The Racing Dream Steve McQueen Couldn't Let Go

Le Mans was the movie Steve McQueen most wanted to make. The ultimate bloke’s bloke was mates with Jackie Stewart and John Whitmore before they were Sirs, he raced his own Formula Junior Cooper and Mini Coopers, came second in his own 3-litre Porsche 908 at Sebring in 1970 with Peter Revson, and even entered a Porsche 917 at Le Mans that year with Stewart as co-driver to gather front-line footage for his movie, only for his insurance company to pull the plug. It wasn’t all ‘brash Yank’ Hollywood with McQueen.

Le Mans would be the 20th movie in his career. His top movies were Bullitt where he drove the lead car action sequences himself and The Great Escape where everyone remembers his motorcycle jump to freedom… except he wasn’t on the bike. He had tumbled in testing and wasn’t allowed to risk his neck, reputation and cinema sales by hurting himself.

“There’s so much about racing that doesn’t have to be dramatised, like driving as far as you can see by the beams of your lights”
– Steve McQueen