“Safari” versions of the venerable Porsche 911 aren’t anything new. Recently though, they’ve fallen into the vicious game of collectors’ playthings. This has prompted some of the big players in the tuning game to design their own turnkey version of an off-road 911.
Almost all, if not all, of these off-road 911s were based on the air-cooled classic versions… until Gemballa entered the game. Following in the footsteps of RUF that announced the “Rodeo” 911 and even pro hotshoe Leh Keen with his one-off Safari 911, Gemballa’s Avalanche 911 will be packing enough gear to overcome an avalanche.
The Avalanche will however be based on the much newer 991 and 992 generations of the 911. Gemballa has labelled the carbon fibre, zombie-apocalypse supercar an “exclusive small series.” In layman’s terms, that means most of us will need to sell organs on the black market to even get a place on the order list.
No specs as of yet but the couple of renderings suggest the newer 911 base models will be consuming some of that serum that keeps Batman’s nemesis, Bane, all juiced and jacked up. Monstrously wide fenders, a huge rear spoiler, dual roof scoops and some gigantic all-terrain tyres depict a 911 dreamt up by a five-year old. An Avalanche based on the 911 Turbo would be perfect.
The Avalanche was just an appetiser for the main course Gemballa was serving up, that they’ll be splitting into three divisions to better serve its exclusive clientele. The three divisions will be a “Hypercar” team that builds in-house supercars, a “Luxury Customisation” that focusses on limited-production, high-end models such as the Avalanche and a “Classics” that restores or maintains vintage Gemballa models.
Dessert was the announcement that the tuner is working on a more powerful take of its existing 818hp GTR 8XX Evo-R BiTurbo that should breach 1,000hp mark. In current form, the model is capable of a century sprint in just 2.3-second and a top speed of 370kph.