eBay Find of the Day: Porsche 959
Between limited edition beanie babies and water glasses adorned with the lipstick marks of Yasmine Bleeth, eBay proves to be the useful sales source for all things obscure. For the consummate speed junkie, however, it doesn't get more day dreamy than a Porsche 959 and it seems that this owner, possibly of unsound mind, has decided to unload this bastion of late 80's asphalt displacement.
What more can be said about the 959? The stats speak for themselves. The 959 was the first Porsche to dawn AWD, it produced 450 hp, weighed just shy of 3,000 pounds and dispatched the run to 60 mph in a paltry 3.5 seconds. In 1986! As successful as the 959 was, our favorite motor sports campaign has to go to the Dakar Rally machine (pictured) that claimed a 1-2 victory in 1986.
Beauty and perfection are now available for bidding. Now who's going to pony up the cash and give us a ride?
[Dennis made our morning with this tip.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David P B 12:08PM (8/10/2006)
talk about putting up crappy pics for a $375k car! And what is up about them saying it is "new"?
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Jscro 12:26PM (8/10/2006)
This is a terrible auction page for such a car. If I only had millions of dollars laying around, I'd be clicking the buy it now button. This was my dream car as a child.
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Harley 12:41PM (8/10/2006)
mmm.... 959. That was, and still is, a dream car of mine.
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GDUB 1:06PM (8/10/2006)
Highschool dream car along with the F40. So late 80s
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gbh 1:58PM (8/10/2006)
If you want a 959, there's plenty of them out there.
For the time, they were great cars. In today's context, you can do better for less. With far fewer high-tech things to go wrong.
There was a gent down in Santa Cruz who had been purchasing them en masse from the Europeans who were getting rid of them. He was federalizing them for use in the States. He wanted a pretty penny, but if you want one, I bet he still has them available.
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Rishi Khaitan 2:21PM (8/10/2006)
I'm pretty sure the company that was trying to federalize 959's is Canepa Design which is in the Santa Cruz area.
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Tuig 2:31PM (8/10/2006)
I was a big sucker as a kid for the 959, the rally version most of all - but of course I could only afford the Tamiya R/C model (which a rare collectible in its own right).
I remember a story that Bill Gates in fact owns/owned a 959, but he couldn't drive it, as it was never officially approved for US road, but that after years of lobbying this finally happened. Not sure how true this is...
In Europe, Germany is the place to go, plenty of 959's. After making a substantial amount of money I looked into it, but spend it on a house instead. Even though Porsche commits to keep providing spare parts, costs are high - a wheel/rim combo would be something like 20K $ due to the complex technology included.
But it was fun researching, back in 1999 - I did see one fo the rally versions for sale - one of the original Paris Daker ones, the one that didn't finish because of illness of the driver or something, so it was in excellent shape. Priced at ~500K $ though...
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RDL 3:36PM (8/10/2006)
"I remember a story that Bill Gates in fact owns/owned a 959, but he couldn't drive it, as it was never officially approved for US road, but that after years of lobbying this finally happened. Not sure how true this is..."
It's true:
http://www.forbesautos.com/advice/toptens/billionaire/02-bill_gates.html
Being rich is good!
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Tom 4:01PM (8/10/2006)
Im confused. The description says that they will import to the US, but the car is located in Malibu, CA? That doesnt make any sense
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improfound 4:27PM (8/10/2006)
#1 -- it's called "new" because it supposedly hasn't been driven, except for what they call "delivery milage."
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james 5:31PM (8/10/2006)
this car has been on and off ebay motors for months. Many months. Its located in germany. You can import into the US for track use only.
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