http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070427/en_nm/mcqueen_ferrari_dc;_ylt=AqMQTi.nAqyjrZc125_LrDhxFb8C NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 1963 Ferrari once owned and driven by the late film star Steve McQueen is expected to fetch between $800,000 and $1.2 million at an auction in August, Christie's said. Christie's unveiled the car on Friday: a Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso with a medium-brown metallic paint and beige leather interior. McQueen, nicknamed "The King of Cool" for his portrayals of nonchalant, in-control heroes in such films as "The Great Escape," about a mass escape from a World War Two POW camp, was a car collector. He special ordered the car in 1963 and owned it for about 10 years, according to Christie's. "It's probably the best example of a Ferrari Lusso that's out there on the marketplace," said Christopher Sanger, vice president and head of Christie's car sales in the Americas. "It was McQueen's first Ferrari and was his everyday, run-around car, not a movie prop," he said. McQueen, who died in 1980, also enjoyed auto racing and reportedly performed some of his own driving stunts in his films. One of his most famous car chase scenes was in the 1968 film "Bullitt." The car is being sold by Michael Regalia, who bought the car in 1997 and had it restored to its original condition, a process that took 4,000 hours of work, according to Christie's. The car will be sold on August 16 at Christie's International Motor Cars 2007 flagship auction in the Monterey Jet Center in California. Image Unavailable, Please Login
It was parked outside the Chez club the night I met him. I owned a Lusso at the time, but it was very cool knowing that '007' out at the curb was his. When we weren't listening to Buddy Rich playing we were talking about Lussos and the fact that we both had installed Firestone Indy tires only to find that the stiff sidewall construction tended to loosen up the rear end.
Always cool. A fully restored Lusso is defenitely in the right venue. I can't help but wonder how much the association with Steve McQueen will be worth. I remember seeing his XKSS at Amelia last year and the I think the car really benefitted by it. I just had a real strong sense of "thats cool".
Curious. What year was that? I used to talk with Bob Carradine about our Lussos. He was kind enough to give me a source of headliner material I needed for restoration. I didn't know Steve McQueen had one also.
Stan, I suspect that the McQueen provenance will add more value than almost anyone else but I'll be amazed if it adds $500,000 to the value of the car. We'll see... Regards, Art S.
Seen the car a few times and it is gorgeous. Some pictures from when it was at the Peterson. http://skyhighphoto.smugmug.com/photos/41416497-M.jpg http://skyhighphoto.smugmug.com/photos/41412467-M.jpg http://skyhighphoto.smugmug.com/photos/41412435-M.jpg The car was at a local show last year and I talked to the owner who was very nice and gave me a quick interview. http://www.socalspeedzone.com/pages/showsevents.html (Cardiac Kids video and the interview is around 3/4 of the way through).
they auctioned a bunch of his motorcycles and memorabilia recently, it went for WAY OVER THE ESTIMATES. On almost every single item. I was amazed. I can't remember the number, but his sunglasses fetched an amazing price. So did his bikes, even if they had passed through three or four owner's hands since he'd had them. I will not be at all surprised to see this go for 2X what it should, maybe more. Wasn't the car featured in Forza, maybe cavallino or something like that. Guy restored it, took it to McQueen's son and they went driving together? DM
i think it was $60k for his shades! ridiculous! it makes a mil for his lusso seem like a bargain. at least the lusso is a tremendously desirable car on its own. tom w
It would have been 1966-67. We were there to see Buddy Rich perform and what he played that night at the Chez in West Hollywood ended up on his album 'Big Swing Face' which was released in 1967. Though people refer to McQueen's Lusso as brown, I always saw it as a cross between brown and burgundy. Haskell Wexler, who was the DP on McQueen's original 'Thomas Crown' also drove a Lusso. His was dark blue. I almost bought it from him. On another occasion, I crossed paths with Steve on Sunset Blvd. He was driving his XK-SS; I was in the GTO. We stopped and stared at each other, he blocking traffic having stopped in the middle of the intersection to get a good look. He flashed the trademark McQueen smile and we were off again.
Wonder what the Mustang is worth... Wikipedia: --- 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) (see [1]), one of which is resting in a barn in Kentucky, the owner refusing to sell at any price. --- RMX
To further support that opinion, the original "Thomas Crown Affair" NART Spider was sold at Goodings Monterey in 2005 for about $4 million. I suspect that's twice what the price would have been without the McQueen connection. I don't think any other celebrity adds as much as he does.
The 275 NART (9437) has so much going for it that I'd say any connection with McQueen is pretty minor. Let's see, extremely rare and desirable car, competition history, magazine cover car, first of the series, movie history, etc. etc. I wouldn't predict much based on any sales result for that car. I think 9437 is my favorite Ferrari of all, and I suspect I'm not the only one who feels that way. When even a neophyte like myself can identify it by serial number, that's an extraordinary car.
I helped judge Regalia's Lusso, and can tell anyone who cares that it is outstanding. One of the best restos ever, IMO. And the color is correct, almost burgundy.
I've seen the car twice and can testify that it looks gorgeous in marrone. I'm partial to "surprising" colors, though. Jack
I was fortunate enough to be at the '05 Monterey Gooding auction to see 9437 in person, and in fact, was sitting with Denise McCluggage both before and after the sale (she and Coco Chinetti quite appropriately drove the car across the block). Her insight into the history of the car, including details of her Sebring race with Marianne 'Pinky' Rollo indicated that there was much more to it than the McQueen association, despite David Gooding's heavy emphasis of that point (though I'm sure the connection didn't hurt its value either). Hammer bid was $3.6m, which came to $3.96m after fees. One of only ten, and worth every penny. A humorous side note: 9437 was Bruce Lustman's, and Lawrence Auriana picked it up, thereby making it a ~6000 mile trip just to get from one Connecticut home to another... I have a couple of great pictures from the auction, including a nice clean shot of 9437 during the preview, and a great close up of Coco and Denise both grinning ear to ear as the car whizzed passed $3m, but for some reason the 'manage attachments' button isn't working for me... PM me if you want me to email them, Don (or anyone else). Although in truth... photos don't really do giallo solare justice anyway. -Tad
the car was used as a road test vehicle for car and driver and was on the cover too in 67, too. and a few years back they were writing about it and part of the identity process included finding that the spare tire cover which was wood or masonite had been used as a pit board at sebring and still had stuff written on it. (folks were pretty casual about serial numbers back in that more innocent age). who would have thought the car would be worth millions someday? how would you like to have that car with that spare cover with its historic doodlings on it? just part of the history of a very special car. tom w