CITY SAFARI

City Safari

Shirley Breaux’s choice of daily driver for the tough streets of New York.

“The safari build appeals to me because it’s about taking an adored classic and making it your own. I love how ridiculous and mean they look — there’s just something about seeing a Porsche hitting gritty terrain.”

We’re a long way into the era of custom safari-built Porsches these days, a practice that involves lifting and toughening an air-cooled 911 to loosely resemble the rally cars Porsche themselves used to make. For an old sports car, they make for surprisingly competent off roaders. More and more however, we’re seeing the concept extended to transaxle Porsches too, like Shirley Breaux’s 944.

Unlike the 911, these cars weren’t ever rallied on any serious scale, but there’s something so strangely natural about the look of a safari 944. Just the sight of one could set your mind to fictionalising a whole history of 80s WRC stages that you could have sworn they’d competed in. Shirley’s car was bought as a winter daily, mostly in the city but for use further afield too, hence the accessories.

“There are some great back roads in New Jersey that I love to explore. Like in many facets of life, I have a bit of a ‘f*ck around and find out’ mentality. I took it off roading for the first time and managed to break the transmission hitting puddles and ruts in the woods, but that’s all part of the fun, right?

I’ve always had this idea that it would be fun to be a race car driver, from the moment I saw this 944, it just felt right. Here was this mild race car parked in front of me, it gave me that immediate spark that I only felt before when I imported my first JDM car. Of course, with vintage cars, there’s never exactly a ‘right’ one; it’s more about how much you’re willing to take on the project and make it your own.

So far, I’ve added the roof rack and mounted the extra lights. I did replace the transaxle that broke - thanks Marketplace! As for future modifications we’ll see, but I’m currently thinking about taking the trunk glass off and turning it into a ute.

People want vehicles that aren’t just garage queens or weekend toys — they want something they can take anywhere, whether it’s a road trip, a dirt trail or just a cruise around town. The Porsche community in particular has always been known for pushing boundaries and the safari builds are a natural extension of that.”

“There are some great back roads in New Jersey that I love to explore. Like in many facets of life, I have a bit of a ‘f*ck around and find out’ mentality."

There’s nothing new about driving an off-road vehicle in the city these days, in fact it’s often their primary habitat. With potholed streets, high kerbs and the occasional cobblestone lane, it does help to drive something a little more durable. Still though, there are always more creative ways of going about that than buying a cookie-cutter SUV. Shirley’s rally inspired Porsche 944 is probably the perfect example.

“The purchase was definitely spontaneous, about three different people sent me the listing on Facebook Marketplace. At the time I wasn’t even in the market for another car since I was busy fixing up my Nissan Pao. But with winter approaching, I needed something more appropriate. Another thing that made it feel right was how it pushed me to meet a personal goal. I’d wanted to learn to drive manual by the end of the year and it was December at the time, which didn’t give me long. The 944 became my teacher.

I mainly use it as a daily driver, with the occasional off-road adventure. Surprisingly, the Porsche has been my most reliable car so far—though I have to give a lot of credit to my mechanic for keeping it in top shape. Overall, the ownership experience has been an adventure to say the least.”