Porsche 911 sets record for highest altitude reached by a car

The Porsche 911 has claimed the record for the highest altitude ever reached by a car after reaching the top of the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile.

A height of 6734 metres above sea level was reached by an extensively modified 911 Carrera 4, beating the previous record of 6694 metres set by a pair of Mercedes-Benz Unimogs in 2020.

The new record took two weeks to complete and comes just over a year after the same car scaled the peak on an exploratory run where it only just exceeded 6000 metres.

Two 911s named ‘Doris’ and ‘Edith’ took part in the expedition, with the latter claiming the record in the hands of three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Romain Dumas at the wheel.

“I’ll never forget this experience. It was an extraordinary feeling to drive where no car has gone before,” said Dumas.

“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.”

As for the cars themselves, Porsche increased their ground clearance to 350mm by installing portal axles on all four corners, modified their bodywork to suit larger wheels clad in rugged tyres, and installed vital underbody protection.

The 3.0-litre flat-six was left as is, albeit running on eFuel, and was mated to a factory seven-speed manual gearbox.

After reaching new heights, ‘Edith’ wore a thick layer of volcanic dust and had a few battle scars but Porsche says the plucky 911 was otherwise ready to do it all over again.