A BANGOR man is back home and beaming after his hand-built replica Porsche Mirage 911 took centre stage at the London premiere of the newest Transformers, Rise of the Beasts.
Mark Sales, who runs the Transformers car hire business, was thrust into the spotlight at the Leicester Square launch of the movie when his one of a kind car was displayed pride of place between giant statues of Transformer icons, Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal.
Mark was plucked from obscurity by Hollywood movie makers, Paramount Pictures, to showcase his Porsche at the movie launch after four of the five cars made for the film were damaged during its making.
The fifth features at the movie’s US premiere in Brooklyn, New York.
Speaking after the star-studded event, Mark said: “Some of the cast and the director signed the bonnet of the car,” he revealed.
“It was kind of by mistake to start but I got over it quickly. They also shared pictures with them and the car on their social media pages, so it got quite a lot of exposure.”
Mark, 45, who hires out Transformer cars, often for charity events, and runs his mechanic’s garage in Ballywalter, began making his replica in January after seeing an early trailor for the blockbuster movie series.
The married father of one, then set about sourcing parts for his replica from across the world, importing pieces from as far as America and German, as well as England.
The Porsche featured in the film a 911 3.8RS, is among the rarest of the German manufactured fleet, with Mark revealing that today it would cost in the region of at least £300,000.
Mark’s version however came in a bit cheaper than that, at just under £30,000.
The difference from the real thing, was that his car’s body was crafted from fibreglass, while Porsches are made from steel.
Once complete, he posted pictures of his beloved project on social media and when Paramount’s Porsche creators saw Mark’s replica online, they jumped at the chance of a lookalike for the London unveiling.