Vintage video of Steve McQueens' Corvair powered dune buggy. "Thats where its at man! " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW9yFQkcGik
That "IS" where it's at man!.........Steve McQueen was a real hotrodder and one of my heroes. He really did his own stunts and was a hell of a driver. He left way too soon thats for sure.
Lemming, Lemming, Lemming, don't start a spelling war... besides, you made the same mistake at the end of your post... I love "The Hunter", watching him park that Trans am while hitting that Caddy was hilarious!!!
That must have been his personal car as the one he drove in,"The Thomas Crown Affair"was built at Autodynamics in Marblehead M***achusetts.The owner of the shop(Alex Dearborn)was a friend of Steve's.I remember seeing it at the shop a couple of times when I was there painting cars.
yeah that does put a downer on it, In England the ***tle music is the song of our national soccer team
Much to Steve's disgust the fence jump in 'The Great Escape' was done by a stunt man, the insurance company wouldn't cover him for it! I was reading Eric Badman (Of the Animals) book a while ago, he and Steve were good mates. He took Eric out for a drive in a dune buggy that he had built his own 'non spill' external fuel gage for. Jumping over a sand dune he put it on its lid. Eric said that while upside down he casually looked over his shoulder and said, 'Great, it works'. He also 're-enacted' the fence jump just to prove he could do it. Yup, he was one of the greats.
The stunt man was Steve's great friend, Bud Ekins....Steve played a couple of Germans in the bike scene also, so in fact, he was chasing himself! Bud also did a lot of the driving in Bullitt
Steve mcqueen was the real deal, not just a t.v. Tough guy. That guy could take your girl, and kick your ***. Not just one or the other.
This one ? Way ahead of it's time, four wheel drive, IFS & IRS with the engine just forward of the rear axle.
My uncle owned th 51 chev convertible that Steve owned and drove in Hunter for a while. I was a cool car. I remember in the movie he ground the gears every time he drove it.
In the late 50s-early60s, before the studios cracked down on his racing, he could be found racing a variety of cars around the So.Cal. sports car circuit.
I heard a story that a journalist was testing a vette on mulholland late one night, he pulled over to check something, An E type pulls up and the driver says "if you stick at 90 you can get every green light"............it was Steve McQueen
You mean Eric Burden? He and the remaining Animals are playing up this way on the 24th and I have my tickets! I didn't realize they were friends. My Aunt dated the guitarist Hilton Valentine when they were teenagers back in Tyneside.
Steve McQueen was one helluva motorcycle racer too. You guys should watch On Any Sunday, an old off-road motorcycle racing film. It has some great footage of McQueen.
moved to myryle beach S.C. in october the dunebuggy from thomas crown affair is in a beach store and museum here. maybe i can take photos if any one is interested
I was under the ***umption that watching On Any Sunday was prerequired film watching before posting on HAMB, along with The Hunter, Bullit, The California Kid, American Graffitti, Thunder Road, Two Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point, Dirty Larry, Crazy Mary, Smokey and the Bandit (I went to the theater and watched it over 20 times! matinees were just a buck), Gone in Sixty Seconds (the original), Heart like a wheel................................
Hi Bobr I am building a Thomas Crown Buggy replica. Car has 140 hp reverse rotation motor. Taken over a year to get all the same parts as the original car. Even managed to get the same dials. see corvairdunebuggy.com site still under construction so ignore all the guff. All bodywork mods will start in Feb. It would be great if you could take some pics of the car and if possible provide details of the place where it is kept. A good side view wpould be great If Anybody has and with any details or pictures of the TC car they would be greatfully recieved OK2look Martin in the UK
That would be cool! get as many shots and angles as possible.. I was reading up on the buggy itself. and it said that McQueen originally spec'ed it out to have a Porsche engine!.. But the production manager of the Thomas crown affair scoffed at the cost... So it was then switched to the rodded Corvair engine.
Steve McQueen rules. I recently read an article somewhere probably a motocross magazine. He told a cool story about getting spanked by Steve McQueen around the track. Seems like he was the characters he played in the movies.