The late actor’s Ferrari is the star of this week’s Christie’s auction in Monterey. 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso, 56,000-plus original miles, perfect condition, brown.
Steve loved brown and ” The Lusso” on auction was a gift from McQueen’s first wife, Neile Adams ordered from Otto Zipper Motors on Wilshire Boulevard with the “Marrone” paint job.
The famed Italian coachworks Pininfarina, updated the 250 GT with the GT Lusso introduced at the 1962 Paris show, the car sported flowing lines and a fastback shape typical of the GT cars of the mid-1960s. Under the hood was the 250 GTO’s Tipo 168 engine with 250 hp (186 kW) and three Weber 36DCS carburettors. Scaglietti handled construction of the Lusso which lasted through 1964 with few modifications.
The actor, who died in 1980 was an Academy Award-nominated American movie actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to a popular “anti-hero” persona.
McQueen was an motorcycle and racecar enthusiast. When he had the opportunity to drive in a movie, he often did so himself, performing many of his own stunts.
The most memorable were the classic chase in Bullitt and the motorcycle chase scene in The Great Escape. The jump over the fence was actually done by Bud Ekins for insurance purposes. (However, McQueen did have a considerable amount of screen time while riding his motorcycle. According to the commentary track on The Great Escape DVD, it was difficult to find riders as skilled as McQueen and at one point in the film, due to clever editing, McQueen is seen in a German uniform chasing himself on another bike).
During his acting career, he considered becoming a professional race car driver. In the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring race, Peter Revson and McQueen (driving with a cast on his left foot from a motorcycle accident two weeks before) won in their (engine size) class and missed winning overall by a scant 23 seconds to Mario Andretti in a Ferrari with a Porsche 908/02. The same car was used as a camera car for Le Mans in the 24 Hours of Le Mans later that year, entered by his production company Solar Productions. However, the film was a box office flop that almost ruined McQueen’s career. In addition, McQueen himself admitted that he almost died while filming the movie.
McQueen wanted to enter a Porsche 917 together with Jackie Stewart in the 1970 Le Mans race, but his film backers threatened to pull their support if he drove. Faced with driving for 24 hours in the race, or the entire summer making the film, McQueen opted to do the latter.
He also competed in off-road motorcycle racing. His first off-road motorcycle was a Triumph 500cc that he purchased from stunt man Bud Ekins. McQueen raced in many of the top off-road races on the West Coast during the ‘60s and early-1970s, including the Baja 1000, the Mint 400 and the Elsinore Grand Prix. In 1964, he represented the United States in the International Six Days Trial, a form of off-road motorcycling Olympics. He was inducted in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978.He owned several exotic sportscars, more than 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso including Porsche 917, Porsche 908 and Ferrari 512 race cars from the Le Mans film. Jaguar D-Type XKSS
Porsche 356 Speedster.To his dismay, McQueen was never able to own the legendary Ford Mustang GT that he drove in Bullitt, which featured a highly-modified drivetrain (including a NASCAR-style racing engine), which suited McQueen’s driving style. There were two cars used for filming. Director Peter Yates recently stated in a radio interview that both vehicles are still in existence (BBC Radio 4, 7 January 2006), one of which is resting in a barn in Kentucky, the owner refusing to sell at any price.