Selling Tom Cruise’s Movie 928 at Auction could be a Risky Business
A 1979 Porsche 928 driven by Tom Cruise in his 1983 breakthrough movie Risky Business is estimated to sell for less than it did three years ago.
In 2021 the car fetched $1.98 million at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Houston, Texas but now Bonhams believes that it will sell for $1.4-$1.88 million at its Quail sale, potentially losing the owner $100,000 or more.
The Platinum Metallic 928 has been kept in storage since its last sale, but had a much more exciting early life on set where, not only was it one of two cars featured in the film’s key chase scene in Highland Park, Illinois, but it also played a crucial role in developing Tom Cruise’s automotive obsession.
The 928 was rented for the production but at the time of filming the 21-year-old actor couldn’t drive a manual, so producer Jon Avnet reportedly volunteered to teach him in the 227-hp V-8 powered Porsche. When Cruise uttered the famous line “Porsche, there is no substitute,” he really meant it.
Following filming the car was returned to its California home and passed through several owners before being tracked down by Colorado-based documentary-maker Lewis Johnsen. For his film The Quest for the RB928 Johnsen interviewed the film’s producers and eventually traced the 928 to Cathedral City, California where the owner was unaware of the car’s star past.
The Porsche was later restored by a keeper on the East Coast before it was sold for the blockbuster price in 2021, but selling it again in 2024 might be a bit…risky.
THis was another case of Barrett Jackson overpriced sale.
Nothing against them as they did their job and got the highest price. but their auctions can often lead to sales that were artificially high due to the auction attracting people not normally buyers that have money and get caught up in the fun.
There was a Chevelle Drag car that was a convertible LS6. It was a nice car but it sold for a crazy inflated sale price. It I think is still the record sales. But a year or two later it was back at the auction selling for hundreds of thousands less.
These prices have also had influance on the market at times for some models. But it is not uncommon to find a car sell at a crazy auction pricr and then comeback to reality.
Ever been to a B-J Auction/melee ? The whole effect is like a really overdone WWE show, with cars substituting for the wrestlers/showmen…
Also, an incredible booze fest where the more you drink, the more you spend, the more you get on TV.
Then, of course there’s the 10% fee from B-J on both the seller AND the buyer.
Check the history…the price paid at the auction is almost never seen again.
Excellent synopsis!
100% CORRECT……………….if anything, B-J gives WWE a bad name! A lot of “scrap” or should I say “a 2 dressed up as a 9” goes through B-J auctions.
I remember the Chevelle LS-6 drag car going for ridiculous money and watching Craig “The Car Pimp” Jackson wet himself……….as he usually does counting his money.
What I hate the most about B-J is that they will stay on the same car forever to squeeze another $100. The other auction houses can sell a 2 million dollar car in 5 minutes.
Better yet the drinking is often by high rollers who like to show off in front of the buddies.
And new wives or girlfriends
I saw this and said “uh-oh!”. The “East Coast Restorer” mentioned in the article was my Dad and I. We bought this car at auction in the summer of 2012 for $44,000.00. We enjoyed it for a bit, doing some minor repairs etc. Then, in 2018, the Petersen Museum came calling, asking for it to be displayed at their upcoming “Porsche Effect” exhibit which we were thrilled to have been a part of. Our names were mentioned on the placard that was on the display. It was in the Vault area originally, but then it was moved to the main hall after Bruce Meyer’s 935k was taken off display. I have pics of Chad McQueen sitting in the front seat that I took during the grand opening of the exhibit, that was cool! A gent from Arizona reached out to us and said he wanted to buy it from us. At that point, we weren’t ready to sell so we told him to try us again in a few months, which he did and we eventually decided to sell it to him. He did a multi year, nose to tail restoration on the car and it was as good as new. He consigned it to BJ for the first Las Vegas auction in 2021. We considered buying it again but you all know what it sold for LOL! Well, like Lloyd Christmas said, “so you’re saying there’s a chance!”….maybe we will be able to reacquire it after all!
This is a 15 thousand dollar car. it shouldn’t matter who’s turd cutter sat in it. Humans can be weird .
Agree that humans can be weird! No argument there. Present company included 🙂 But lots of people care who or what the vehicle was used for. Even without movie provenance, according to the esteemed Hagerty Valuation tool (shameless plug!), in excellent condition the value of a 1979 928 is $83,000.00. Even in good condition it is worth way more than $15k.
For sure, this is not a $15,000 car. You could spend $15,000 just having a $15,000 928 brought up to good cosmetic (in/ out) and driving condition.
That’s an interesting analogy
It’s a nice car. Fools paid too much for it and now they want to sell it, why bother.
So, it’s cool that Tom C drove it in the movie. However, is this also the “u-boat” that went for a swim? Fishy history for an overpriced Porsche.
This is definitely not the “dunk” car. There were 3 cars. This one was the “fill” car used for a lot of driving and stunt scenes including the famous Guido the Killer Pimp chase. There was another car, an automatic, that was used for one scene. The scene is when the car is in the garage and it is the first time that he is taking it for a ride. It is shown from the back and when he tries to reverse out of the garage, it “stalls”. Well, this was movie magic because that car was an automatic. Also, it was not Tom Cruise, rather Sean Penn, that was driving it for that one little scene. Cruise and Penn were buds and he begged him to let him drive it. The final car was the dunk car, aka the u-boat. That car was supposedly rented, stripped of its drive train, dunked into Lake Michigan and then put back together and returned to the rental agency. Hopefully they gave it time to dry out lol.
BJ auctions are hard to watch. The guy with the sunglasses comes out to tell everyone how stupid they are for not bidding more money on a car that is already maxed out. Greasy dude trying way to hard to screw over buyers but does do well for sellers. Not to mention taking 20% off the buyer & seller. Mecum brings them in quick, crosses the block then moves on, very rare they sit on a car for 10 minutes having a shill push the prices.