There are cars with a special history associated with success on the racetrack, there are cars that became famous thanks to the cinema – perhaps Aston Martin can be considered one of the brightest examples, because James Bond, agent 007, has been driving cars of this brand for 60 years.
But there are also rarer cases where the car was glorified by both victories and participation in films: in January 2025, one of these unique copies will be auctioned by the American auction house Mecum.
We are talking about the sports prototype Porsche 917K from the 1971 movie “Le Mans”, carefully restored to its original condition – it was this car, number 20, that was driven by Michael Delaney, the hero of the legendary actor Steve McQueen.
Of course, this particular car never won Le Mans, but the same Porsche 917 sports prototypes finished first in the 24-hour marathon in 1970 and 1971. This is also why these cars now fetch a lot of money at auction, but are usually in museums and private collections.
This particular Porsche sports prototype was originally purchased for filming by McQueen’s production company, then owned by the actor himself, after which it wandered around private car museums and even competed in historic car races. Before that, the car needed a repaint, but has now undergone a full restoration, again wearing tail number 20 and again in the colours of Gulf, Porsche’s oil sponsor in the endurance races of those years.
In addition, the door of the sports prototype features Steve McQueen’s signature.
The last time the car was auctioned was in 2000, when it went under the hammer for $1.2 million. It is difficult to predict to what level the auction price could rise now, a quarter century later.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
