Microsoft Money Leads To Street-Legal Porsche 959s 585
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."
tagging bills together (Score:5, Interesting)
All that being said it's cool that they finally got the cars into the US, only wish I could afford one
nonononono..... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Microsoft money buys laws (Score:5, Interesting)
Fast Post! (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Too bad for them... (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Why isn't anyone pissed about the import part? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyways, that's my rant on Stupid American Laws.
"No beer until you finish your tequila!"
-Leela's Dad
Re:Too bad for them... (Score:5, Interesting)
His net worth is currently $US34,234,884,352.40 (according to the Bill gates Net Worth Page [quuxuum.org]).
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 [census.gov], 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.
Easy to handle supercar, too... (Score:4, Interesting)
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...
Re:flamebait? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is how America works (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:OH MY GOD! (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re the safety of the spear (Score:2, Interesting)
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!
Re:tagging bills together (Score:4, Interesting)
I have no problem with them having a street legal car that will do +200 MPH, because I know they drive at normal speeds to and from the track. Occaisionally they "cheat" a bit, but for the most part they get it out of their system on the track. I remember when on of my friends got his RX-7; he drove like a nitwit for a few months, until he started going down to the track, and realized how idiotic it is to endanger other people who are just trying to get from point A to point B in once piece.
I'm not sure whether I'm for or against this; I have a feeling that the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Speed does kill -- or at least speed differentials. People who make the arguments you have always talk like they're the only people on the road. It's safer for a family sedan travelling at 60mph to share the road with a nitwit driving at 100MPH than to share it with a nitwit driving at 200MPH. The roads are simply not adequately engineered to support these kinds of speeds, much less the speed differentials. Even responsible drivers like my friends sometimes drive with excessive speeds, and the nitwits are going to do it every chance they get.
I'd support making these cars street legal if there were some way to control them off the track. Suppose the car's computer recorded when it travelled at > 100MPH, and at inspection time this would be compared to records kept at tracks. Travelling at speeds exceeding 100MPH off the track would be punishable by permanent license revocation and seizing the car. Perhaps there would be a special key that would enable full performance. I beleive some high performance cars have this, to discourage joy riding by valet parking attendants.