“Inspired by the legendary Porsche 959”
Crew facts
- From the heights of Bressanone, where he runs the Fonte Plose operations (and notably the bottling of the Acqua Plose water), Paolo Fellin comes down to the desert for his first participation in the Dakar Classic.
- A former motocross racer, he also tries his hand at mechanics to restore his Mustang from 1965.
- For his first participation in the Dakar Classic, he drives another iconic vehicle: a Porsche 959 Dakar EVO based on a 964 Carrera and rebuilt in Robert Sikkens’ workshop.
- The duo tested it at RallyClassics Africa 2025 and made it through this first challenge. Now they face the Dakar Classic, forty years after René Metge and Jacky Ickx made history with the Porsche 959.
Ambition
P.F.: “Werner and I met thanks to this project: building a car to participate in the Dakar Classic. We turned to Robert Sikkens, from the Sikkens Motorsport workshop in Sarnonico to build cars inspired by the legendary Porsche 959.
We took part in our first race in Morocco [RallyClassics Africa 2025] and, as far as I'm concerned, it was an exciting experience. It's a completely different driving style from what we're used to. We drove through spectacular landscapes, but we also realised that you can't get distracted for even a moment: it doesn't take much to make a driving mistake or get completely lost.
We had a few problems in Morocco in the first two days, but that was to be expected as it was our first experience: we had to get to know the car better, understand its limits and note down what needed to be improved. By the third day, the main problems had been solved and we realised we could be competitive - from then on, we really enjoyed ourselves!
For us, the main goal is to finish the race. If we also manage to achieve a good result, that would be the icing on the cake.”
