Are you a movie buff? Do you find the action films particularly enjoyable? Well, put on your detective hat and get to the archives. This 1969 Porsche 911 here on eBay was apparently used for a scene or two in a movie involving a roll-over. The car is still fitted with structural reinforcements from its acting days, but not much else. I’m shocked to say this but the 911 here is in better condition than some of the other project cars we’ve featured, which is impressive for a vehicle that was purposefully wrecked while leading the life of a stunt car!
Amazingly, the engine still turns over and it’s a numbers matching unit! That’s more than you can say for many of the 911s sold off as project-grade investments. You can see here the roof is buckled in places from the accident but it’s not as bad as I’d expect for a car that retired at the mercy of a stunt driver. The seller has slowly started parting it out after losing interest in the project but has now decided to try selling it whole. Included with the sale are numerous extra parts, including the original fenders, doors and what appear to be the front seats. The seller adds that the engine / chassis only wears 86,455 original miles and is correct to the car – though, I’m not sure how you’d verify that.
Here you can see the remnants of the roll cage / reinforcements and what appears to be a fairly dry interior. The seller says all parts are included with the vehicle; I can’t discern if that means things like carpeting and door panels are also part of the sale. It makes me wonder if the seller bought the car to part, pulled the good bits off and stored them, leaving the damaged hulk outside. Then, with the arrival of inflated Porsche pricing, the rolled 911 suddenly looked like a viable candidate for eBay. At $12,500, the price seems downright reasonable given today’s environment, but you won’t know just how bad the damage from the roll is until you start pulling it apart.
So, does anyone have any guesses as to which movie this ’69 911 met its demise in? Also, I’d be curious to hear some thoughts on what else might be damaged or otherwise toast as a result of being rolled. Supposedly, the seller has video of the engine turning over, which I’d love to see. It’s amazing to think that there was a time when it seemed perfectly reasonable to purposefully wreck a vintage 911, especially one with its functional, numbers-matching engine still attached. After hearing about the most recent edition of the Mission: Impossible movie series destroying several new BMW M3s, I guess we shouldn’t be too shocked by Hollywood’s desire for authenticity.
If I remember correctly, this was either in “My Little Pony: Race up Rainbow Mountain” or “The Happy Little Elves 2: The Happening”.
Well, they wrecked one like this in Cannonball Run. That was apparently a 911 made to look like a 935 according to imcdb.org
IIRC the rolled a 911 in “Commando” but I think it was a different color.
Also It was a Targa
The movie cars I’ve seen come up for sale have had certificates from the studio, not sure when they started doing this though.
Not all studios do that though.
I’m sure it’s not the car, but William Hurt drove one in “Big Chill”. So here’s a worthless question about the same movie. Who was the actor in the casket at the beginning of the movie? While I’m on a roll. There was a movie in the early 70’s a guy is engaged to a rich spoiled chick. Final scene, at the engagement party the guy is asked by the future mother in law to go buy ice cream. Last shot is a gallon of ice cream flying over the top of his 911 Targa and he spanks
it. Anyone know the title?
The Big Chill was a Targa.
Kevin Costner was the stiff.
Kevin Costner
The actor playing the body in The Big Chill is Kevin Cosrner,his other scenes were cut out.
Kevin Costner I meant…
It’s a 911, minimum fifty large.
Should double in value in weeks.
The movie angle plus 5 bucks will get somebody a very nice high end coffee from Starbucks.
Most of the value is in the engine / transmission. Service the engine properly, get it running, post a video of it running, and sell the drivetrain. Some of the body panels might be useful, but the wheels are gone and much of the rest the rest is either missing or shot.
Could be Christmas with the Kranks
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_767236-Porsche-911-1969.html
or Cannonball Run
This is much better than a parts car in today’s world. It will spend time on a rotisserie and come out as a numbers matching restored car.
Well done gents.
@hhaleblian
“Adam at 6AM”
Michael Douglas.
911T.
@DJS you are genius. I knew it came out after The Graduate. I’ve been racking my brain for years trying to remember the title of this movie and voila’ here’s the answer on BF. The flick is even on line.
OK folks, just for fun I turned this entry into a “Find A Better One”. Can a better deal be found, or is this car the best way for someone who wants an early 911?
About 20 seconds using a “completed auctions” search in Ebay for 1968-1972 Porsche 911 cars turned up these 3 cars, which were all of the sold cars in that range of years that had bids that met the reserve. All are complete and have running engines, and run and drive. None of them look like they have rust or need body work or paint. All have nice interiors.
1) 1972 911 Targa “runs and drives beautifully”, 89,000 miles. Winning bid: $44,500
2) 1972 911T Beautiful unrestored car. 47K miles. “Zero underside rust and all floor pans are original to the car”; “freshly rebuilt 2.7 liter (properly rebuilt with time certs and oil fed chain tensioner…roughly 10-15k miles since rebuild a few years ago) with Weber carbs” Winning bid: $48,300
3) 1970 911E Targa. 154K miles. “Highly original survivor” “no rust concerns” “starts, stops, runs and drives nicely” Minor “celebrity” ownership history. Listed a few times, presumably because of non-paying bidders, finally sold for a winning bid of $59,700.
I think it’s interesting that decent looking/driving early Porsche 911s are offered and sold at prices that seem to be way below the sky-high asking prices for early 911s, and the high auction prices that sometimes get paid for perfect examples of these early cars.
There were way more early 911s offered on Ebay, but the opening bids were so high that they did not sell. I think this shows that people who want a complete running / driving car that has little or no rust and doesn’t need bodywork / paint can find them at prices way under $100K.
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The URLs get very long for these completed Ebay auctions, so I have not included them. Anyone wanting to see the completed auctions can do a “completed auction” search using the “advanced” search page in Ebay.
It’s been 6 hours since I last checked, resale value up 15% give or take.
If the seller had been wise enough to put it on a cheap set of wheels, re-hang the doors and install the fenders, I bet he’d be seeing even more interest as a result.
The last movie 911 that came up was from one of my favorite movies Office Space. I wanted so bad to buy it but the seller couldn’t prove it was from the movie, he said I would just have to trust him, though he had nothing in terms of documentation, just that it was the same color as the one in the movie. It might have been it, but who knows.
That’s my stapler.
Not according to the TPS reports.
Looks like big John with a few more lbs.
I don’t think it’s the car from cannon ball