TROPHY TRUCKING

Trophy Trucking

A look at one of the most comprehensively built off-road Cayennes we’ve ever covered.

“I started out with the nicest Cayenne I could find, I had to fly to Utah to buy it. Once I had it, I drove it daily for about 4 years. Then it was time to start tearing it down.”

We’ve all had the impulse to make a few tweaks on the daily driver. It might be different wheel options or minor suspension upgrades, but how many wake up one morning and feel the need to turn a family suv into a desert ready trophy truck? We spoke to Giovanni Niccoli to find out just how he went about doing that.

“Growing up in San Diego, I loved trophy trucks and the Baja 1000. As I got older and became familiar with the Porsche brand, my dream was to combine the two.

Everything on the truck has been modified in some way other than the drivetrain, which will also be modified eventually. There’s still a lot of testing to be done on the suspension, which was entirely designed from scratch. To get the travel and clearance I needed, I had to fabricate a lot of parts. I added king coilovers and bypasses to each corner and I designed a widebody kit to handle the increased travel and track width.

Wherever possible, I’ve tried to retain original Porsche parts which are much easier to replace in a race setting. There’s a front to back cage inside and a spare tire that mounts through a hole in the rear hatch. A 22 gallon race fuel tank sits where the back seats used to be and we painted the whole thing in a Porsche colour from the 70s known as Linden Green.

Driving the Cayenne now is a visceral experience that requires your complete attention, but it’s super fun to drive with the enhanced suspension travel. It doesn’t feel like you’re driving a Porsche in the conventional sense, but we also opted to keep much of the dash completely stock, so from a driver’s POV you’re reminded that it’s still absolutely a Porsche. This next year will be our chance to tune and focus on the drive and capability of the build. We’re going to see some amazing changes soon, I honestly can’t wait.”

Staged in the desert outside Las Vegas, the Mint 400 is a gruelling four hundred mile race for off road trucks and motorcycles. It attracts a wide variety of competitors and purpose built vehicles, but suffice to say there aren’t a lot of showroom spec models on the timing sheets. For Giovanni, running a Porsche was the dream from the start.

“Growing up in San Diego, I loved trophy trucks and the Baja 1000. As I got older and became familiar with the Porsche brand, my dream was to combine the two."

"Driving the Cayenne now is a visceral experience that requires your complete attention, but it’s super fun to drive with the enhanced suspension travel. It doesn’t feel like you’re driving a Porsche in the conventional sense, but we also opted to keep much of the dash completely stock, so from a driver’s POV you’re reminded that it’s still absolutely a Porsche."

“Prior to entering it in the 2023 Mint 400, I had zero seat time in an off road race car. I’d been a fan for so long, it was a dream come true to compete in something we built.

There have been so many highs and lows throughout this build. When I started this I wanted a project that could bring my family and friends together, whether it was hanging out at the shop or going to the races. Off the cuff, a few of the highest highs would be watching my boys learn and figure things out. Driving in the parade down the Vegas strip at the kickoff of the Mint 400 was amazing, but going to Luftgekuhlt 9 as a featured car was also a ‘pinch me’ moment. So many kind people have offered us opportunities that I’m so grateful for.

Future plans for the Cayenne build are mostly going to be under the hood and suspension tuning. There are some modifications to the body kit coming but overall I’m really happy with the way the build has come together and now I can focus on fine tuning everything.”