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3″ Lifted Porsche Cayenne 957 from Japan on 35s

White 957 Porsche Cayenne with STEDI off-road lights on a custom front bumper under a bridge

Even though lifted Cayennes on super large 35-inch tires are no longer a rarity, installing such a radical tire package requires moving past basic bolt-on spacer lifts and diving a bit deeper into the structural unibody and drivetrain modification. While the 957-generation Cayenne (2007–2010) leaves the factory ready for some off-road challenges thanks to the 2.69:1 low-range transfer case and an electronically locking center differential (add the rear locker in the Off-road Technology package), its independent front and rear suspension geometry limits maximum tire clearance to roughly 30.5 inches before causing issues.

Stepping up to a true 4×4 tire like 35×12.50R18 significantly changes the center of mass, pushes CV axles into binding operating angles, and causes structural contact with the unibody pinch welds at the wheelturn. Although there are some engineering tricks that can help you to avoid those problems, this white 957 Cayenne is a perfect example to illustrate it. It’s built for ultimate looks and off-road performance by Keisuke-san, an experienced mechanic at the AP Osaka shop in Japan. Read on to find out how everything’s done on it!

Key Modifications

3″ suspension lift + matching subframe drop
35×12.50R18 Nitto Trail Grappler M/T tires
Fabricated metal “rocker chop” + high-clearance steel armor

White Porsche Cayenne 957 with AP Original 3-inch lift navigating a muddy forest trail — White Porsche Cayenne with AP Original 3-inch lift navigating a muddy forest trail

Table of Contents

The Build

While most people lift a Cayenne with a set of spacers (or just lock the air suspension in the upper setting), bolt on slightly bigger tires, and call it a day, Keisuke-san stepped up a notch with massive 35″s and didn’t stop at the geometry challenges.

White lifted Porsche Cayenne with AP Osaka front bumper on display at a Japanese car show — AP Osaka custom front bumper on display at Wekfest Japan

3" lift, 35x12.50R18 tires and a rocker chop - it is doable! — 3″ lift, 35×12.50R18 tires and a rocker chop – it is doable!

3″ Lifted Suspension

On a unibody vehicle with fully independent suspension front and rear, a lift kit doesn’t actually raise your axle clearance – only a bigger tire does that. What the AP Original 3″ lift does here is push the body up and away from the wheels to make the room needed for the 35s. Though, the problem is that lifting a Cayenne 3 inches throws the CV axles into steep, binding angles that will shred boots and snap shafts under load.

That’s why Keisuke-san used the tried and tested solution from Eurowise – a 3″ subframe drop kit, which you can see on many Cayenne/Touareg/Q7 projects we featured before. It lowers the entire drivetrain back down by 3 inches, returning the CV axles to an optimal operating angle while keeping all the body lift you need for tire clearance.

18-inch TITAN7 T-AK1 forged wheel on the lifted white Porsche Cayenne at a car show — 18-inch TITAN7 T-AK1 forged wheel wrapped in 35″ tires

Wheels & Tires

The rim choice fell on a set of 18″ TITAN7 T-AK1 forged wheels that come in the matching 5x130mm bolt pattern and don’t require any adaptors. They’re wrapped in massive 35×12.50R18 Nitto Trail Grappler mud-terrains that make the Cayenne look simply brutal.

The wheel choice on a 957 S or Turbo is tricky because the factory 6-piston Brembo front calipers are huge – a 17″ wheel would give you more sidewall for airing down, but it simply won’t clear the caliper. So 18 inches is the sweet spot, and even then a lot of cast wheels rub the outer caliper face.

Exterior & Armor

Up front the 35×12.50 tire swings tight against the back of the wheel well at full lock and slams straight into the unibody pinch welds. Keisuke’s answer was to physically cut sections of the steel unibody where the wheel met the body, weld in recessed metal capping plates, and relocate the inner liners so the tires clear lock-to-lock.

When I asked him about the hardest part of the build, he confirmed that it was the one – “cutting the frame to fit the 35s”.

Three STEDI round off-road driving lights mounted on the custom AP Osaka front bumper

The factory plastic front bumper hangs low by off-road standards, which is why it needed to be trimmed. Once it was done, Keisuke-san installed a custom bumper push bar reminiscent of stubby Jeep bumpers, with 3 round driving lights, lime-green Idaten Works tow shackles and the custom AP skidplate.

35x12.50R18 Nitto Trail Grappler M/T tires on the white Porsche Cayenne at night — 35×12.50R18 Nitto Trail Grappler M/T tires

A pretty aggressive setup for sure, but he decided to leave it like that because it does serve the purpose and creates a brutal trail-ready presence we like so much.

I can only say that with all those exposed front end elements, washing the rig after heavy wheeling will be a real pain, especially when the dirt build-up dries out.

Out back, the factory Cayenne muffler was a massive transverse “suitcase” that would otherwise drag on every ledge, so AP Osaka deleted it and fabricated a custom high-tuck exhaust that frees up a big chunk of departure angle and sheds some weight in the process.

Custom exhaust tip exit visible beneath the rear bumper of the lifted Porsche Cayenne

The Trade-offs

I won’t pretend a build like this comes without compromise. Hanging 35″ mud tires on an independent-suspension SUV adds a ton of unsprung, rotational weight and heavily decreases acceleration, but the Cayenne’s ridiculous performance in stock form is exactly what levels it out (that’s one of the reasons why it gained such a big following around the world).

Of course, the factory shift points and speedo also read slightly off because of the bigger rolling diameter, so an ECU/TCU recalibration is the smart next step (otherwise you may notice Cayenne’s Aisin transmission hunting between 5th and 6th gear on the highway due to load calculation errors).

What genuinely impresses me is that despite all this, the car wears a real Osaka plate and passes Japan’s notoriously strict Shaken inspection – proof the subframe drop and unibody work were done precisely enough to keep alignment and tracking within spec (registering something like this in Spain would send you through a hell of bureaucracy – ask me how I know).

Billet aluminum shift knob of the Aisin automatic transmission inside the white 957 Porsche Cayenne built by AP Osaka — Billet aluminum shift knob inside the white 957 Porsche Cayenne built by AP Osaka

List of Modifications

Suspension

AP Original 3″ suspension lift
EUROWISE 3″ subframe (crossmember) drop kit

Wheels & Tires

18″ TITAN7 T-AK1 forged wheels
35×12.50R18 Nitto Trail Grappler M/T tires

Exterior & Armor

Fabricated metal rocker chop with recessed capping plates
AP Original high-clearance steel front bumper
AP Original front skid plate
AP Original custom high-tuck exhaust

Recovery

Idaten Works front tow hooks
Idaten Works rear tow hooks

Conclusion

White Cayenne 957 with custom chopped rear bumper and tow shackles

Keisuke’s Porsche Cayenne 957 is a solid blueprint for anyone looking to fit 35s on a Cayenne 955/957. By syncing the 3″ lift with a Eurowise subframe drop, doing a proper metal chop, and picking forged wheels that actually clear the Brembos, AP Osaka turned this aging premium crossover into a pretty capable trail rig. On our 70-point Offroadium capability scale, this build lands a strong 55/70.

That score breaks down as 30 points for the full-time all-wheel-drive paired with a 3″ suspension lift and heavily oversized 35″ mud-terrains, plus 10 points for the factory electronically locking center differential and another 10 for the genuine two-speed low-range transfer case. The structural skid plate and steel armor add the final 5 points. The only things keeping it out of the high 60s are the independent unibody setup, which can’t articulate like a solid axle, and the lack of a front locking differential.

White 2007 Porsche Cayenne 957 with 3-inch suspension lift on 35-inch mud-terrain tires

Watch the progress and find out more about this Porsche Cayenne 957 off-road build by visiting the Instagram profile of the owner: @keisuke_2424

Stay tuned for more project reviews on Offroadium.com – Follow us on social media, and share this write-up if you enjoyed reading it!

Matt Grabli

Matt is a professional mechanic, experienced off-roader, writer and founder of Offroadium. With over 15 years immersed in the off-road community and 100,000+ miles logged on rugged trails across the Americas, Grabli shares extensive real-world knowledge. He previously worked as an automotive technician before shifting focus to specialty off-road projects. His passion is prepping capable rigs for off-roading and helping others to build the 4x4s of their dreams.