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The Porsche 911 Detail in Top Gun: Maverick That Car Geeks Love

Jennifer Connelly’s character drives a 1973 Porsche 911 S that was lent by a San Diego collector, and it could be worth more than $200,000. 

The Porsche 911 Detail in Top Gun: Maverick That Car Geeks Love
The Porsche 911 Detail in Top Gun: Maverick That Car Geeks Love

In the 1986 version of “Top Gun,” Kelly McGillis’s character, “Charlie,” zoomed around San Diego in a black 1958 Porsche 356. But the little Speedster was actually a replica of the real thing, which is now worth more than $200,000 when in the best condition.

Longtime Speedster replica maker Intermeccanica built Charlie’s ride at its headquarters in Canada.

The hero car of “Top Gun: Maverick”needed no such stand-in. Instead, the 1973 Porsche 911 S that Jennifer Connelly owns as “Penny” is a numbers-matching original car. So is the ’73 911 E that director Joseph Kosinski used on camera as a backup model. 

Jennifer Connelly, Tom Cruise, and the 1973 Porsche 911 in “Top Gun: Maverick.”Photographer: Paramount Pictures
Jennifer Connelly, Tom Cruise, and the 1973 Porsche 911 in “Top Gun: Maverick.”Photographer: Paramount Pictures

Connelly herself—not a stunt double—drove the factory-correct Silver Metallic 911 S coupe. It was lent to the film by San Diego resident Nick Psyllos. A longtime collector, Psyllos has owned more than 10 Porsches, including a 1972 911 ST tribute car in tangerine orange. 

Tom Cruise attends the red carpet for the Japan premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” on May 24.Photographer: Ken Ishii/Getty Images AsiaPac
Tom Cruise attends the red carpet for the Japan premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” on May 24.Photographer: Ken Ishii/Getty Images AsiaPac

Best of the Best

With the exception of the top-of-the-line Porsche 911 Carrera RS, the 1973 911 S coupe stands alone at the apex of Porsche’s lightweight sports cars from the early ’70s. It’s notable especially because 1973 marked the last of the so-called long-hood, thin-bumper 911s that escaped having bigger, American versions affixed to comply with new safety standards.

Keen viewers of the film spotted the detail right away.

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“It was nice to see an old 911 in the film—an S, with the old pre-impact bumper,” Simon Kidston said after seeing the movie on May 25. The automotive broker had just emceed the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este the weekend prior at Lake Como in Italy, where another silver Porsche—a 356 B Carrera GTL Abarth—won its class.   

The high-performance 1973 “S” came from the factory with a 2.4-liter, 190-horsepower engine and the then-novel “Type 915” transmission that offered a simplified shifting patternnew front chin spoiler that reduced front-end lift so effectively that Porsche adopted it across the 911 line.

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And it was expensive. According to RM Sotheby’s, the 911 S had a base price of just over $10,000 (about $65,000 in today’s dollars) before any additional options.

“Top Gun: Maverick” may also confer an additional price bump on Psyllos’s specific car.

The 1970 Porsche 911 S used by Steve McQueen in the movie “Le Mans” sold for $1.375 million at a RM Sotheby’s auction in 2011, nearly 23 times what a similar car without screen time would have been worth. But the 1973 Porsche 911 S Coupe appearing in “Maverick” doesn’t have quite the same resonance as McQueen’s then-new 911, says John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics at Hagerty Automotive Intelligence.

“It would likely follow the typical movie car multiple of 7 times,” Wiley says. That would still make it worth more than $1.25 million—a not insignificant sum for a little silver Porsche.

(Updates last two paragraphs with price estimate)

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