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Microsoft Money Leads To Street-Legal Porsche 959s
Ken Greenebaum writes "Soon there will be a 'new' Porsche 959 racing down highway 520 in Redmond. This
article in autoweek describes how Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Ralph Lauren teamed up with Bruce Canepa to make the 959 street legal. Best quote: Gates 'suggested to Canepa that perhaps they could federalize the car by buying a number of sacrificial 959s to "crash and test."' They modernized and increased the performance of the already super car to: 575HP making the 15 year old cars race to 60 in 3.3 seconds with a top speed of 215MPH."
The thing that struck me about this article was how screwed up the US political system is whereby bills are all bundled together, I won't even get into the fact that with enough cash you can get your own laws considered. This particular law was denied twice (which in of itself should see it permanently denied) but on the third try it was ushered through because the bill it was riding on was a sure fire winner, lame.
:)
All that being said it's cool that they finally got the cars into the US, only wish I could afford one
this is just stupid. why bother with that when you can have THIS.
What has always struck me as idiotic is that the 959 wasn't street legal in the US while other, non-crash-worthy super cars like the Ferrari F40 and F50, Pantera and Shelby Cobra have been.
And yes, Gates and friends used money and influence to buy their way around the laws they wanted, but other than the pollution laws, which they got the cars upgraded to meet, the other laws are basically "consumer protection" laws, and if you're a consumer who doesn't *want* to be protected, nobody's forcing you to buy a Porsche 959 and you shouldn't have to pay protection money to do so - it ought to be your choice.
Besides, this is yet another case of the government stepping in and banning hobbyists from doing what they want and only dealing with big industrialists in large volume - as hackers, we're supposed to be opposed to that sort of thing. A couple of years ago, the Stanford Electric Car Show had a really nice little Norwegian prototype car that I'd have been happy to buy right there - but they were only allowed to bring a small number into the country, and were required to *crush* them after six months. What a waste.
Too bad for them?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if Bill Gates or any of those other billionaires want a Carerra GT, they can buy one, or ten. And they won't have to sell the 959 either.
These guys aren't like you or me, they don't have to sell the Corolla to step up the Camry.
Currently, it costs $90,000 to import a USED Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 to the U.S. and to make it street legal. For those of you who don't know, it's the silver and blue car that Paul Walker drives in 2 Fast 2 Furious. (Yeah, it's the one with the steering wheel on the wrong side. . . ) Mind you, it costs a third of that in Japan BRAND SPANKING NEW! You can buy a 2-year-old Toyota Corolla equivalent for 6 thousand in Japan, however, due to the asinine import laws governing foreign trade, it costs two times the cost of the car to get the tests done to prove that the car was street legal and emmisions compliant in the first place, and to pay the import duties. To get the car released from customs to do the emissions testing, a bond of 250 PERCENT OF THE PRICE OF THE CAR must be put up to ensure that you will get the emissions done. You get that money back, but who has the cash to pony up like that when you are buying a car?
Anyways, that's my rant on Stupid American Laws.
"No beer until you finish your tequila!"
-Leela's Dad
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
Let's see exactly how much a Porsche Carerra GT would cost Bill Gates (relatively speaking).
His net worth is currently $US34,234,884,352.40 (according to the Bill gates Net Worth Page).
A brand-new Porsche Carerra GT costs an estimated $US400,000.
That means that the cost to Bill Gates is approximately 0.0012% of his total worth.
According to the US Census Bureau, the median net worth of a US household in 1995 was $US40,200. Let's adjust that upward by, say, 10% to take into account the past eight years - the amount is now $US44220.
0.0012% of 44220 is 53 cents.
Conclusion: A Porsche Carerra GT for Bill Gates is equivalent to a couple of cans of Coke for the average American.
And frankly I'd expect Bill Gates in a 959 to be a hell of a lot safer than a random Hollywood actor in, say, a Dodge Viper with that rubber chassis it's lumbered with...
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Except if you read the article you would see that they didn't actually crash the cars, it was just a suggestion Bill made on how they might get some of them into the states.
Personally, if I were that rich, I would just find a way to bring the car in illegally.
It certainly is possible to do it legally. I live in the Detroit area and I see a lot of "wierd" stuff. Back when the 959 was released, I saw one on the street by my high school. I ended up following the guy home in order to find out if the car was real only to watch the maneuvering required to get the car into his driveway (it is so low to the ground that he had to back it in at a large angle).
In any event, the car was indeed real and street legal. The guy who owned the car simply licensed the car through Audi/VW North America as a test vehicle. This simply means that the license plate has a big "M" in the middle of it. Even though the exhaust was much too loud (with flames that discharge between shifts), the "M" plated cars can pretty much be anything that the manufacturer wants them to be...
Because, as you have pointed out, money gets pretty much anything here in the states.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
No he shouldn't.
Porsche have made many fine cars over the years, but Mazda have done so also. The second generation RX-7 was BETTER than the contemporary Porsche 944, and certainly more technologically innovative. The last RX-7 was one of the purest sports cars ever offered for road use, and still has a very loyal following. And, though Porsche has won Le Mans more times than anyone else, don't forget that Mazda's 787B won against all the odds too - no other manufacturer has ever won it with a ROTARY ENGINE.
Great engineering is great engineering whether done by Germans, Japanese or Botswanans.
That was classic intercourse!
Regarding driver's compensating for percieved car safety by driving faster etc. I heard a great thought experiment.
If you want to make driving really safe - you should make it compulsory to have a metal pointed spike attached to the steering wheel and aimed at the driver's heart.
Theat would make people think!
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