58
205 steve mcQueen And porsche: An iconic stAr And An iconic cAr.
205.MARTINI RACING le mans porsche headscarfman-made fibre, 785 x 760 mm, printed in colour depicting porsche 917l. £498
first run in 1923, the 24 hours of le mans is the oldest sports car endurance race in the world. its use of a circuit of closed public roads tests drivers’ reflexes and skill as well as their endurance. in 1971 steve mcQueen released Le Mans, a very personal project, starring mcQueen as a driver in the 1970 race. Le Mans takes its excitement from footage filmed during the actual 1970 race. to get it mcQueen entered a car under the banner of his production company – solar productions.
mcQueen was prevented from racing for the film by the movie’s insurance and so entered the #48 908 as a camera car. he was shown starting in the blue #20 gulf-porsche 917k which was driven in the race by Jo siffert and brian redman. the race-leading white #25 porsche 917l was driven by vic elford and kurt Ahrens. the solar productions #29 908/2 was driven by herbert linge and Jonathan Williams with such skill that they finished the race. unfortunately, although it travelled 282 laps, it was not classified as it had not covered the required minimum distance due to the stops to change film reels.
the 917s driven in the film owed their existence to a rule change. originally there had to be a minimum production number of 50 of any car entered in the international championship of makes (later the World sportscar championship) to show they were fully tested and roadworthy. in 1968 the commission sportive internationale announced the reduction of the minimum to 25. porsche took expensive but effective advantage of the rule change. they were rebuilding race cars with new chassis every race or two, selling the used cars to customers, so they decided to conceive, design and build 25 versions of a whole new car. thus was born the 917. there were two models of 917: the 917k for kurzheck which is german for ‘short tail’ and the ‘l’ or langheck which is german for ‘long tail’.
the scarf features the so-called ‘hippy’ #3 917l of martini racing. martini & rossi were one of the first non car-industry sponsors to take advantage of the removal of advertising restrictions in 1968. they got their first exposure at hockenheim where they gave promotional items to drivers who carried martini decals on their cars. martini later decided to enter the fray and purchased a pair of porsche 907s coming sixth in their first year. the international martini racing team displayed the two wide stripes which would eventually become the iconic dark blue, light blue and red stripes of their racing colours. one of their most significant events was at the 1971 seabring where vic elford and gerard larrousse piloted a 917k to victory finishing a full three laps ahead of the competition.
however, before the iconic martini livery made its debut in 1971, the martini team shocked the public – and indeed many traditionalists within porsche – by having porsche’s new styling chief, tony lapine, give the 917l elaborate whorls and swoops of light green on a violet background. known affectionately as the ‘hippy’ car, it took its extreme paint job to second-place overall in that year’s 24-hour classic.
Whilst we have not been able to identify all of the names around the scarf as well as mcQueen they include linge, siffert, redman and elfond who were involved with the filming. it also shows richard Attwood (who won the 1970 le mans in a 917k), gerard larousse (who won the 1971 seabrings) and gijs van lennep and helmut marko (who would win le mans that year). other names include tony dean (who won a canAm challenge for porsche), gunter stekkonig (who drove for porsche Ag), björn Waldegård (who won the ‘69 monte carlo rally in a 911) and Willi kausen, rudi lins and pedro rodriguez who all drove for porsche. it also appears to feature ove Andresson who founded the team which became team toyota europe.
it is likely that the scarf was tie-in merchandise between porsche, martini and the film – as shown by the presence of mcQueen’s name. it is most likely from martini, partly because of their history of racing memorabilia but also because the car featured is neither the 908/2 of mcQueen nor the gulf-porsche 917 he was driving for the film. it may well have been released in time for that year’s seabring as it features the previous year’s second place car rather than either of the winning martini porsches from 1971.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96