911 Carrera

Make
Porsche
Segment
Coupe

The Porsche 959 is a true legend. Porsche's first hypercar was largely underappreciated thanks to the arrival of the Ferrari F40, but now that we can look back, the Porsche was better built, more comfortable, and the more forward-thinking machine. It eventually saw a successor in the V10-powered Carrera GT, with that being succeeded by the 918 Spyder. All of these cars have been fantastic, and while we wait for Porsche to create its next halo car, the closest thing we have to a modern 959 is based on the regular Porsche 911. But if you want the raw, original monster, you won't find one more special than the prototype that you see here.

Any 959 is special, but this is one of the earliest prototypes. Development cars fell into V-Series pre-production cars and N-Series pilot vehicles, but before even those saw use, Porsche began with the F-Series prototypes, of which just 12 were built. This particular example was the seventh built and one of just two finished in Ruby Red, with the other being F2. F2 was a strange-looking vehicle having no air intakes on the rear arches while F7 here sports more conventional 959 styling. It was used for hot-weather testing and to evaluate electrical systems. As such, it was driven both on the West Coast and in parts of Europe.

The car's interior was altered many times over its life, as Porsche was constantly testing various systems. What makes this car particularly noteworthy is that most prototype vehicles are destroyed after testing, being built for a singular purpose. This is one of the few that survived, and once testing was complete, F7 was shipped back to Stuttgart where it was retrimmed. It was supposed to be restored and rebuilt to production spec and then sold to a customer, but noted Porsche dealer Vasek Polak managed to convince Porsche to sell him the car outright.

Porsche agreed on condition that the car would never be sold, raced, or registered for road use unless it received a full factory refurbishment. Thus, the car was imported to the US for display purposes only. It was shipped to a few other countries over the years as a display car. It has since been registered and restored but retains many telltale signs of its original destiny.

It's got a fascinating history that we've only briefly touched on, and now it's for sale in Germany for €1,170,000, or a little over $1.3 million. What a beauty.