A £2.5 Million Porsche 959 Dakar Is For Sale For The First Time Ever

The Porsche 959 is a rare thing even among rare cars, but a 1985 Dakar variant that competed in that year’s gruelling Paris-Dakar race through Africa is a true unicorn
A £2.5 Million Porsche 959 Dakar Is For Sale For The First Time Ever

You might already know the patchy rally history of the Porsche 959. Originally conceived for the road, it was quickly turned into a homologation special while still on the drawing board to allow Porsche to enter the totally insane world of Group B rallying.

Unfortunately, the 959 was thwarted in its aim to rival Lancia and Audi by the fact that the series was shut down just as the car was almost ready. It probably would have been a bit too heavy to succeed anyway, but that’s beside the point. After throwing all that money at the project, Porsche took a side-step and entered the Paris-Dakar rally across Africa.

A £2.5 Million Porsche 959 Dakar Is For Sale For The First Time Ever

Back in those days the rally did actually run from Paris to Dakar on Senegal’s Atlantic coast, unlike the current one that was moved to South America after terrorism became a real threat along large parts of the African route and caused the 2008 event to be cancelled altogether.

A £2.5 Million Porsche 959 Dakar Is For Sale For The First Time Ever

This Dakar, chassis 010015, was one of just three that competed as prototypes in the 1985 event; the first Porsche attempted. It pre-dated the road cars and served as the most rigorous test bed Porsche could imagine. Powered by a naturally-aspirated 3.2-litre Carrera engine rather than the twin- turbocharged 2.8-litre monster the road car eventually got, it was the most reliable setup Porsche could assign it at the time.

A £2.5 Million Porsche 959 Dakar Is For Sale For The First Time Ever

Underneath, the suspension and four-wheel drive were the complex systems developed for the road-going 959, obviously with extra ride height for rallying. The body panels were the same, too. It’s a truly special piece of Porsche history.

It didn’t actually finish the rally; none of the trio did. This one suffered an oil line failure while the other two crashed. The lessons learned were invaluable, though. Porsche entered again the following year with better-resolved 959s and finished first, second and sixth.

A £2.5 Million Porsche 959 Dakar Is For Sale For The First Time Ever

Sadly, you know full well that this kind of car isn’t going to fall into ‘affordable’ territory unless you currently own at least a couple of major oil fields. At the RM Sotheby’s Porsche 70th Anniversary Sale, due to be held on 27 October 2018 at the Porsche Experience Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s tipped to reach £2.5 million. Damn.

Source: Top Gear

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Comments

Zubayer Rezoan

That’s some fast timing

07/04/2018 - 17:23 |
32 | 5

Now put 1$ and tell everybody you bidded on the ultra rare Porsche before everybody else notices

07/04/2018 - 17:25 |
24 | 3
Raptor867

Yea

07/04/2018 - 17:27 |
0 | 0
BenPaye(JDMSquad)(MX5Squad)(LFAsquad)(Subie Squad) (Rotary F

The Crew 2 intensifies

07/04/2018 - 17:28 |
2 | 2
Klush

I’va had a crisis!

07/04/2018 - 17:29 |
0 | 0
Destroya

SO… MUCH… WANT!!!!

07/04/2018 - 17:37 |
0 | 0
MC12

I can see why they’re valuable. The Petersen Museum had to put an extra guard rail next to theirs because THIS happened:

07/04/2018 - 18:12 |
44 | 0
5:19.55

In reply to by MC12

Obviously if they let them take dust…

07/05/2018 - 00:35 |
1 | 0
675LT_ftw

In reply to by MC12

That’s 33 years of Dakar history they’ve stolen there

07/05/2018 - 09:00 |
7 | 0
Walter Joy

In reply to by MC12

I saw it at PECLA last year

07/05/2018 - 15:10 |
3 | 0
///AMG_fanboi74

In reply to by MC12

Scribbling and scratching a priceless historic item, idiot level over 9000!

07/07/2018 - 12:00 |
1 | 0
Kenji (Oldsmobile Fan) (GoldWing Enthusiast) (wheel nut)

In reply to by MC12

Is that authentic Dakar Dirt?

10/11/2018 - 22:22 |
0 | 0
AnOrangeHellcat

That’s clearly wrong, i bought it for only 400k yesterday on the crew 2 smh

07/04/2018 - 21:47 |
14 | 2
PhillipM

It’s not fast, it’s not flashy….but I want it sooooo much.

07/04/2018 - 23:18 |
0 | 0
Wogmidget

Get in loser, we’re entering the Dakar

07/04/2018 - 23:34 |
3 | 0
suchdoge

So Much Want!!!!

07/05/2018 - 12:01 |
0 | 0