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[diecast essentials] by bill bennett

EvEn by Hollywood standards, stEvE McQuEEn was cool ... really cool. And his taste for anything with an engine was just as cool. He was a true motorhead with a passion for driving and racing his collection of cars and bikes. AUTOart’s Steve McQueen Collection provides an opportunity to get to know him and his cars better and, at the same time, add some stunning models to any collection.

the ultimate steve mcQueen collection

McQueen’s aura of cool was not something he picked up in an actor’s workshop; he came by it the hard way. In his colorful early years, he had been a street gang member, reform school graduate, circus roustabout, lumberjack, professional motorcycle racer and U.S. Marine. You could say he had been around.

He was born in 1930 to a stunt pilot father, who abandoned his family to work in a flying circus when Steve was just six months old, and a rowdy, alcoholic mother. McQueen spent his early years bouncing among various family members and in and out of trouble. He joined the Marines in 1947, was honorably discharged in 1950 and used the money from his GI Bill to take acting lessons.

He starred on Broadway, in the movies and on TV. His first lead film role was in the B-movie classic The Blob. But his early fame came from playing bounty hunter Josh Randall in the western TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive. His first big screen role was with Frank Sinatra in Never So Few. He earned an Academy Award for Best Male Actor and was nominated for his role in The Sand Pebbles. Moviegoers loved him and the characters he played.

By 1974, he was the highest-paid actor in the world. His movie Le Mans about the running of the 24-hour endurance race stands shoulder to shoulder with Grand Prix as the best movies of the genre.

McQueen was passionate about owning unique and exotic cars and motorcycles. Over the years, he owned Ferraris, Porsches, Jaguars, Harley-Davidsons, Indians, BSAs, Triumphs and a Husquvarna. But he wasn’t just a collector; he demonstrated his driving and riding skills in many of his movies including The Great Escape, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, Le Mans, The Getaway and On Any Sunday. He raced on both two and four wheels. In 1970, he co-drove with Revlon heir Peter Revson to win the Under 3-liter Prototype class and second overall at the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 908/2.

To celebrate this ultimate of car guys, AUTOart collaborated with the McQueen family to offer a series of 1:18 diecasts of some of his most significant and interesting cars. Presently, the series includes the Gulf-liveried Porsche 917 that he used in the movie LeMans, a Jaguar XK-SS McQueen owned twice (with Bill Harrah’s Automobile Collection in between), the 1968 390 Ford Mustang used in Bullitt,

autoart has built the Porsche

917K in many itera-tions, but none is more iconic

than the Gulf-liveried star of LeMans. beautifully finished in baby blue and orange, it

stands proud among cars twice its price.

McQueen played race car driver Michael delaney in his movie Le Mans. It is said; "Men wanted to be him; women wanted to be with him."

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and two versions of his Porsche 908/2 “Flounder” as he raced it at Holtville and Sebring. This probably isn’t the end to the collection: AUTOart’s new Porsche 356 Speedster issued in both white and silver looks way too much like McQueen’s black Speedster not to suspect that there may be a “bathtub” also joining the collection sometime in the future.

Porsche 917 from Le Mans movie. Built expressly for winning the 24-hour race at Le Mans, the Porsche 917 was the first “big bore” endurance

racer to come from Porsche. Using experience gleaned from its smaller displacement cars, the first prototype 917 was slippery and about 20mph

faster than anything Porsche had ever built, but it was prone to get very light and unstable on the high-speed circuits such as the Le Mans Mulsanne Straight. Porsche realized that trading a little speed for more downforce and stability made sense. For homologation, 25 917s were initially built using an aluminum-tube, space-frame chassis. A 630hp, Hans Metzger-designed Type 912 air-cooled, dual overhead cam, flat 12-cylinder engine powered the car.

Drivers found the powerful car a real handful to drive and potentially deadly. Because of the length of the engine, the driver was pushed forward with his feet beyond the front axle centerline, putting the driver in real peril. But the car was incredibly successful and dominated endurance racing, especially the high-speed circuits during the 1970 and 1971 seasons. Unfortunately, an FIA rules change made the car ineligible for the ’72 season.

McQueen took a big gamble when he chose the unproven 917 to be his co-star in Le Mans, filmed at and loosely based on the 1970 24-hour race, but was vindicated when a 917 actually won in 1970. The Gulf-liveried no. 20 917 co-driven by Michael Delaney (McQueen’s character) was actually co-driven in the real race by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman. (It DNF’d

after 156 laps.)Made using an 11-year-

old mold, AUTOart’s no. 20 917 is a beautiful car, with exceptional paint and graphics, even though it lacks many engine, cockpit and chassis details seen on more recent AUTOart releases. However, what’s there is nicely done, and it looks great sitting amongst far more detailed cars. It would be nice to see AUTOart come out with limited edition “elite-like” versions of some of their key 917s featuring detailing comparable to their Mazda 787B. Nonetheless, if you’re a fan of McQueen, Porsches, or Le Mans, owning a Gulf-liveried 917 is mandatory.

Although the ultimate winner of the real 1970 race was the red and white, no. 23 917, it’s a tossup whether to get the iconic Gulf-liveried McQueen car or the real winner. Ah, what the heck, get ’em both.

1968 mustang 390 from BuLLitt. Ford built two identical 1968 390 Mustangs with sequential

serial numbers for the movie Bullitt. The cars were painted Highland Green Metallic and were toned down by removing or painting over much of the chrome trim and

badging. Max Balchowsky of Old Yeller fame modified and strengthened the chassis and suspensions to withstand the rigors these cars were about to endure. Each was fitted with Koni shocks, American Racing Torq-Thrust five-spoke wheels and Shelby steering wheels, leather-wrapped by Tony Nancy. Both cars were 390 cubic inch, 4-speed cars. Only one car exists today, the other having been totaled during the filming. Bullitt’s chase scene through the streets of San Francisco with McQueen doing a lot

the Bullitt 1968 mustang is subtle yet purposeful in its de-badged state. american racing equip-ment torq thrust 5-spokes complete the package. While not overly detailed, the engine bay completes the car quite capably.

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of his own driving is a real tour de force and almost universally considered the best automotive chase scene ever seen in a movie.

AUTOart’s Bullitt Mustang looks as understated and purposeful as the real car. As you would expect from AUTOart, the paint finish and chrome trim are on the high end of the industry’s standards. Shut lines are tight and crisp. The stance is dead-on. The only complaint may be that the green paint doesn’t seem to have the level of metallic content found on the real car.

The interior features molded-plastic seats, a faux-wood-trimmed dash, fabric seat belts and flocked carpeting, all competently done when compared with other manufacturers in AUTOart’s price range. A large chrome air cleaner and a set of chrome steel valve covers dominate the engine compartment. Spark plug wires and factory stickers on the air cleaner, radiator cap, fan shroud and the battery caps add to the realism.

This is a nicely done but not detail-laden model of an iconic car and is probably the best ’68 Mustang you’ll find anywhere. Like the other cars in this collection, there are more reasons to add this to your collection than just it being a nice rendition of a Mustang. The connection to McQueen and the Bullitt movie adds panache to this understated beauty.

Porsche 908/2 “Flounder” 1970 12 hours oF sebring. The Porsche 908/2 is the second

generation of the famed race car. The 908 was developed in the late ’60s as a flat, 3-liter, 8-cylinder coupe to race in the World Championship for Marques

endurance series. For 1969, Porsche substantially changed and lightened the car by removing the top and bobbing its long tail. In this configuration, it was designated 908/2. Making about 350 horsepower and weighing only 1,400 pounds, it was a potent combination, particularly on short, twisty courses. Solar Productions, McQueen’s production company, purchased its car after Brian Redman and Jo Siffert had run it at Le Mans in 1969. McQueen intended to use it to teach himself how to drive high-powered endurance Porsches and ultimately use it as the main camera car for Le Mans.

To get a feel for the car, McQueen entered it in three West Coast SCCA races in A/Sports Racer. At Holtville he dominated the field and set a new lap record. He then went to Riverside, where he won a preliminary race and then failed to finish the final race when his transmission failed. His next race was in Phoenix, and he again dominated the field. Although he was leading his SCCA class and could have likely become the SCCA regional champion, he had bigger fish to fry and set his sights on the upcoming 12-hour endurance race in Sebring, FL.

With retired racer Richie Ginther managing the car and team and Peter Revson as his co-driver, the team entered the 12 Hours of Sebring. But McQueen had a problem: In a motorcycle racing accident at the Elsinore Grand Prix a few weeks earlier, he had broken his left foot in six places. He convinced race officials that he could adequately drive the car with a modified cast, and with Revson doing the majority of the driving, the car finished the race 1st in class and 2nd overall. And this was only after Mario Andretti, in a last-minute dash in a borrowed 5-liter Ferrari, passed the little 3-liter Porsche and finished with a 22-second lead.

behind the scenes For the filming of Le Mans, the 908/2 was painted black and fitted with three cameras, one in a special fairing on the nose and two rear-mounted. Two Porsche factory driv-ers, Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams, handled the driving duties. Even with all the stops to reload the cameras, the car was the sec-ond-highest finisher in the Under 3-Liter Prototype class and finished ninth overall.

The 3-liter 908/2 was es-sentially an 8-cylinder go- kart. Particularly suited for tight, twisty courses and a capable partner to be matched with the uber-fast 917s, the 908/2 helped bring Porsche the world championship.

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AUTOart’s 908/2 is an excellent re-creation of the real car and is painted a flawless solid white with racing stripes, numbers and Von Dutch pinstriping in black. Gulf and Goodyear sponsorship decals are the only other adornment. The shape and stance closely replicate the real car. Shut lines and build quality are excellent.

There is a lot of amazing detail that AUTOart put into this model in some surprising places: little things like the screen filters inside the injector plenums, or the photo-etch aircraft fuel filler in the passenger’s side door sill. Even the driver’s side fuel filler cap has a miniscule photo-etch opening bar with lightening holes. The engine cover lifts up and is supported by a nicely done over-center support. The engine has spark plug wires and fuel lines running to the injectors. These details show the fussiness they’ve shown toward this car.

Jaguar XK-SS. Based on their three-time LeMans-winning D-type, Jaguar built the XK-SS in 1956

when they found they were coming to the end of the production life for their D-type race cars and still had 25 chassis remaining and no purchasers. To

make the XK-SS, the D-type chassis was modified to be marginally street-able by adding a passenger door and seat, muffler, rudimentary top and side curtains, bumper and bumperettes, luggage rack and a full glass windshield. Sixteen XK-SSs were built with the remaining nine D-type chassis being destroyed in a fire at the Covington works.

In 1958, McQueen paid $5,000 to become the third owner of XK-SS number 713. He had the white car re-sprayed in British Racing Green, had Tony Nancy stitch up black leather seats in his distinctive rectangular tufted style and hired Von Dutch (Kenny Howard) to construct a door to seal the glove box where McQueen kept his shades. The car came equipped with the 3.4-liter Jaguar XK DOHC engine sporting three Weber side-draft carburetors. McQueen had the engine tweaked a

little, and in this configuration, it produced between 250 and 300 horsepower and was backed up by an all-synchromesh 4-speed Jaguar transmission. In it he became the terror of LA’s famed Mulholland Drive. Today, the car is part of the Peterson Museum Collection and its multi-million-dollar worth the matter of wild speculation given its provenance.

AUTOart’s XK-SS is truly a beautiful piece. The model is painted flawlessly in a dark British Racing Green (almost black with just a hint of green). The only badging is a chrome-plated “Jaguar XK-SS” appliqué on the leading edge of the bonnet’s power bulge. The bonnet and front fenders tilt forward as a single piece to reveal the engine, those wonderful Webers, the headers and the battery. At the rear of the car, a narrow horizontal door opens downward to reveal a mail-slot-like home for the spare under the rear deck.

AUTOart’s ability to capture the subtle nuances of the textures that make up the car is amazing. When you compare the chrome of the bumpers or the windshield frame to the finish of the wheels, or the leather seats to the texture and wrinkles of the vinyl top material found on the tonneau cover, you can see that the repertoire of finishes and textures goes a long way to bring realism to the piece. AUTOart also does a remarkable job of molding delicate trim pieces without showing a lot of parting lines and flash. An example is the luggage rack that looks to be fabricated from very delicate chrome tubing but in reality is a delicately molded piece that’s fairly robust. AUTOart quite accurately captures the stance and shape of this sensuous British cat.

Steve McQueen is joined only by Paul Newman as elite Hollywood actors who were also top competitive race car drivers. Both wheeled cars on and off screen with amazing skill. But Steve McQueen’s pure automotive passion sets him apart. AUTOart’s McQueen Collection is truly a set of diecast cars that are historic in nature and famous via ownership. n

The Jaguar XK-SS was the street-configured version of the purpose-built D-Type Jaguar race car. although keeping the flowing curves of the D-Jag's body, the afterthought windscreen with its chrome frame was demanded by law enforce-ment but stole some of the XK-SS's inherited sensuality.

Matt Stone's McQueen's Machines—The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon is a great read and is filled with pictures of many of McQueen's favorite rides. If you're really into this era, another fascinating read is Pat ganahl's Von Dutch —The Art, The Myth, The Legend.

[diecast essentials]

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