I’ve got something of a confession to make. Despite being an all-out movie buff, a Porsche fanatic, and a co-founder of Radwood, the festival that celebrates all things 80s and 90s automotive, I’ve never seen the early-career Tom Cruise vehicle Risky Business. I can’t explain why, really, I just haven’t ever gotten around to it. By all accounts it’s a classic of the era, and it features some iconic Porsche 928 scenes. Anyway, I haven’t seen it and you can roast me in the comments below for that fact. Let’s get on with the story.
As those of you who have seen Risky Business would know, the real star of the movie isn’t Tom Cruise, but the 928 hero car. Importantly, this particular car isn’t the one that took a dip in Lake Michigan, it’s one of four screen-used cars for the film, and served as the A-car for exterior shots with Cruise at the wheel. Of the four, it’s got to be the most desirable, right? So what does that bring to the car in terms of value? Well, as proved this weekend at the Barrett Jackson Houston auction, the movie use of this car is worth around 1.9 million dollars. On the best day the most cherry 1979 928 in the world is worth maybe sixty to eighty grand to the right buyer, but this one was bid up to a whopping 1.8 million, and with buyer’s premiums cost the new owner 1.98 million.
Interestingly, this car was originally white, but was repainted in the signature gold color for the film to match the rest of its film car brethren. According to producer Jon Avnet, this was the very car in which he was forced to teach a then-20-years-old Tom Cruise how to drive a manual transmission car. Cruise obviously has gone on to become a major action star with lots of three-pedal experience, but back in 1983 he was just a nobody kid trying not to stall a Porsche 4.5-liter V8.
The lineage of this car was traced down for the documentary “The Quest for the RB928” and much of that research was included in the auction lot. Once filming ended the car was sold off to California where it was just used as a regular old Porsche for a while. It was recently uncovered and given a light restoration before it served terms at both Porsche Cars North America and the Petersen Museum as an influential Porsche. It’s a little funny that the car ended up at PCNA headquarters, because during filming the studio asked if it could borrow some new Porsches for the movie, but the company declined on account of the film including prostitutes.
You can watch the full auction go down right here on YouTube.
So what do you think, is a Porsche 928 worth two mil?