“McQueen’s Machines, The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon”, By: Matt Stone and Chad McQueen
Review Written by Steve Murrin, The Biker Lawyer
If you were lucky as a kid, you had a cool Dad. Mine was cool, 50’s Brooklyn kind of cool. A big tough Irishman with fists like cinderblocks and short temper but big heart. He used to say, “Never write a check with your mouth that your ass can’t cash”. That kind of cool is sparse in our politically correct world. There exists a list of cool guys in every red blooded American guy’s head. Growing up in New York in the 70’s and 80’s, cool to me was Frank Sinatra, Peter Fonda, Bono, Andretti, Travolta, Ali and the list goes on and on. The king of cool back then for me was, and still is, Steve McQueen.
McQueen was the real deal. Anybody who knows anything about the guy knows he did his own stunts, raced his own cars and bikes (did most of the driving and riding in his epic movies “Bullitt” and “The Great Escape”), smoked real Marlboros (I don’t give a damn what you say, and yea I know it killed him, but he just looked cool with that friggin’ cigarette hanging out of his mouth). To me, Steve McQueen was and is the epitome of cool. By today’s parlance, he was a player.
The current offering from MBI Publishing Company is 176 pages of the motorcycles and cars McQueen owned and raced. He is remembered mostly for the wild car chases, mad motorcycle dashes, and hair-raising races, but he was truly a connoisseur of fine bikes avidly collecting throughout his life and amassing a world class collection of motorcycles, as well as cars. No other Hollywood star has been so closely linked with motorcycling and auto racing. It is this connection that “McQueen’s Machines” explores, giving readers a close-up look at the cars and bikes McQueen drove in movies, those he owned, and others he raced. From the 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback he drove in Bullitt (in the greatest car chase of all time) to his Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in The Thomas Crown Affair, from the Triumph motorcycle of The Great Escape to the Gulf-Porsche 917K he actually raced in Le Mans, the bikes and cars that McQueen made famous in films make another appearance here in this book. This hardcover book also features the cars, motorcycles, and even airplanes that McQueen owned over the years, including two motorcycles that fetched record prices at a recent auction: a 1937 Crocker “Hemi-head” V-Twin and a 1920 Indian Powerplus Daytona. These bikes fetched seven digit bids from obviously wealthy collectors. Among notable cars profiled in the book are a 1959 Porsche Speedster bought new by McQueen, a 1957 Jaguar XKSS, a 1963 Ferrari 250 Lusso, a 1953 Siata 208S, a 1965 Ferrari 275 NART Spyder, and a 1969 "Le Mans" Porsche 911S, all owned or raced the man himself.
With a foreword by Steve’s son, Chad McQueen, and a wealth of details about the star’s amateur racing career, his movie stunt work, and his car and motorcycle collecting, McQueen’s Machines draws a fascinating picture of this Hollywood actor who, when it came to riding and driving, was the real deal. Add him to your list, hopefully right under your Dad.
Signing off for now. Remember, A bad day to ride, is a good day to read. Read on.