The Sand Pebbles

A McQueen film from '66 was The Sand Pebbles; seeing him play a gunboat engineer, Jake Holman, parolling the Yangtse River in the twenties amidst the turmoil of a chinese revolution. He received his only Oscar nomination for this role.

Here's a great shot as the actor relaxes with co-star Richard Crenna, who played the 'boat captain. Steve atop a fresh loooking Triumph, Crenna a rickshaw.

Triple Cool

What could be more hip than these three tootling about the set of The Great Escape on this German Rig. McQueen 'Hilts' driving; Garner 'The Scrounger' pillion and Coburn 'Sedgwick' sitting lazily in the chair. Director John Sturges looks on.

Mustang Driver

Last weekend our trip to Upstate NY was meant to be taken driving about in a Mini Cooper Convertible; true Michael Caine style! However the rental place was out of them :-(  Not to worry, they had as an alternate a Black Ford Mustang Ragtop... what could we do? I had to take it, then I could be McQueen-bound a la Bullitt careening around the streets of Manhattan and lanes of the Berkshires! Nope it wasn't as punchy as his '68 Fastback 390 c.i. Mustang, but I had fun on the curvy roads nonetheless!

Steve and Mike

Looks Cool lacin' his boots up! Clean Triumph and Mike his Malamute hound sniffs around too.

McQueen Tat

A Very dedicated fan of The King of Cool!

Everyday Cool...

It's been a while since we've had a bit of the King of Cool, Mr. Steve McQueen. Here's a couple of Triumph-centric shots: one with a great T-shirt; probably quenching a dry thirst after a ride in the desert; the other pushing his moto around some film lot, shades & hanging fag seal the deal.

Banksy

Saw this on Ride the Machine blog today, just HAD to add it here, an adaptation of a McQueen jump aboard the Great Escape Triumph... .. looks like a sprayed mural about 6' high or so.

... here's original graphic:

Field of Dreams...

A McQueen fix, here's wor Steve looking on at the ISDT rides quarantined from the riders pre-race. His is the one in front no doubt "278". Pensive before the six days ahead!

Great Escape movie poster

A week of Steve McQueen and The G.E. is closed off with this super narrow movie poster with the bike jump taking 'center stage', the black and white with turquiose highlight is cool too.

McQueen modelling

One last model kit featuring Hilts on his bike is this small diarama showing him in full posed evading capture.

Simple assembly but a good paint finish would be essential.

Plenty of images to reference too!

Hilts rides again...

Keepin' the theme going, here's a 1:6 scale action figure and bike of Hilts on a german bike. Well padded leather flying jacket and small baseball glove. All it needs is a 'Cooler' diarama as well as a fence jump ramp!

Oh to be a kid again!

Now if they added the revving motor of an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle.... too much fun!

A Model Escape

Here is an accurate 1:12 model of the bike used by Hilts to escape the Germans and the Stalag Luft. Actually a Triumph TR6, painted and detailed a little to replicate a wartime BMW R45 bike of the time; probably its because this is the model Steve and his pal Bud rode to great effect across the SoCal dessert. Nevertheless it is still one of the most classic bike scenes in ANY movie!

Below: a replica built for the Imprial War Museum exhibition on the G.E. in 2005/6 - A 1960 T110.

Parfum de King of Cool

Steve McQueen fragrance should embody the timeless elegance, charm and mysterious character of the man who inspired it, both tough and sensitive, handsome and mysterious, melancholic and mischievous ... This is a fragrance that reflects the man whose appearance set the standards of masculinity and elegance.

Steve McQueen perfume was launched on 20th September 2010 as 100 ml EDP. The perfume is available in collectable limited edition box at the cost of $190 or 140 euros.

Salute

A great image of "Da Man" in Le Mans garb prepared in great artistic fashion by Conrad Leach. Super...

Tom, Dick and Harry....

...and Hilts, the Cooler King. Taking on the Germans in his famous motorcycle escape in my favourite film. An ensemble cast topped by the great Steve McQueen.

King of Cools bike collection...

Every few years another of the items from the collection of Steve McQueen becomes available. Recently his wax cotton Belstaff jacket from the ISDT was sold for several tens of thousands. This year a motocross is up for sale. A 400cc Husqvarna that rode in the Elsinore, as seen on the great documentary On Any Sunday, as well as adorning the cover of Sports Illustrated. The bids will commence and a hammer fall on no doubt a hefty winning bid on May 14th in Carmel CA, Bonhams will carry out the auction.

Steve with aforementioned bike taking it through its paces across some SoCal sands.

 

Wallace - The Cooler King

One great biker, or rather sidecar driver, is Wallace, who, along with his trusty sidekick pup Gromit get up to all sorts of adventures on their red Triumph hack. One imaginative modelmaker has taken the idea to represent our top motorcyclist hero Steve McQueen in his most noted bike scene, the Great Escape fence jump, and applied an Aardman appearance to him. More cheese Gromit?

Here's the original duo...

Gulf Racing Colors

More and more bikes are cropping up with the sky blue, orange and navy pinstripe colors of the Gulf Oil scheme. It's the one previously mentioned in this blog being Steve McQueens Porsche appearance in Le Mans.

Michael Delaney: "A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it... it’s life. Anything that happens before or after... is just waiting."

One german garages version of an upgraded Bonneville (mark II 2000 models)

Another with swept back exhausts and racing fairing.

Ducati, orange frame 'n' all. Sublime...

The muscular Triumph Rocket Three; a drag strip racer.

Steve McQueen an his Triumphs

Hilts in The Great Escape

International Six Days Trial 1964

A Cool roll through London (Mini zooms by behind)