This Porsche 911 With An eFuel Engine Conquered Off-Road And Set A New World Record
Driving at high altitude does a number on whatever car you're operating, as the thin air contains less of the oxygen needed for efficient combustion. However, in defiance of this, a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (not even the factory-lifted 911 Dakar) just set an altitude record. With Romain Dumas behind the wheel, the Porsche reached an altitude of just over 22,093 feet on a volcano in Chile. Obviously, this was no regular 911 you could pick up at a dealership and had been substantially worked over in preparation for the climb. Portal axles were fitted to give the 911 13 inches of ground clearance.
Romain Dumas said of the 911 he was driving: "The 911 managed to go higher than any other earthbound vehicle in history. We reached a point where we were met by the true summit of the west ridge – we could go no higher. So this really was the maximum altitude that can be achieved."
Porsche maintains that the engine itself was mostly untouched, with the big exception being that it used eFuels synthesized from water and carbon dioxide and manufactured in the company's eFuel plant in Chile. SlashGear reported on this venture late last year.
Driving a lifted Porsche up the side of a volcano.
This is not only a testament to how versatile the 911 is if you're creative but also how feasible eFuels are, even for more "outside of the box" driving scenarios. If it can propel a car up the side of a volcano in subzero temperatures, it can probably handle motorsport and daily use. Porsche states that the eFuels made by HIF eFuels in Chile were almost carbon neutral, meaning that the production process (almost) canceled out the carbon emitted by the car itself.
There's still a long road ahead to get eFuels in the tanks of everyone's cars, and there's always the question of capacity and production capability. In the meantime, you can't help but marvel at the fact that someone drove a lifted Porsche 911 up the side of a volcano and managed to break a world record on the way up. It's worth noting that the driver, Romain Dumas, won the famously grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans race three times, so going off-roading in a Porsche was probably just another weekend excursion for him.