RE: Gray Market Cars

[Nathan Belo <belo@eskimo.com>]

On Wed, 29 Jan 1997, Mark Nelson wrote:

> I'm sure some of you are aware of this, but for those who aren't, about
> 6 or 7 years back, Bill Gates and his partner Paul Reuben both bought
> 959's out of Germany.  They had them shipped out here (illegally) in a
> Cargo ship, where they were kept in the hull in a large sea container.
> They were caught ~10 miles off the US coastline, and the cars were
> confiscated.  Obviously someone squealed, and the cars, to my
> understanding, are still kept in some government warehouse in the Bay
> Area.
> 
> The only LEGAL 959's in the US belong to Vasek Polak who is a legitimate
> collector, but he cannot legally drive the cars on public streets.  It
> took him 2 1/2 years to get the cars over here (2 or 3 of them I
> believe)!
> 
> Don't ya just love big brother!
> 
> Anyway, I still remember sometime back when gray market cars were coming
> into the US  As I remember my Dad brought quit a few gray market Porsche
> 930 Turbos over in the early 80's.   Too bad you can't do it anymore
> though.  BTW Porsche still does the European delivery program.  You can
> take delivery of your US spec car and drive it in Europe while on
> Vacation.  Whenever you are ready to go back, Porsche ships the car to
> the US (to either their North Carolina import facility, or the one here
> in Reno, Nevada), fully details it, and you can pick it up just about
> wherever you like.  Motor Trend did a full article on the whole Porsche
> European Delivery Program last year, when they did their long term
> roadtest of a bright yellow Carrera 4 (drool).
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mark Nelson
> 
> '87 5KTQ (For Sale)
> '91 CQ (building for SCCA pro-rally)
> 

I rode in Bill Gates 959 over 5 years ago in Seattle.  My good friend was
v.p. of the corporation to bring the 959's in.  His side job was to buy
all the cars for Paul Allen and Bill Gates.  No names mentioned.