“I’m not terrified of it,” says John Ficarra of his latest ridiculous acquisition, Rocky Aoki’s Porsche 959 limo constructed for the Car and Driver One Lap of America. Most individuals could be terrified, I’d enterprise to guess. The automotive has been on the market in Southern California for at the very least 13 years indicating simply how afraid of it the car-buying market was. It took a ridiculous man with a ridiculous plan to truly spend hard-earned YouTube bucks on the automotive, however I actually hope the gambit pays off for Ficarra, as a result of this can be a automotive that deserves to be introduced again to life.
If you aren’t aware of Rocky Aoki, you actually ought to be. In the long-gone days of the 19 hundred and nineties, he was greatest identified for founding the well-known teppanyaki restaurant chain Benihana. He was additionally one thing of a global socialite and pleasure-seeker, spending his restaurateur tens of millions on offshore powerboat racing, setting a trans-Pacific ballooning report, newbie wrestling, beginning a porn journal, and shenanigans like this 959 limousine. Rocky’s kids, DJ Steve Aoki and actor/mannequin Devon Aoki, have inarguably surpassed his fame, however neither of them occasion as onerous as their pop.
He was simply constructed totally different, and so was Ficarra.
The automotive was constructed particularly for the 1991 working of the Car and Driver 1 Lap occasion, and ran in a Kirin Beer livery. Built from a single early-Seventies Porsche 911 Targa, the automotive was stretched about 4 toes within the center, a 959-aping physique package was fitted, and the inside was custom-built in white leather-based with pink accents. The authentic 911E engine would have made about 120 horsepower, and pushing all that additional weight round made it fairly gradual, however Aoki was in it for the enjoyable, not the trophies.
After hauling the automotive again to his store in NorCal, Ficarra remains to be determining precisely what he needs to do with the large machine. Personally, I’m hoping for some turbocharged energy worthy of the 959 package, a strengthened and strengthened chassis, and the unique 1 Lap livery and white inside introduced again to the look that Aoki wished. It’s a bizarre piece of Porsche historical past, however a chunk of historical past that deserves to be preserved and pushed as usually as potential. If anybody can do it, it’ll be Ficarra.
Source: jalopnik.com