Guara Barchetta for sale on eBay

No mention of the tool kit and the small ramps needed to be able to access the front boot.

How do you get to the ramps if you store them in the front boot??? Hmmmmmm

RED IS RIGHT! Striking!

Steve

The driving mirrors appear at a height for a 7ft driver, the minimal windscreen is "cool"..until you actually want to DRIVE!!!...Mark

Beautiful car. Must have.

Wow, didn't know a Barchetta was in the states. I'd really like to add this car to my modest stable.

Pony up $185K and drive it home. It's EZ. :-))

how did this car get imported since is dose not meet the DOT requirements and it not 25 year old. Is it an off road only car?

NHTSA also allows nonconforming cars to be imported for "show and display" (the law that Bill Gates got passed to allow him to drive a Porsche 959 in the U.S.). Given the rareness of this car, that's my bet. It would still have to meet EPA requirements, but that may explain the BMW engine.

I beleive a Porsche 959 would be eligible under the 25 year old rule, Canepa has two for sale.

I'd be very surprised if the Guara could be made road legal in the US, it is lackinga windshield for start. The seller mentions customs paperwork but nothing of DOT. Maybe he's selling it as he also found out getting it in and being able to register are two different animals.

Julian

quote:

Originally posted by MarsRed:
NHTSA also allows nonconforming cars to be imported for "show and display" (the law that Bill Gates got passed to allow him to drive a Porsche 959 in the U.S.). Given the rareness of this car, that's my bet. It would still have to meet EPA requirements, but that may explain the BMW engine.

Hello MarsRed; Very insightful comments, both in regards to "show & display" & Bill Gates ownership of a Porsche 959.

The Porsche 959 was/is a technologically advanced car & another Billionaire owner is Paul Allen.

I find it both interesting & counterintuitive that an acknowledged "tech geek/nerd" such as Bill Gates would buy/drive such a stunningly FAST Driver's car such as a Porsche 959...Mark

One might draw parallels of the 959 with today’s Bugatti Veyron. Certainly, as with the Veyron, the factory lost money on every one of the 283s it built, earning the model its nickname of “Porsche’s Gift to Its Favorite Customers.” Each car cost Porsche nearly twice its list price to build. In the United States, putting a 959 in your garage was even more difficult, as they were not specified to be compliant with federal DOT and emissions standards. However, that didn't stop a few influential Americans from acquiring Porsche’s newest supercar under the newly created Show and Display law of 1999. The law was championed by 959 owners Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and there is no doubt why the 959 appealed to these two titans of technology, as the engineering innovations encapsulated in the Porsche 959 were simply earth-shattering.

There were two versions- early and/or Euro-sales Guaras had BMW SOHC V-8s with straight-cut transfer gears between the crank and clutch to lower the driveline. I heard one being driven and if you think a gear-drive cam in a Pantera is loud, this is maybe 2X! Later Guaras had a 4.6 DOHC Ford WITHOUT the transfer gears and slightly more power. PIM had a wrecked coupe on their website for awhile, with photos. Very informative.

quote:

Originally posted by Joules:
I beleive a Porsche 959 would be eligible under the 25 year old rule, Canepa has two for sale.

When the law was passed (1999), the 959 was not yet 25 years old. Furthermore, I just found the NHTSA list of Show or Display Approved Vehicles and the 959 is listed on it. NHTSA's list of Nonconforming Vehicles Eligible for Importation specifically excludes the 959.

Here's where you find those lists: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/

Here's a layman's explanation of the show or display rule from Jalopnik:


If you're a car enthusiast in the United States, you're probably familiar with the Show and Display rule: the law that Bill Gates got passed in order to drive a Porsche 959 in America.

In reality, the history of the Show and Display law is a little more complicated. For one thing, it wasn't just Gates who wanted the law passed, but actually several wealthy American car enthusiasts – including Ralph Lauren and Otis Chandler, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

Eager to drive the 959 and various other rare vehicles never offered in the United States, the group banded together and hired an attorney in Washington, D.C., to approach the EPA, the NHTSA, and major automakers in order to come up with a "Show and Display" rule – essentially a law that allows certain unique vehicles to be exempted from the government's stringent rules and regulations, provided they are brought over solely for purposes of "show and display."

The law was eventually passed in 1999, and it exempted certain unique vehicles from the federal government's challenging regulations and rules surrounding motor vehicle safety. In other words: No crash tests. No side marker lights. No headlight swaps. No seat belt chimes. Contrary to popular belief, however, vehicles imported under the "Show and Display" exemption must still conform to EPA rules and regulations – but that's the easy part. And most importantly, it's better than nothing.

http://jalopnik.com/here-are-t...o-the-uni-1682067632

That is awesome!! I didn't know there was another Guara in California (I think the yellow one burned to the ground?)

I've been dying to see a Guara, as I have such a weak spot for rare, obscure cars that you never see, whether it be in person or the internet.

I didn't realize that the Guara didn't meet regulations in the states.

I gotta find a way to include that for my next pop up headlights video!

Chris

Marsred,

Thanks for the clarification on a Porsche 959, however reading the NHSTA documentation I stick to my original supposition that getting a Guara eligible to drive in the US will likely take some of the lawyers and $$ that Bill Gates had at his disposal.

Julian

That car is the quintessential "Forum over function"!

Imagine driving a motorcycle with NO helmet nor goggles at high speed.


Car in my opinion is a "JOKE"!!!...Mark

For those of you who are longtime POCA members and keep the old issues, Mike Drew wrote a great article about his test drive of them in issue 2001 #2. I suggest you go and read it. Here's what I wrote about his article In my "Ten Years Ago" article:

"The front cover of Profiles 2001 #2 is the blue 2001 De Tomaso Guara, set against the Italian countryside, that was the centerfold "De Tomaso of the Quarter". The Guara, for those who don't know or have forgotten, was introduced in 1994 as a new clean sheet design with which De Tomaso intended to "re-establish his company as a maker of cutting-edge cars." As Mike Drew wrote, it was "Designed to compete in the marketplace with the likes of the Ferrari F-355 and the Porsche 911 Turbo, the Guara represents the high-water mark of De Tomaso engineering achievement." About the time Mike wrote this article, I was doing my Pantera restoration (to be discussed in issue 2001 #3) and I saw the car in the flesh at Steve Wilkinson's shop (Steve had one of two in the US at the time) and (as a Mechanical Engineer) was blown away by the sophistication of the design. In the article Mike was equally blown away by the way the car(s) drives (he drove both the coupe and Barchetta versions). While the Guara was not the most aesthetic of De Tomaso's cars it was clearly the most sophisticated. Sadly, only about 50 of the cars were produced and only two made it to the US."

IMHO, anyone who can afford a Guara Barchetta as a toy-car could truck the thing to a shop and have a windshield installed. SOMETHING is bound to fit-or can be made so. The original Guara was a virtual copy of the Maserati Barchetta (DeTomaso still controlled Maserati at the time), and that even more limited-production car was envisioned as a spec-racer in a short-lived European race series. A street version with windshield & top came later.

So here's a sister car to the Guara a Maserati Barchetta, how similar are these two cars and didn't De Tomaso own Maserati at the time?

Maserati Barchetta Race Car

Julian, The suspension on the Maser appears to be 1970-80s rocker arm tech. Much different than the comparitively advanced pushrod bellcrank suspension on the Guara. Thats a very cool feature on the Guara.

I spoke to the man who was instrumental in passing the 1999 law many times in the past---sorry his name evades me right now but he collected Bizzarrini and worked at the import department of DOT for many years. We spoke in depth about what was required to use the new law to get a car into the country. Anyone remember his name? I have it in the AmeriSport files but it seems those memory neurons have gone week with the passing of so many years. The last time we spoke which was maybe 6 or 7 years,ago he was planning on retiring---was in his 70s then. We have this man and Mr. Gates deep pockets to that for the ability to bring in unique super cars like the 959 and McLaren. I have many stories about importing difficulties.

Just an FYI---The Guara will not fit the legal criteria to be driven on the street as it was produced by Detomaso and does not fit the requirements for the 99 law unless the personal in the DOT office is, let's say more lenient. In the past there was a way around the regs but that loop hole was plugged by the 99 law.

I am no longer up to date on the current requirement so if there are changes making any of my statements incorrect, please advise us all and accept my apologies.

Can't help with the 25 year old reg but it appears it should pass under that requirement---still need to pass the EPA for it's calendar build year.

Kirk,

I think there are different requirements depending on how the vehicle is imported.

I believe the '99 law only applies for display and show vehicles, and they have annual mileage limits which apply to them until the vehicle is 25 years old.

So long as the Guara is considered a "Motor Vehicle" by NHTSA (and I'd think it fits their definition), it would have to be imported as such (meaning it could not be imported as an "off-road" vehicle).

The "25 year" rule is specified by Title 49 Sec. 30112(b)(9), US Code, and fully exempts any Motor Vehicle older than 25 years from FMVSS requirements.

The EPA exemption is (IIRC) for any unmodified engine older than 21 years. Over that age, and it's got no restriction on it's import. (See US EPA form 3520-1 - Code E.)

Once the Guara reaches 25 years old, there will be no prohibition against importing it into the US. But that's all federal stuff, so only effects titling.

Registration, the authorization to actually DRIVE on the roads, is the responsibility of the individual states. So whether a car meets a state's requirements depends on that state's laws.

I'm no lawyer, nor expert on it. My knowledge comes from my experiences with my imported Pinzgauer and the subsequent title/registration fight over it here in Wis.

I have also heard rumors about some guy at NHTSA who collected odd cars, and IIRC some of them were vehicles imported illegally. No recollection of a name. My contacts with NHTSA were all with Coleman Sachs. I believe he's still there.

I just ran across a 1998 application from DeTomaso for exemption from some FMVSS requirements, as it applies to their importation of Guaras into the U.S.: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/F...-06/html/98-2997.htm

It's just an interesting aspect to this topic, IMHO.