The Porsche 959 is a rare beast, especially on these shores, and now one is coming up for sale. Auction house Gooding & Company will be offering this sinister-looking black 1988 ‘Komfort’ model for sale during August’s 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance weekend—and the car is estimated to go as high as $1.8 million.
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Depending on who you speak to, there were around 330 examples of the 959 built and only 50 of those made it to our shores. Since the model was never federalized, most of these were brought in under ‘Show Or Display’ paperwork. One of the U.S. owners of a 959 is Bill Gates, who purchased a brand new example only to have it impounded since it was never crash tested.
He worked tirelessly to get the Show Or Display rule passed and after a decade was finally able to drive it on the road. Now that the 959 is over 25 years old, it can be imported using standard methods and driven as the owner pleases so some have started to pop up at local auctions.
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The 959 was a marvel for its time and still remains interesting to this day. The example to be sold is a ‘1 of 3’ car, painted in a special black and spending most of its life under factory maintenance. Power comes from a twin-turbocharged 2.8-liter flat-six that puts down 444 horsepower through the six-speed manual to all four wheels. It comes in at a slim 3,190 pounds which allows it to get to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds.
Written by Bozi Tatarevic.
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