porsche 928 ‘surfari’ car makes a surfer-inspired beach debut at the hel riders festival

porsche 928 ‘surfari’ car debuts at hel riders festival

The Porsche 928 ‘Surfari’ car has come to town, at the Hel Riders festival in Poland to be exact, which is a beach and art event for retro-motoring, surfing, and skateboarding enthusiasts. Gone is the original frame’s monotone shade, replaced by a sunset- and auto-racing-inspired palette and exterior. The custom Porsche 928 Surfari is dedicated to the surfers who attended the festival on June 8th, 2024, transporting them like a taxi from their location or the event’s space down to the beach as soon as the big waves come crashing.

The vehicle can tackle off-road terrain, thanks to the entire team that worked together to bring Surfari to life. A classic Porsche V8 engine powers the custom vehicle, boosting it enough to weather the rough and unpaved surfaces of the road it is on. The engine is the least of the design team’s problems. They focused more on adjusting its gearbox, differential, and suspension to transform the 928 into a beach buggy and taxi Surfari.

all photos by Nikos Karampotis | @nikos.karampotis, courtesy of Porsche

The birth of a custom porsche car

The story begins with Tadeusz Elwart. He’s the manager of the Chałupy 6 campsite and the mastermind behind the Hel Riders festival. He grew up surrounded by the sea, and later in life, he got himself a Porsche 928, parked in his garage, the real-life symbol of his dream car. Once, his ideas expanded so much that he imagined having a vehicle that embodies the environment he grew up in. This prompted his desire to create and own a Porsche 928 Surfari, a seemingly portmanteau for surfing and safari. The first is a lifestyle he grew up in. The second is the off-road terrain of the Kemping Chałupy 6, Gdynia in Poland, the location of the festival.

He couldn’t do it by himself, of course, so Tadeusz Elwart tapped Tomasz Staniszewski, an engineer and rally driver who had just finished the Classic Dakar Rally in his self-built Porsche 924. The rally driver knew the project would be demanding, but backed by his own car engineering experiences, he found the solutions to bring a surfing-inspired car to life. The third member came into the mix in the form of LANGE & LANGE, a Polish design agency by twin brothers. They worked on the styling of the custom car, and since they’ve been a part of the Chałupy 6 scene for decades, they may know by heart what the Porsche 928 Surfari needs: a beach-ish look with a sunset feel to it.

Porsche 928 ‘Surfari’ car has debuted at the Hel Riders festival in Poland

928 surfari car continues its ride

The Porsche 928 Surfari came to life in the hands of the Polish surfing community. It blazes through off-road terrains, dusting off the sands scraping its exterior as its Porsche V8 engine keeps thrumming and propelling it forward. As soon as it was done, the design team debuted the vehicle at the Hel Riders festival on June 8th, 2024, in time for a Surfari road trip. After that, the car gathered a convoy and made its way to Sylt, in Germany, for the Petro-Surf air-cooled Porsche festival and then on to the island of Rømø in Denmark. In the words of the design team, as the story continues, ‘All that’s left is to wait for the next wave.’

the original frame’s monotone shade is eplaced by a sunset- and auto-racing-inspired palette and exterior