The Porsche ‘Patagonia 4×4’ Puts G-Wagen 4×4² Hardware Under a Gold-and-Olive Air-Cooled 911

We still absolutely love Safari 911s, but they definitely don’t get as much attention as they once did. And that probably started around the time Porsche began building one itself. Between the factory 992 Dakar and an entire aftermarket industry of lifted air-cooled builds, the formula is pretty well established at this point. Builders raise the suspension, bolt on rally lights, and call it a day.

But, portal axles have never really been part of that formula. Those live under Unimogs and the Mercedes G500 4×4², not sports cars. Which is exactly what makes the 1992 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 ‘Patagonia 4×4’ such a bizarre and brilliant build.

For the uninitiated, portal axles place a geared hub at each wheel, lifting the entire drivetrain well above the axle centerline. It’s hardcore military-truck hardware, and here it’s been custom-built for an all-wheel-drive 964 that was rebuilt in Germany as the prototype for a planned run of just 10 cars.

The rest of the mechanical package stays refreshingly analog. The naturally aspirated 3.6-liter air-cooled flat-six was overhauled during the build, as was the five-speed manual bolted to it.

Suspension hardware borrowed from the 964 Turbo pairs with fresh Bilstein dampers. And the is formed from metal rather than the usual fiberglass flares.

The two-tone satin gold and Nato-Olive finish is a wrap, applied over a full factory-color repaint, with a thin red pinstripe splitting the two. It rides on 17-inch Sportwagen Classics beadlock wheels in a Fuchs-style design, wrapped in BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain T/A rubber, while an aluminum roof rack carries the spare.

Inside, there are green and brown leather covering nearly everything. It’s broken up by houndstooth-textured inserts, red seatbelts, white-faced dials, and a wooden gear knob. A 992-era steering wheel and Recaro buckets round out the cabin.

This exact car reportedly sold on Collecting Cars back in February, with Classic.com’s VIN history pegging the result just shy of $415,000, only to land back on the same platform eight months later.

The odometer now reads a single kilometer following a reset during the rebuild which means the previous owner probably didn’t drive it at all.

The second auction wrapped on October 2nd through Collecting Cars in Berlin, with the final hammer price tucked behind a login. Bidding had climbed past €158,500 (~$185,000) in the closing days before the listing picked up its “Sold” badge. Now, we’re just waiting on those remaining nine examples to get built.

1992 Porsche 911 (964) Carrera 4 ‘Patagonia 4×4’

Built in Germany as the prototype for a 10-car run, this portal-axle 964 pairs Unimog-grade hardware with an air-cooled flat-six and a five-speed manual.

Learn More: Here