Warehouse find Porsche 959

Well, in a cheating way anyway! I've mentioned this story on here before and put a couple of photos up about it. I finally scanned all of them. Back in the late 80's, one of my friends worked in a clearing house near O'Hare. He gave me a call one afternoon and said they had a really weird Porsche that they brought in and it was sitting in a Luftansa warehouse on the airport property. Being 18 or 19, I had nothing better to do, so I drove the hour or so to the airport to check it out. Needless to say, I was blown away when I walked in and found this 959 sitting up on pallets like a load at Sam's Club!! Especially when they were said to be illegal in the USA for road use. Sorry for the quality but these are just scans of my 35mm pics.
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Cool. I wonder who wound up with that one?

 

So cool.

 

How many were made and are in the US? Local guy (Preston Henn) has one on display... among many other super exotics.

 

When I was at Canepa Design last year I counted 6 in his shop. 3 of them where available.

 

Nice, nice, nice...

 

Looks like someone made an attempt at making it "legal". Note the strange bumper attachments front and rear, all-red tail lamps (stock were amber/red), front reflectors, and odd exhaust pipes (cats installed??).

 

Found this on Wikipedia. I don't believe Gates' car was silver though.

The "Gates 959" is an infamous car[7], one of the Porsche 959s built in the mid-eighties, imported by Bill Gates to the United States in 1987. Gates' fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen imported another one, as did Porsche collector Jerry Seinfeld. These cars had not been approved by regulators and had no Department of Transportation‎ and Environmental Protection Agency‎ approval. The "Gates 959" was stored for 13 years by the Customs Service at the Port of Seattle, until regulations were changed to allow "Autos of Interest" to be imported with severe limitations on their use[7]. Gates and Allen both helped pass the "Show and Display" law

 

Figures on 959 production vary a bit. An article in "Excellence" some years ago reported that 292 production 959s were built, with an additional 37 prototypes and other pre-production units, for a total of 329. Porsche factory advised a broker from whom I bought my 959 that 279 were built in 1987-1989, and an additional 10 in 1992, a total of 289 that does not include any pre-production cars. So, the total of production 959s is 289-292, not many by any measure. I have never seen a pre-production 959 advertised anywhere, and don't know how many may still exist. The 959s that competed in rallies and at Le Mans may be part of the pre-production cohort.

Although the Show and Display law and subsequent U.S. Dept. of Transportation regs exempted the 959 from U.S. safety regs, the cars still had to meet U.S. EPA emissions standards to be legally imported. I have heard of asking prices of $600K for 959s that were emissions certified, but they also had a bunch of other mods done that added to the cost. Last year a 959 sold at one of the big U.S. auctions for $375K, and two weeks ago one was a no sale at $300K. Now that the 959 is 21 years old or older, it is exempt from EPA emissions regs and hence is more readily importable to the U.S., so we may see a few more trickle in. My gut feel is that there are perhaps 20-30 in the U.S. now, but that is just my SWAG without any supporting data. The 959 will never be cheap to buy, however, and is very expensive to maintain. The one I bought came with invoices from the Porsche factory for maintenance and updates that totaled $88K!

 

What color combination for your 959? The vast majority were silver, white or Guards Red with the very occasional black example seen. Someone in the UK had a prototype that was Maroon.
Two different models were available; the comfort version and the sport version. There was a delivery mileage red sport version that sat unsold for years. It was listed for a long time on the car site mobile.de
Great to see those old 959 pics in the warehouse. There were pictures years ago of a member of the Porsche family with his brand new 959. As I recall someone was just driving by and saw this strange new Porsche and took some pictures. The car was identified years later by the lic plate.
CH
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Met a guy on a rally with a red 959 that he found in a Japanese museum. The car had to be taken apart and all the rotten bushings replaced. Then he had to get permission to import it into the US which took 6 months. He said no one makes tires for the car so they have to be custom made at a $1,000.00 each. He has a few in his garage incase he shreds one and they can send it to him on the rally.

Looks like you have to be dedicated to be a 959 owner. Not for the faint of heart or pocketbook.

 

The special "Denloc" run flat tires for the Porsche 959 continue to be produced in small batches by Bridgestone in Japan. They are available from Tire Rack and are currently shown on their website at ~$280 per tire.

 

My 1988 959 is silver with the standard three-tone gray interior. In addition to the red, white, and black that you mention, I have seen two stone gray 959s (one was the subject of a thread on FChat), and a marine blue one.
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Awesome car, Cobraownr.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hi Guys,

Here's mine being used for a test shot for Christophorus mag against a 997 turboS. One of the stone grey one's that cobraowner mentioned.....
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Alex, was there an article in Christophorus comparing the 959 and 997 Turbo S? If so, any chance of posting it, or getting a scan? I'm always interested in seeing how the 25+ year old 959 does again today's cars.

 

+1, I haven't seen that issue here stateside....

also, how does stone gray compare w/ seal gray? my old 911 was seal gray, I love that color.

 

OMG!!! 959 owners are here on FCHAT?! I LOVE that car. Always have, always will. It is one of the true icons of the auto world. One of the most beautiful things ever created by man. I would really appreciate some pics of the inside. Also, how does it feel compared to today's exotics?

 

From a cruise during the summer

This was one of the earlier S+D cars imported, and bought from the Brunai collection.

I'm sure I have some in my archives, but it really isn't much different to a 964 interior.

Also, David... anytime you want to see it; I'm sure I can help you
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Porsche did build some that were intended for U.S. export, though the DOT didn't allow them through. I'm not sure what the differences were on the intended U.S. cars, but those tailpipes don't look like anything Porsche would have made.

 

Here it is
View attachment Porsche3464-7.pdf

 

Thanks for the article, Alex. The Turbo S does seem to have more than a few 959 genes. I hope you were able to get behind the wheel of the S for some thrills.

 

There was a red 959 at the Philly Auto show - best car there - thats all I can say.....

Hopefully I'll be able to entice an owner to the European Exotic Car Show in Greenville Delaware later in the year .......

 

The rally was in 2004. Perhaps he didn't know about this.

 

Well I couldn't make it unfortunately so the 959 went on its own. However for thrills I don't need the S. I just take either my F40 or one of my Group B cars. That's were the real thrills lie.......