Paris-Dakar Porsche 959 Goes up for Auction, Only One of Six Rare Racecars Ever Built

There are a lot of very cool Porsches that fans and enthusiasts would love to get their hands on, but few, if any, are anywhere near as cool or sought-after as the Paris-Dakar 959 race cars from the mid-1980s. And if you have the money, there's now the possibility of owning one of the six models built as one is going up for auction at RM Sotheby's 70th Anniversary Porsche Auction in Atlanta, Georgia on October 27.

As well as being an incredibly high-tech Porsche 959 for its time, the six versions built for the Paris-Dakar rally also made use of the adjustable suspension and all-wheel drive system from the German automaker's failed plans for building a Group B rally car. They were also painted in the Rothmans paint colors that are now iconic after adorning Le Mans cars for so long and were even revived this year on a 911 competing at Le Mans.

With only six models ever being built, the opportunity to own one doesn't come up very often, so the global car collector fraternity will probably be paying very special attention to the October auction where this 1985 Porsche 959 will be going under the hammer. This particular one competed in the 1985 Paris-Dakar rally with multiple winner of the race René Metge in the driving seat.

What may come as a surprise to some is that this car didn't actually have the legendary twin-turbo flat-six engine of the road-going models powering it. The Paris-Dakar 959 instead utilized the naturally aspirated 3.2-liter flat-six found in the 911 Carrera.

Unfortunately, this particular example didn't win the legendary race that year as a failure of the oil line kept it from completing the race, although Metge did win the race the following year driving a different 959.

Of course, a car as rare and historic as this isn't going to go cheap, and RM Sotheby's is currently estimating somewhere between $3 million and $3.4 million will be needed to win the auction. That's just an estimate though, and it wouldn't come as too much of a shock if it went for more. The owners of the other five will probably be watching very closely.