So once again someone pays over the odds for something Bill didn't invent........
Bill Gates' used car sells for $80,000
Proving that the pixie dust of fame can enhance the value of most anything, a 33-year-old Porsche 911 Turbo once owned by Bill Gates was sold at auction for far above its estimated value. "There was enormous interest in this item from all over the world," Wolfgang Humer, spokesman for the Viennese Dorotheum auction house that …
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Thursday 7th June 2012 17:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
Apparently he bought one of the *very* limited run of Porsche 959s, importing it direct from Germany, but it was impounded on arrival in the US (didn't have type approval for safety, or something like that...) and apparently not even Bill could wangle its release.
I wonder how that story ended... it certainly has potential to be a real low-mileage deal.
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Thursday 7th June 2012 19:32 GMT Serenity
Re: Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
The "Show and Display" law was passed and in 1999/2000 and allowed some non-street legal vehicles to be registered on a limited basis. Bill Gates had more than a little bit to do with passing this law and he did take delivery of his 959, it was just 13 years after he ordered it. I have no idea if he still owns it (although a Porsche 959 is work a GREAT deal more than $80,000 these days).
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Friday 8th June 2012 07:51 GMT Magnus_Pym
Re: Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
"didn't have type approval for safety, or something like that..."
I think that should read
"fell foul of the huge web of restrictive practices put in place by the US motor industry as is sticking plaster to cover the self inflicted gaping wound that 40 years of non-innovation and profit taking had created".
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Friday 8th June 2012 09:08 GMT Terry Barnes
Re: Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
Many European manufacturers (French, Italian) pulled out of the US market in the early 80's after rules seemingly designed specifically to exclude them from the market were introduced. Essentially a law was passed saying that cars had to become significantly more efficient on fuel - somewhere around 25%.
This was easy for US manufacturers to achieve as they just had to tune their engines properly, maybe fit something smaller than 3 litres in even the tiniest car. European manufacturers who tended to sell small, already efficient, cars couldn't achieve the required savings whilst also complying with new safety rules that required them to fit huge, heavy bumpers that ruined aerodynamics and increased weight.
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Friday 8th June 2012 10:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
new safety rules that required them to fit huge, heavy bumpers that ruined aerodynamics and increased weight
Which is how the MGB came to have rubber bumpers and the increased suspension height that ruined the handling, since the US was a major market for MG. The increased height was down to the Californian impact test, which swung a weight on a chain at the front of the car. The length of chain was calculated for the typical US whale, which meant the weight skittered across the bonnet and into the windscreen on the older MGB. The impact test was also supposed to leave the car with no visible damage, hence the reinforced rubber bumpers that replaced the chrome ones.
I actually liked the profile of the rubber bumpered MGB, but the first thing I did when I got one was to lower the suspension back to the same height as the chrome bumpered model. I was eventually going to drop a Rover V8 into it, and even got offered a donor car at a reasonable cost. I absolutely loved that car, but before I could get the V8 fitted some twonk stole it. Now I'm rapidly approaching mid-life crisis time I plan on getting another one.
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Friday 8th June 2012 08:25 GMT J__M__M
Re: Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
But Bill and Paul Allen together could wangle it. The catch was they had to buy a few more for.... hard to type this... crash testing. Remember, you asked. With all the trouble getting it in the country and a 30 car garage under his pad on Lake Washington, I imagine he still has the 959.
I looked at getting a skyline into the US some years ago. Flat out the most asinine f'ed up restrictions you could imagine-- the "piecemeal" method would be easy enough, but get caught... they crush it. For real.
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Friday 8th June 2012 13:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Thought it was the _other_ BillG Porker
@ J__M__M
"Flat out the most asinine f'ed up restrictions you could imagine-- the "piecemeal" method would be easy enough, but get caught... they crush it. For real."
That's one thing that makes me thankful for living in the UK. In theory, unlike in many countries, I can drive *anything I want* on the public highway so long as it has passed inspection and I am qualified/insured to drive it. Obviously the inspection bit weeds out the wackier and dangerous stuff, but If you really want to roll something particular, you can with enough perseverance without fear of the heavy hand of the state.
In some ways it's a shame more people don't choose to exercise that right over here. The coolest thing I have ever seen pulling out of a pub carpark was a totally rusted 1927 truck that had been recently dragged out of the Arizona desert, still on its original (solid rubber) tyres.
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Thursday 7th June 2012 18:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: no5
I think each one of those cars is there for a different reason. The Porche for being an inexpensive, high-performance car; Model T for being the first to be mass produced; VW for being cheap, fuel efficient and so very ubiquitous. The mini might be for its ability to get idiotic white upper-class Americans to shell out $30,000 for one, or maybe being the only British made vehicle where all the parts don't fall off of it immediately.
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Thursday 7th June 2012 23:33 GMT Nanki Poo
Re: no5
uh-hu. I'm guessing you would probably begrudge the porsche because there's something newer / faster . . . ;)
I am the proud co-runner of an Austin Big 7. Guess they would probably go as 'too boring' for your liking. Fortunately some people drive classics for the history, not the ego.
One day you will enjoy driving, and the novelty of it will dissipate. Incidentally, I'm not that old, my d*ck just got bigger.
nK
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Friday 8th June 2012 10:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: no5
The DS also has a beautifully designed body and a great engine since it was created when Citreon owned Alfa-Romeo. The downside was the fragility of the sophisticated suspension, and the low quality of steel used in the body which made them major rustbuckets (typical of all French and Italian cars of that era). The suspension problems were eventually solved though.
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Friday 8th June 2012 12:52 GMT mark 63
Re: no5
Terry,
yes i like technology. I like cars too and have worked as a mechanic.
Not sure what a citroen DS is , but i spent the last couple of years trying to keep the suspension on a citroen zantia working. Pointlessly complicated , overengineered and expensive to repair.
Those "spheres" that all citroens use are regarded as consumables, and that fancy green mineral oil in em is more expensive than whisky!
never again
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