Two rare Porsche 911s formerly owned by an Arab sheikh will be on display at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
The '80s was a fantastic time to be alive when it came to cars, among other things. Wild body styles and performance supercars were aplenty, and Porsche topped the list with the Porsche 959, one of the most technologically advanced sports cars of that time. It featured all-wheel-drive, and it became the basis for the 911 Carrera 4 AWD model.
The Porsche Museum will be displaying two 959 cars out of a collection of seven that were formerly owned by an Arab sheikh. One car is more flamboyant blanketed in gold, and the other is more subdued and slathered in red. Inside the red car is wood trim, a custom shift knob, and a red interior. The gold car is more on the exuberant side with a lavish gold interior, gold wheels, and exhaust tips also trimmed in gold. These cars can be seen at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. The gold car has called the museum home since 2011 and will be used for Porsche's Manufaktur program.
Produced from 1986 to 1993, the 959 started out as a Group B rally car before making its way into street-legal production. The twin-turbo 959 was introduced as the fastest road-legal production car with a top speed of 197 miles per hour, and some variants went even faster at 211 mph. The Porsche 959 held the fastest road-legal production car title for a full year, and it proved victorious during the Paris-Dakar rally.
Thanks to the Porsche 959's performance, all-wheel-drive became a standard option on all turbocharged 911 versions with the 993 being the first. Back in 2004, Sports Car International topped the list for Top Sports Car of the '80s. Only 200 of the 959 cars were produced, and despite its expensive price tag at $225,000, all were spoken for within just weeks. Even crazier, the insane price actually lost Porsche money considering that it cost an estimated $530,000 to create each one.
H/T: Carbuzz
