Washington environmental crackdown hits Bill Gates' 959
In the early to mid 1980s the FIA had a racing class known as Group B. In order for a car to qualify for Group B, manufacturers had to build a minimum of 200 road legal examples and then certain modifications were allowed to evolution examples that were raced. Most Group B cars were intended for rallying although some ended up on the race tracks as well. Most European car-makers got into the game and built a Group B car, including such legends as the the Ferrari 288 GTO, the Ford RS200, the MG Metro 6R4, Peugeot 205 T16 and many others. Unfortunately these cars proved to be too wild and costly and the FIA cancelled Group B after only a few years.
One of the most renowned Group B cars was the Porsche 959, at the time the wildest, fastest, most technological advanced Porsche ever. In the intervening years "run of the mill" 911s have eclipsed the performance of 959, but at the time it was king of the hill. None of the less than 250 examples were ever made US street legal from the factory although some were privately imported to the US anyway, including two by Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They weren't allowed on public streets until 1999 when they and other rare cars were given an exemption to drive a limited number of annual miles. Since then Gates is reported to take regular late night jaunts in his 959, although those days appear to be numbered. The state of Washington is looking for ways to reduce pollution and Governor Chris Gregoire is considering trying to get those rare car exemptions revoked. If that happens Gates may only ever be able to drive his 959 on race tracks from now on.
[Source: Australian IT News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dr. Woo 9:50AM (12/19/2006)
Yes, because this will reduce emissions by what...0.01%?
Another Democrat trying to appear tough on the rich. The governor obviously isn't a car person. I'm sure she sees the 959 as merely a polluting piece of machinery rather than the collector's item and piece of automotive history that it actually is.
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kert 10:09AM (12/19/2006)
Well, he can get a Tesla Roadster, or if he wants to be really exotic then a WrightSpeed X1 or a Venturi Fetish. Im sure he can afford acres of solar power panels for recharging these battery electric vehicles for endless green racing fun.
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Informed Consumer 3:56PM (12/19/2006)
If he hasn't already done so, he need only take his car down to Canepa Design in Scotts Valley, CA. They specialize in federalizing 959s.
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A5-14 12:54PM (12/19/2006)
Thanks Kert. I'm sure that we could find a lot of things that you can do.
This "crackdown" is not going to make any appreciable change in the total emmissions of Washington State.
I dare say that forcing Gates to buy a new car, TESLA or otherwise will create more greenhouse gases in the creation of that car, (steel, batteries, electric motors, etc.) than if he kept the Porsche.
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kballs 4:15PM (12/19/2006)
This will have zero effect on emissions. In Washington a car has to start doing emissions tests after it's 5 years old, then it becomes exempt from emissions testing once it's 25 years old... meaning there are old 1970s V8s driving around spewing enough pollution to override all the new cars with very tiny emissions. And that's just in certain urban/suburban parts of the state (out in the rural areas there is no testing).
Of these dozens upon dozens of RARE imports, there are tens of thousands of worse offenders that are and will continue to be legal.
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