With virtually no formal publicity other than word of mouth, the Friends of Steve McQueen car and motorcycle show nevertheless drew a large crowd to the Boy’s Republic in Chino Hills, California last weekend.
Our good friend Ron Harris, chairman of the event, was proud that the show drew about three times more people than expected and raised many thousands of dollars for the at-risk boy’s school from which Steve Mc Queen had graduated in 1946.
This year’s theme was a celebration of McQueen’s 1971 film “Le Mans” and on hand to meet and sign autographs were several celebrities with close association to the film. These included Michael Keyser who wrote a terrific book about the movie entitled “A French Kiss with Death”. Co-author of the book and renown Ferrari driver Jonathan Williams was available to sign books and tell about his experience driving the Porsche 908 camera car for the movie. Also on hand were famous Le Mans drivers Vic Elford and Tony Adamowicz as well as John Klawitter producer of “Le Mans: The Race, The Movie”.
Lynne Hamilton with Tony Adamowicz and Vic Elford at the book signing ...
There were a large number of Porsches and Mustangs at the event including over 30 of the Bullit Mustangs produced by Ford to commemorate the famous Mustang fastback used in the movie.
Ron Harris' Porsche 356 "outlaw" race car ...
There were a larger number of motorcycles than in previous years. We transported two of the Triumphs from our collection that had links to Steve McQueen.
The first was our 1970 Bonneville which was the same model that Steve McQueen drove around the set of “Le Mans”. We displayed ours with the famous picture of McQueen upon his ‘70 Bonneville practicing the two finger salute he used in the movie.
The other Triumph we brought was our 1962 TR6SS which was the same model Bud Ekins modified to look like a German motorcycle for “The Great Escape”. The movie bike is famous for the jump over the barbed wire fence that Ekins (not McQueen) made for the escape scene.
We had hoped that one of the bikes would take an award but the single motorcycle award was presented to the owner of a very nice 1962 Norton Manx.
The date for next year’s event isn’t set yet but the theme is … Boy’s Republic will be transformed into 'San Francisco' to commemorate the movie “Bullit”.
Peter Dunkel's Charger and Bullit Mustang display for the movie "Bullit" ...
For more information about this event here are a few websites …
http://www.friendsofstevemcqueen.com/
http://www.mcqueenonline.com/thefriendsofstevemcqueencarshow2011.htm
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