Published: May 23, 2012

1979 Porsche 911 Turbo Bought New by Bill Gates Heading to Auction

By all accounts, Bill Gates is a fan of fast cars and used this particular model for racing in the desert.

A couple of years after setting up Microsoft with Paul Allen, Bill Gates treated himself to a brand new 1979 Porsche 911 Turbo and the same car is now heading to auction in Austria. According to a TIME Magazine profile on Gates from 1997, he loved fast cars. "When Microsoft was based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in its early years, he bought a Porsche 911 and used to race it in the desert; Paul Allen had to bail him out of jail after one midnight escapade.

1979 Porsche 911 Turbo Bought New by Bill Gates Heading to Auction

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"He got 3 speeding tickets - 2 from the same cop who was trailing him - just on the drive from Albuquerque the weekend he moved Microsoft to Seattle. Later he bought a Porsche 930 Turbo he called the "rocket," then a Mercedes, a Jaguar XJ6, a Carrera Cabriolet 964, a $380,000 Porsche 959 that ended up impounded in a customs shed because it couldn't meet import emission standards, and a Ferrari 348 that became known as the 'dune buggy' after he spun it into the sand." Registration slips show Gates owned the 330hp 3.3-liter Porsche 911 Turbo (930) into the '90s and at some time over the next twenty years it made its way to Austria.

The current owner had the car fully restored including an engine overhaul by Porsche and a full respray in its original metallic turquoise. On 6 June it will hit the auction block in Vienna, where it's expected to sell for between €39,000 and €50,000.