During the Snopacolypse Season 3, I got a wild idea and decided that I needed a real off-road capable vehicle, and settled on a 16-year old Porsche: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/i-should-buy-a-16-year-old-138k-mile-porsche-from-a-sketchy-used-car-lot-in-a-snowstorm-right/190316/page3/#post3391307 . As told in the thread, the original one that caught my fancy had a milkshake in the engine and was not to be, however, I went to look at another one, this one an 06, and bought it.
Meet Jalapeno! It's a 2006 Porsche Cayenne S Titanium (yeah yeah, I replaced a black Flex Titanium with a black Porsche Titanium) with the 4.5L V8, AWD, 6-speed Tiptronic auto, and the most important bit, the 2-speed transfer case and locking front differential. The 955/957 generation Cayenne is a true off-roader, so much so that it has a dry sump oil system from the factory. The V6 ones, while available with a manual, are VR6 which doesn't interest me. The GTS is rad, especially with the 6-speed manual, but they are both out of my price range and with the body kit they sit too low to be off-road capable. The Turbo / Turbo S interest me a LOT, but they do have a lot more maintenance (and issues) and come with (an honestly good, but superfluous for my needs) air suspension as standard.
This S has what you want for real off roading in the steel coil spring suspension, as there are a multitude of lift kits available for it so you can do this:
That is the 2008 Cayenne Transsyberia, a factory off-road package that is stupid rare (600 made, only 102 for the US) but is based on, you guessed it, an S with the coil spring suspension. It was also only built in silver and black, so mine is a good one to make a tribute with.
Anyway, on to the build!
This is the third car I've bought from a shady used car lot on 82nd in Portland (a whole street of car lots that are perpetually new yet always run by the same guys).
It has a full aftermarket exhaust from the downpipes back with Magnaflow mufflers that sounds GLORIOUS. Here, have a listen:
Right? The 4.5L V8 makes 340HP stock, and this one has the aforementioned exhaust, and maybe some other mods. I found a signal booster dongle inside and it has drilled/slotted rotors that I've found so far. In an unscientific test in Mexico it kept up with a supercharged 3.0L Audi S4... The service records included show 3 warranty repairs, a full power steering re-do (this one has the optional variable-ratio rack), and the dreaded cardan shaft replacement.
The next day we took it out in the snow to see what it could do.
Even with Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 tires (fantastic performance all season, but not an off-road tire by any stretch) it got around great!
We went up and down a couple of two-tracks, but even more importantly, we did AWD snow donuts!
All in all, a successful first 24 hours with Jalapeno. I'm already filling out order forms for the first bits of maintenance and some modifications. I won't go real crazy because I love the way it drives on the street, but definitely wheels/tires, lighting, skid plate, and maybe a baby lift of 1-2" (anything more and you have to drop the subframe and change the upper a-arms). I'd lovvve to find a factory rear locking diff (stupid rare).
