First all-terrain Marsien supercars completed
959 looks, 911 Turbo S underpinnings and a Ruf-tuned 750hp flat-six. No wonder it's sold out
The modern off-road supercar wasn’t really a thing when Marc Philipp Gemballa GmbH took the covers off its rally-inspired Marsien 911 back in 2021. Since then, the scene has exploded with the manic Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato, Porsche’s own 911 Dakar and, for those with bottomless pockets, the one-off Singer Vehicle Design ACS (which is currently for sale on PH at the time of writing). But now, three years on from its unveiling, the Marsien has entered the fray with customer deliveries officially underway.
Derived from the French word for ‘Martian’, the Marsien evokes the Porsche 959 Rally with chunky off-road tyres and a long, boxy tail that clearly references the machines that took on the Paris-Dakar in the 1980s. Not that the company has mentioned the very obvious Porsche connection before, though it has now revealed that the off-road supercar is based around a 992 Turbo S. It’s also worked with famed Porsche tuner Ruf Automobiles to dial up the twin-turbo flat-six to 750hp and 686lb ft of torque, which rises to 830hp with optional VTG turbos and an ECU tweak.
While the look may be familiar, every panel from the 992 donor car is scrapped and replaced with a full carbon fibre body for a 50kg weight saving. Then there’s the suspension, which comprises a ‘completely bespoke’, competition-grade double wishbone layout paired with KW Automotive dampers that can adjust to terrain changes within 20 milliseconds. The ride height is adjustable, naturally, allowing for up to 250mm of ground clearance, plus there’s an automatic tyre pressure system so you can deflate and inflate the Grabber all-terrain rubber to get out of a sticky situation. If you don’t plan on taking your very rare (and very expensive) boutique supercar off-road, the firm will wrap the Marsien’s forged aluminium wheels in Michelin Ultra High Performance tyres.
After countless tests, including extreme weather runs in the UAE’s Al-Faya desert and 3,000km (that’s 1,864 miles in our currency) of Nurburgring werk, the first examples of the sold-out, 40-strong production run are on their way to customers. Each is bespoke, the company says, with some featuring unique interior trims while others carry 24k gold badges. So while a donor car will set you back at least £180,600 for a donor Turbo S and 495,000 euros (or £425k) for the conversion work, the sky’s the limit once the options list comes out. Alternatively, this 911 Dakar - complete with a roof rack - gets you off-road Porsche fun for half the price of the conversion. Just saying…
what a thing to behold. Even fairly well regarded hacks like Henry Catchpole do gushing fluff pieces on cars like Paul Stephens lashups. If you just went on the "reviews", you'd think they're all much of a muchness.
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