A 1967 Ferrari 275GTB/4 once owned by actor and racer Steve McQueen is due to cross the block in RM Auctions' Monterey sale, taking place on 16-17 August.
It is expected to fetch as much as $9m, but with the detailed history collated by its current owner and the connection to the King of Cool, few would be surprised to see it make more.
The car was originally delivered to McQueen while he was filming Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair following a crash in his NART Spyder, and in factory trim sported Campagnolo alloys and a Nocciola (metallic gold) paint job. Before he had even taken it for a test drive, the wheels were removed and replaced with the Borranis from the crashed NART, while the colour was changed to a deep shade of maroon, dubbed 'Chianti Red' by Lee Brown, whose bodyshop carried out the work.
McQueen kept the car for four years before selling it to Lost in Space star Guy Williams, who in turn let the car go in 1976, passing it on to JP Hyan. By this time the Ferrari had suffered both front- and rear-end damage, which encouraged its next owner, who bought the car for $32,000 in 1980, to commission a $10,000 NART conversion by marque specialist Richard Straman. The colour was changed to yellow until, 16 years later, it passed to Andrew Pisker, who once again resprayed the 275 before selling it to historic racer Peter Harburg in 2010.
From there the car was sent to Maranello for an assessment, during which it was sold to the current owner, who subsequently had the Ferrari returned to a Berlinetta body style and commissioned a full restoration by Ferrari Classiche.
