Porsche 911 rooftop camper turns heads
Iconic sports car transforms from corner carver to remote getaway machineA Porsche 911 isn’t the first car to come to mind when you think about camping and outdoor adventures but Instagarm favourite Brock Keen has made it work with a creative solution.
The journey began for Keen when he bought a 996 to use as his daily drive. The Atlas Grey Carrera 4S had travelled just under 100,000 kms when the young entrepreneur bought it from a friend’s dealership in Oregon, USA.
The car was put to work straight away as his daily drive for the commute to work as well as longer road trips up into the mountains where he and his wife regularly skied and snowboarded.
The outdoorsy couple continued their Porsche adventures and purchased a roof tent from a camping store which they had intended on using on their classic Range Rover. The tent didn’t end up fitting so they decided to try it out on the 911 and the rest is history.
"On my drive home I was getting a lot of funny looks," Keen recalls. "Every stoplight I hit people were throwing their hands up in the air in disbelief. When I got home I immediately opened the tent up, mostly to convince my wife that we should keep it."
The deciding factor came when the couple attended an open-air concert in the Porsche and camped out in the tent for the first time. A picture on Instagram caught the public's imagination and the tent’s manufacturer got in touch. They were, as Keen explains, both excited to see their product on an unlikely a car, but also concerned that it might not be strong enough.
"They invited us to their headquarters and had their team do a full stress test and weight test on the roof rack and on the car itself. And it passed with flying colours, even though it was triple the weight limit set for the roof rack. Once they had certified it, that was the moment I decided to keep it on the car."
A few modifications were made to the Porsche, including a cold air intake, rally lamps and lowering the suspension.
"Which is totally insane," Keen laughs, "because of the places I take it, and I’ve definitely smacked my oil pan on a few rocks, but it keeps the centre of gravity low. I’ve had the car on track with the roof tent on top, up on three wheels in a corner, so it can definitely handle it now."
The car’s first proper road trip with the tent was to the Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca, America's largest and most highly regarded Porsche meet.
"There were a lot of purists there who thought it was madness, but also there were the guys who understand the real Porsche brand and how useable these cars are. So there was great appreciation for it."
Keen and the 911 have been racking up the road trip kilometres all around the country ever since, taking the sports car ever further off the beaten track.
"Remote places usually have great roads that lead to them. So it’s canyon carving by day, a billion stars by night, and I get to do it all over again the next day. I just get out and go to the sort of places you would never really expect to see a Porsche, let alone one with a roof top tent."
Keen’s regular car camping companions are his wife and their dog Lucy, but friends have been tagging along more recently and their efforts have gone global.
"It’s becoming a thing," the 40-year-old admits. "We did a rally with a group of sports cars in the Fall and drove a bunch of gravel and dirt roads in the mountains around the Pacific Northwest. One of my buddies has an ’88 Carrera that we put a tent on as well. Now there’s probably at least a dozen more doing it, in Russia, in China – they’re popping up all over the world which is pretty cool."
Prior to the pandemic, Keen had been planning an international road trip following every European round of the 2020 Formula E championship. With plans on hold until next year, his most recent trip was a two-week tour of Porsche’s west coast landmarks, visiting Sonoma Raceway and Willow Springs.
Now, something of a celebrity himself, Keen and his trusty 911 camper continue to explore the US rain, snow or shine taking a simple message to the wider Porsche community.
"Don’t be afraid to drive your car. We’ve just clocked 126,000 miles in ours. They’re meant to be driven, so just get out there and do it!"
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