Friends of Steve McQueen Car Show

Summer has recently arrived in Southern California and with spectacular weather come some spectacular car shows. New to the summer roster this year was the first Friends of Steve McQueen Car Show, held at the Boy's Republic in Chino, California. A most appropriate venue, McQueen not only lived there as a teenager, but the sprawling grounds allow for plenty of space to house the 200 or so cars on display.

The show itself is an enduring tribute to not just a famous actor, but a genuine car enthusiast who owned plenty of mouth-watering machines -- and even raced them from time to time. Steve's son, Chad McQueen and the author -- MT's very own Matt Stone -- signed copies of "McQueen's Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon," and when they ran out of books, McQueen hung out and signed whatever people brought him.

There were three ex-Steve cars on the field, and they were of course the crowd favorites. Chad brought the '58 Porsche Speedster 1600 Super that his father purchased new and won his first SCCA race with in 1959. Jesse Rodriguez brought the 1970 Porsche 911S that appeared in "Le Mans" (who could ever forget that opening scene with Steve and the 911, cruising the French countryside?). The owner has just consigned this car to Bonhams & Butterfields auctioneers, and it will be sold in August in Carmel Valley, California, along with the Porsche 908 Spyder that McQueen and Peter Revson drove to second place at the Sebring 12-hour race in 1970. Rounding out the trio was one of McQueen's many old trucks, a nicely patina'd early '50s GMC he donated to the Boys Republic in the 1970s. An ex-Steve Indian, a Triumph, and a well-done "Great Escape" Triumph replica represented the McQueen motorcycle contingent.

Bullitt Mustangs of every stripe were out in force. Dave Kunz brought his '68 Bullitt tribute car; the same one that appeared in the Ford Puma commercial about 10 years ago and Sheryl Crow's "Steve McQueen" music video in 2000. There was also another pair of Highland Green '68s on hand. 2001 Bullitt edition Mustangs outnumbered 2008 Bullitt 'Stangs, six cars to three, and the crowd enjoyed them all. From there, it was run what ya brung, with a lot of American muscle, several nice Shelby Mustangs (old and new), many fine Jaguars, and around 40 Porsches on hand -- no surprise, as a Porsche 356 club put on the event.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, there was a respectable amount of money raised for the Boys Republic, and many promised they'd "come back next year, show my car next time, and bring a friend, too." Let's hope all that happens.