I'm Taking My Porsche To The Arctic Circle, Even If It Kills Me

The time has come for me and 51 of my future best friends to begin our two-week trek into the wilderness of Northern Canada and Alaska. This has been a journey a decade in the making, as I first heard about the Alcan 5000 rally from famed Canadian driver Andrew Comrie-Picard when I interviewed him about the event for my now-dead podcast back in 2016. Because I have that Midwesterner urge to do things the hard way on purpose, and I'm a guy who deeply enjoys type 3 fun, I was instantly hooked on the idea of a 5,000-plus mile rally that won't see a paved road or chain restaurant for nearly two weeks. When my buddy Alex asked me last November if I wanted to participate in the event, I didn't even think, I said "yes" before he'd finished his question. 

There are many of you who might see this trip as asinine, particularly as I'll be entering the event in a mildly modified 13-year-old Porsche SUV with 110,000 miles on the odometer. Sometimes you just have to push yourself to experience something new, and after nearly forty years of new experiences, I'm quickly running low on stuff I've never done before. Could it all go pear-shaped? Yeah, and that's the trick of it. To me, a life well lived is a life full of risk and effort. I don't expect much danger to life and limb, but certainly damage to wallet and ego are possible. I don't even particularly care if we place well in the rally, my goal is just to finish and have a blast in the process. 

There's nothing more special to me than a long road trip with gorgeous vistas, and to do so among like-minded enthusiasts in a competitive environment is extra special. Preparing for this event has been on my mind for several months now, and with the start line quickly approaching, I thought it might be best to break down everything I've done to the car and myself to prepare. Let's dig into it and maybe by the end you'll be convinced to sign up for the next one. 

The Alcan 5000 Rally has been on the international calendar of events for over 40 years, running bi-annual (every other year) time/speed/distance events that swap between winter rally and summer rally. This year's event is a summer rally, starting on August 31st in Kirkland, Washington and ending in Fairbanks, Alaska on September 11th. If you want to see the full map of the rally, you can click here to get an idea just how far this journey is going to take us. While the rally starts and ends in United States territory, much of it will be in Canada, spanning British Colombia, Alberta, Northwest, and Yukon Territories. 

For those not familiar with a TSD rally, it involves a lot of math but not extra-legal speeds. This entire event takes place on public roads, and each car's speed is meticulously maintained across the event to hit a perfect average. The route book supplied by the rallymaster will tell you where and when to turn, and what precise speed you need to be travelling at any given time. There are secret timing checkpoints along the route, and the teams closest to the perfect on-time score, not arriving early or late, wins. It involves notebooks, mechanical calculators, and constant correction for speedometer readings. I don't expect to do particularly well in the competitive part. 

I've spent a lot of time reading prior rally exploits from previous years to get an idea what I'm in for. Here's how Andy Lillienthal, one half of a husband and wife team that will be competing in their fourth Alcan this year, described the event when writing for OVR Mag, "I can't emphasize how much of an adventure the Alcan 5000 Rally is. Part road trip, part competition, and all lunacy, it's full of life experiences waiting to happen. This rally crams a ton of experiences into just 11 days, including abundant wildlife and majestic scenery, and new friendships and newly discovered places. It may sound like a long trip, but it's over before you know it."

Aside from gasoline prices approaching $10 per gallon in some of the farthest reaches of the rally, there are plenty of challenges presented by the route. Chief among the potential pitfalls is presented by the rally's sheer remoteness. To get up to Inuvik up in the Arctic Circle, we have to take the famed Dempster highway, which is about as remote as it gets. Never pass up an opportunity to fill the tank, your belly, and your water bottles, because it'll be a while before you see the next one. Thankfully my Cayenne can do around 750 miles on a fill-up, but I'll still be carrying a jerry can of diesel just in case.

This time of year, thankfully, we won't have to put up with the bitter stinging cold of a winter rally. During the day, even at the Arctic Circle, temperatures get up into the 60s. We shouldn't see overnight lows below freezing yet, though they are starting to dip into the high 30s, so I'll be packing plenty of warm weather clothes. I expect the mornings to be brisk, to say the least. I have heard that the winter rallies are actually easier on the vehicles, as the snow and ice tends to fill in the cracks and holes that develop in the road. Apparently the summer rallies are harder on tires, with some jagged rocks offering punctures aplenty. I've also been told to expect my windshield to crack or chip from stone throw as well. And when it rains, mud, lots of mud. There are also dozens of wildfires blazing across Canada right now, but I hope we can avoid those altogether. 

Obviously there will be wildlife as far as the eye can see. Elk, moose, caribou, reindeer, bears, beavers, birds, foxes, and more. The worst of them, so they say, is the bugs. This time of year the bugs are out in full force. I've brought along plenty of bug spray and I even got one of those safari sun hats with netting on them to keep bugs out of your face. Speaking of sprays, I also packed bear mace. 

I've talked quite a lot about the preparations I've made to my 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. We've had this torque monster as one of our daily drivers since 2023, and it was purchased with the explicit purpose of taking it on adventures. It came into our lives for $21,000 with 75,000 miles on the odometer. Since then we've put about 35,000 miles on it, and it has largely done pretty well for us, aside from the high pressure fuel pump failure, EGR system leak, and dieselgate emissions system puking out, with each repair running my bank account to a four figures tune. Thankfully these are basically the only failures that Cayenne Diesels exhibit, and my go-to Porsche mechanic recently gave the truck a clean bill of health. 

As soon as I bought the Cayenne, it got a beautiful bronze set of Braid Fullrace T beadlock wheels and Mickey Thompson Baja Boss tires. I'm hopeful that this setup, with strong tires and plenty of sidewall, will avoid punctures, but I recently bought a fifth wheel and tire as backup. These tires have seen some miles, but they're holding up ridiculously well, with plenty of tread depth remaining for even the most demanding of off-road work. 

Earlier this year I got serious about prep work for the rally. The event folks don't advise lifting your vehicle, but I did it anyway, settling on a subtle two-inch puck lift for the Cayenne from Eurowise. I drove down to Eurowise and had them install the lift, a set of skid plates for the engine and transfer case, and a brush bar. I later took it upon myself to install a 10,000 pound Borne Off Road winch in the front bumper, and a quartet of vintage PIAA off-road lights. The rally doesn't plan any night stages, so I probably won't use the lights much in spite of how cool they look, and so long as everyone stays on the road where they belong, hopefully the winch will also go unused. 

With endless gorgeous views like this, why wouldn't I want to visit Northern Canada and Alaska? This is a part of the world I've never had the privilege of visiting, and I'm excited to see how it all plays out. I'm a little nervous, but I'm confident with the mutual support of the rally organizers and my fellow competitors, each of the 24 cars and four motorcycles will make it to the end without much issue. It makes me feel better that we're one of four Cayennes on this rally, along with a pair of Volkswagen Touareg chassismates. There's camaraderie and adventure to be found way up there in the wide open spaces, and I intend to find it. And besides, with everything else going on down here in the lower 48 right now, I think I'd rather be out there with the beasts. 

Alaska is the penultimate state of these fifty great United ones I have yet to visit. After this trip, it'll be just North Dakota left on the list. Alaska is certainly among the most difficult states to visit, as without context it's hard to conceptualize just how far away it is. My co-driver lives in the Northern California San Francisco Bay Area, and the rally ends in Fairbanks, Alaska. Once we're done with the 5,200 miles of the Alcan, we'll have to drive an additional 50 hours just to get him back home. That's three full days of driving back.

Why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, my brain is broken.

As the rally progresses, I hope to publish periodic updates for you here on Jalopnik, and you can follow along on my Instagram, @pluginhybrad, as cell signal and hotel wifi allows (assuming it ever does). With that in mind, please drop whatever questions you have for me in the comments below, and I'll try to answer them as best I can.