Did You Catch The Generation-Swapping Porsche 911 in House Of Cards?
Minor spoilers ahead, don’t click if you have not yet seen the season 5 finale
Don't tell my boss, but when I was supposed to be writing, I was actually mainlining the new season of House of Cards. It's an addictive show with a fast moving plot line and absurdly Machiavellian governmental moves that make our current administration's news cycle look positively normal. Through a couple episodes of the season, Neve Campbell's character Leann can be seen driving a 991 generation Porsche 911, though the car itself is only on screen for roughly a couple of minutes in total. In episode 10 of the season, you can see the car in a parking garage (above), and it is immediately obvious that this is no normal 911. With that distinctive Club Blau paint job and a subtle ducktail spoiler on the back, this car is one of only sixty 2015 Porsche 911 GTS Club Coupes built specifically for Porsche Club of America members.
So, is Neve Campbell a PCA member? Not exactly. PCA's national headquarters are based in the Washington D.C. area where the show films. National's top brass, Director Vu Nguyen, was contacted by the show's car wrangler and decided to hook them up with a really special model, hence the ultra rare Club Coupe belonging to D.C.-local Terrance Judge. In the head-on shot below, you can barely make out the Carmine Red "GTS" stitched into the passenger's headrest, as well as the same color steering wheel 12 O'clock mark between actress Campbell's hands.
[Warning: If you have not finished the season, don't scroll down any further]
According to the PCA, Miss Campbell did not actually drive the borrowed 911, as it was actually on a trailer in front of a green screen for this scene. However, in the show, Campbell's Leann is being followed by a large black SUV, and eventually gets run off the road (though this part is not shown, it is heavily intimated at). Near the very end of the episode, however, this character's Porsche is shown on the side of a highway, upside down and impacted against a Jersey barrier. The presumption is that the character died in the car, but we'll have to wait until next season to find out for sure.
Luckily, the show had the smarts to not crash a real-deal one-of-sixty 911 GTS Club Coupe. Instead, they picked up a 996 generation C2 on the cheap and gave it a cheap Club Blau-aping paint job, then gave it a proper beating for the benefit of appearances. Anyone who knows Porsches will instantly note the 996-era Turbo Twist style wheels. If you look closer there are a number of details that determine this is not a 2015 model, but all we needed was the wheels. While it's sad to see any Porsche beat up and battered like this, we'll just assume that the car was a high-mileage Tiptronic C2 coupe that nobody would have wanted anyway. Whatever helps a guy sleep at night, right?