Is this gold Porsche 959 saved, ruined, cursed, or blessed?
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While we’ve seen fiberglass factory prototypes, Group B concepts, Komforts, Sports, Dakar-winning 959s, circuit-racing 961s, and even Canepa’s 763-horsepower 959SCs, this golden 959, built by Porsche Exclusive, may just be the best reminder of what the ’80s were all about.
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Porsche has been making unique machines for members of the family since day one and followed up with a number of one-offs for selected well-connected people throughout the ’70s and ’80s. But while Martini heir and racing enthusiast Count Rossi could get his road-legal 917 straight from the factory as early as in 1974, Porsche Exclusive only became an official division in 1986.
Three years later, Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, the oil and finance minister of Qatar, rang up Porsche Exclusive. And the sheikh ordered seven Porsche 959s.
As Carscoops points out, the first son of the eighth Emir of Qatar got each of his seven 959s in a different color, with matching interior and custom touches that would impress Prince Jefri of Brunei himself. While these cars lurked in the shadows for decades, the Porsche Museum was allowed to display the golden car eight years ago as part of its special exhibit for the 25th anniversary of Porsche Exclusive. The Porsche Museum even got shots of the red car’s interior on its Facebook page:
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Why stop there? We’ll take the orange one, thank you very much!
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Mind you, most 959s left the Porsche factory in silver, red, or white—not to mention that only an exclusive handful of people on this planet got more than a single one.
Except, of course, whoever ordered the six 959s that Porsche supposedly made in 1992 from spare parts. Bruce Canepa says, to the best of his knowledge “all of those cars were really purchased by one person for himself and for one friend of his, and the gentleman that bought them was from Macau and the other was from Hong Kong.”
Having six must have been nice, but the former oil minister of Qatar could have argued that having one for each day of the week is just… better.
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