The Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist has made billions over his lifetime, and has given billions of that away towards trying to make the world a better place. His name may not be the first on everyone’s lips when it comes to celebrity car enthusiasts, but Gates is also a huge gearhead with a deep love of sports cars and has amassed a massive car collection over the years.
In this article, we’ll show you the coolest cars hiding in this billionaire’s garage right now, alongside a few notable ones he no longer owns simply because they’re worth talking about.
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Bill Gates Still Owns His Rare Porsche 959
Bill Gates is a huge Porsche fan. In fact, he’s such a big fan of the brand that he spent out on buying one of the rarest and most celebrated Porsches of all time. Gates owns an example of the Porsche 959. Most sources agree he owns the more luxurious “Komfort” version. Still, this car offered produces 450 hp from its 2.8-liter twin-turbocharged flat-6 and boasts a near-200 mph top speed, making it one of the world’s fastest cars in the 1980s. It also boasts some of the most advanced tech you could have on a sports car back then, including a sophisticated all-wheel-drive system.
Porsche also offered a rare Sport variant, which bumped the power up to 508 hp and featured a plethora of weight-saving measures. This included getting rid of the air conditioning, central locking, electric windows, and rear seats. The self-leveling suspension system on the regular 959 Komfort was also taken out and replaced by a system that was more like the one used on the 959 race cars.
Bill Gates’s Porsche 959 was a key component in why the US has special show & display rules for classic cars under 25 years old. Gates had imported his 959 over from Europe, and it reached port in America. But, it ended up getting held at customs because the US government wouldn’t allow it on the roads. Why? Because it never met US safety and environmental standards, and it wasn’t outside of the 25-year rule yet. Gates lobbied for an exemption to be made for his 959, and eventually, the US government passed the show & display rules. But, this took a long time, and it meant that Gates’s 959 was held in customs limbo for over a decade.
Gates Also Drives The New Porsche Taycan EV
Bill Gates has recently become a convert to electric cars. That isn’t too surprising, as he’s focused so much of his philanthropy on saving the environment. His first electric car caused a bit of controversy with one of his fellow billionaires, though. In a 2020 interview with Marques Brownlee, Gates revealed that he had bought a Porsche Taycan as his first dip into the EV world. While car enthusiasts praised his choice, Tesla owner Elon Musk wasn’t so sure. In response to a question asked on X (then Twitter) about why Gates chose a Porsche as his first EV instead of a Tesla, Musk replied that the conversations he’s had with Gates have been “underwhelming”. The two billionaires have had a heated rivalry ever since, coming to a head earlier this year over Musk’s involvement in politics.
We don’t know exactly what version of the Taycan Gates owns. Considering how wealthy he is and how much he loves high-performance cars, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that he has a Taycan Turbo or a Taycan Turbo S. These models have 671 and 751 hp, respectively (according to the specs back in 2020) from their dual-motor all-wheel drive systems, as well as 627 and 774 lb-ft of torque. Whatever the case, it’s a very cool car choice and shows that Bill Gates still wants proper enthusiast cars in a time when electrification is becoming more and more mainstream.
A Tesla Model X Is One Of His Daily Drivers
Considering how much Bill Gates and Elon Musk have traded barbs at each other over the years, you might expect that Gates wouldn’t be into the idea of buying a car from Musk’s company. But, if a video interview with science-fiction author Neal Stephenson is to be believed, he does.
During the interview, Gates takes Stephenson for a drive around Seattle in a Tesla Model X. While it isn’t 100% known why Gates would have a Tesla, the most likely explanation could be that it’s a family hauler. Gates has been known to have a minivan in the past for whenever he needs to take his entire family around somewhere. With seven seats and plenty of interior space, the Tesla Model X must have been the best option for Gates to replace a gas or hybrid-powered minivan with a more environmentally friendly electric option.
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Gates Used To Own A Porsche 930 Turbo
Bill Gates may have a very impressive car collection right now. But, there are some cars he owned in the past that are even cooler than the ones he owns now! One is an example of one of the most sought-after versions of one of the world’s most famous sports cars. The other two are cars you might not expect him to own.
What’s the car that started Bill Gates’s love of Porsches? Well, it was his 1979 Porsche 930 Turbo. These cars were the sports car of choice for many wealthy individuals in the ’80s and ’90s, and it’s not difficult to see why. They’re loud and brash and have handling that’s better than most sports cars of that era. That’s no small thanks to its 3-liter (later 3.3-liter) turbocharged flat-6 engine, which could produce up to 325 hp. Unfortunately, as this was an era before driver aids, a lot of owners ended up wrapping their cars around a lamp post or careening into a ditch when they got a bit too enthusiastic around corners. That seemingly didn’t happen to Gates, though, as his 911 Turbo survived that era.
This car ended up selling for $80,000 in an Austrian auction long after he’d sold it. How it had ended up in Austria after all these years is anyone’s guess. But, whoever had that car in Central Europe definitely owned an incredible piece of history.
Gates Used To Drive A Ford Focus
Perhaps the most humble car Bill Gates has ever owned is something that pretty much anyone can afford. That was a 2008 Ford Focus Coupe. He used this car to commute to and from work during his final days at Microsoft. This included his last day at the company, before he handed the reins over to fellow billionaire Steve Ballmer. The Focus Coupe had a 2-liter Duratech inline-4 that produced 140 hp and 136 lb-ft of torque, and came with a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission. That gave it a 0-60 time of just over 10 seconds, and pretty decent fuel economy at 24 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway.
It seems odd that somebody with as much money and as much of a car enthusiast as Bill Gates would drive such a normal car to work. But, the Focus is affordable, cheap to run, and cheap to fix. It’s one of the only cars in his collection that he wouldn’t have had to worry about getting pranged or dented. People also wouldn’t give him a second look driving around in a boringly normal Ford Focus, so it actually would have helped him keep his privacy intact. When you think of it like that, Gates actually pulled a bit of a blinder having such a normal car to drive to work in.
Sources: Autoweek, BMW, CNBC Make It, Daily Mail, Ferrari, Ford, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Tesla, YouTube (Bill Gates, Marques Brownlee, sigolo21)
