Bill Gates paid $28 fine every day for 13 years to get his hands on a Porsche 959

Bill Gates paid a $28 fine every day for 13 years to get his hands on a Porsche 959.

Among other things, the Microsoft founder is known for his love of cars, but this was an unreal level of dedication.

When the Porsche 959 ended up stuck in limbo at the Port of Seattle, the entrepreneur paid for it every day for 13 years.

But this Porsche would be well worth the wait – and the money spent on it.

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Why Bill Gates paid $28 fine every day for 13 years for a Porsche 959

Let us set the scene – it’s 1988, Ronald Reagan is the President of the United States, Michael Jackson has just released Man in the Mirror, and Rain Man is the number one movie of the year.

Amidst all of that, Bill Gates was buying himself a Porsche 959.

By this point, he’d already bought himself a Porsche 911 and a 930 Turbo.

But a 959 was something else altogether.

It first debuted as a prototype in 1983, before making its production debut a few years later.

Packed with a 2.85-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine, electronically adjustable suspension, and a body made from Kevlar and aluminum, it was in a league of its own.

Capable of hitting 60mph in under four seconds and hitting a top speed of 200mph, it was the fastest street-legal production car in the world at the time.

Only a few hundred were ever built, so it’s easy to see why Gates would want to get his hands on one.

There was just one problem – it’d never been crash tested for US regulations, and it didn’t comply with emission standards.

Therefore, it was not approved for road use in the States.

When it arrived at the Port of Seattle, US Customs impounded it.

Rather than sending it back to Europe, the border control organization placed it in a Foreign-Trade Zone warehouse.

Unwilling to lose the car, Gates agreed to pay the $28 fine to keep it there.

That’s $28 a day, mind you.

Hardly breaking the bank for the guy who is now one of the world’s richest people.

But he surely couldn’t have expected to be paying that fee every day for 13 years.

That cost him more than $133,000 in total – $300,000 in today’s money.

And then there was the annual bond renewal of $500, which would be paid to keep the car legally bonded.

But it was worth it in the end, as he finally got his hands on the 959 in 2001.

This saga inspired Gates and others to push for regulatory exemptions, which would allow cars like the 959 to be imported under specific circumstances.

Celebrities will pay a lot for a good car

It might not seem like a lot for Gates to spend $28 a day, but it shows how determined he was to get the 959.

Other celebrities with the means have gone above and beyond to get their dream cars too.

Justin Bieber spent three weeks looking for his lost Ferrari – or at least his assistant did.

Shaquille O’Neal has been so desperate to fit into his cars that he’s taken huge risks to modify them – with some unfortunate results.

If you had the money, would you be going that extra mile for a nice set of wheels?

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