on a challenging course like the Goodwood Hillclimb track.
