Steve McQueen. I’m almost at a loss to describe just how much that name means to me. An American icon who was fanatical about anything with wheels. As much as the movies influenced me growing up, it was his real life interests that excite me as an adult. The fact that his kid is about my age brings the whole scene a little closer into my realm.
The book Mcqueen’s Machines: The cars and bikes of a Hollywood Icon was written by Matt Stone, the Executive Editor of Motor Trend. That McQueen’s son Chad wrote the forward just ads credibility to an already great book. It is filled with images that offer a peek at the life of a true gearhead, who just happened to have access to the most incredible wheels. It’s hard to pick a favorite image, but if pressed I’ll bet that many would agree that the shot of Steve catching air with a Triumph Scrambler. No helmet, in jeans and a sweat shirt, he might as easily have been riding to the corner store. Probably was.
This keeper is available from Motorbooks for only $20.21
4 comments ↓
Icon? I think he’s right up there with… Well, lets just say he’s right up there with the Holy Grail.
How funny… I was talking to a friend just a couple of days ago about McQueen. Naturally since I live in the San Francisco Bay area and being a lover of all things Mustang, I have idolized him for years and that has nothing to do with the fact he’s everything any red-blooded guy would want to be anyway. I can’t tell you how many times I have driven (and raced) the very streets where Bullit was shot. (And yes, Catching a whole lot of air there is a very common thing. In fact it was too common in a certain Viper which caused some cracks in the rear frame. The dealer warrentied them. Had they only known. SSShhhh. But just this last year as I was researching various items for one of my race cars I began going to a place about an hour out of the bay area called Brentwood. As a matter of fact I went there a LOT this past year and even looked into purchasing a home there for my daughter. But just a few days ago I found out Brentwood is where Steve McQueen’s main home was for many years… right next to the place I had been buying many of my parts from.
Gary
That must have been a complete rush to find out that you were cruising Mr. Cool himself’s old stomping ground.
He’d be happy to know that you too are “catching are whole lot of air” in San Francisco … the spirit lives on.
Cheers!
Matt’s a friend. I shouldn’t say this, but I read the book in the Motorbooks display at SEMA between interviews and broadcasts for Motor Trend Radio. I had a 1978 Triumph Bonneville. I loved the kick start. It died though of the dreaded British electrical disease a few years back.
I think SEMA is the perfect place to read this one…it beat’s the throne!
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