This is how Bill Gates finally stopped the daily $28 fine for owning a Porsche 959 sports car after 13 years.
Microsoft founder Gates is a big lover of cars and has created his own very interesting collection over the years, including his Porsche 959.
The 959 is one of the greatest cars ever made by Porsche, but Gates had to endure a fine on the car every day for 13 years before he was finally able to get it stopped.
That allowed Bill Gates to finally enjoy driving the legendary sports car.
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Why Gates was paying a fine on his Porsche 959
There is a very good reason why Gates was paying $28 per day for his Porsche sports car.
Porsche never homologated the car for sale in the United States.
This meant it didn’t have NHTSA and EPA approval, and was thus prohibited from being driven in America.
Gates imported his 959 into the USA, but when it arrived in Seattle, it was impounded by US customs.
The car was stored for 13 years by the Customs Service, until a resolution for it could be found.
It took the whole 13-year period before Gates could finally get his hands on the car.
How Bill Gates stopped paying $28 a day for the Porsche
Incredibly, Gates had to lobby the US Government to get the car back into his own hands.
Gates and Washington, D.C., attorney Warren Dean came up with a new law for the sports car.
The law stated that if the car was one of 500 or fewer ever made, wasn’t currently produced, was never US legal, and was rare, it could be imported into the USA.
Like with Dua Lipa’s recent Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the 959 had been made in small numbers.
The car in question would just have to meet EPA standards for emissions in America.
As we have discussed before, this started a long fight back for Gates over his car.
This rule was the “Show or Display” law, and it came into effect in 1999 after Gates’s successful lobbying.
That meant the Microsoft founder finally had his car back and stopped paying the $28 a day for it.
Gates still owns the car in 2025 and will no doubt have enjoyed the 959 immensely now that he’s allowed to drive it.
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