Steve McQueen's Porsche 911S From Le Mans

The narrow country road unravels toward us, turning first to the right and then to the left. A gray Porsche 911S bounds slightly as it speeds across a tiny bridge and then sweeps past. Climbing now up a gentle rise, then dropping down into one of those still, tree-lined avenues so typical of France. Finally across a single-span bridge and into a small town.

The camera finds the Porsche as it enters the square in front of a grand cathedral. We sense the presence of the driver behind the windshield. He eases the Porsche to a stop and catches sight of Elga Andersen across the square as she buys flowers. The car pauses for a long moment.

On the move in the 911 again, out of town and back into the countryside. The land is flat and the road takes a hard right onto a racing circuit; a sign reads, "Le Mans."

The Porsche 911S drives up a curving section of track past the familiar white farmhouse. As the car pulls to a stop along the road, there's a guardrail at the edge of the pavement. The driver steps out; he's wearing a suede jacket and a Heuer Monaco is on his right wrist. The camera scrutinizes a length of guardrail that's obviously new, then circles the driver. Slowly but surely we come to know him and the face of Steve McQueen fills the screen.



Where Did McQueen's Porsche 911S Go?
Steve McQueen's 1970 Porsche 911S has been missing since it left La Sarthe in 1970 when the filming completed for Le Mans, one of the best and most influential movies about racing ever made. But how did the most iconic Porsche 911 manage to elude collectors for almost 30 years? And just how do you come to own one of the most famous Porsches in the world?

We're sitting behind the wheel of the very car that so famously fills the first four minutes of Le Mans. We see the tree-lined avenues of France, the square in the middle of the town and that beautiful woman buying flowers, but only in our mind's eye. Through the windshield there are burger joints instead of the Cathedrale St-Julien, and the signs read "Long Beach" rather than "Le Mans."

The steering wheel feels good in our hands. We push in the clutch and struggle to find 1st gear in the Porsche's dogleg five-speed gearbox. Check the mirrors: not a Porsche 917 or Ferrari 512S in sight. We pull into traffic in Steve McQueen's lost 911.

As we head for Interstate 10 near Long Beach harbor, Jesse Rodrigues, the third owner of this 1970 Porsche 911S, yells out from the passenger seat, "Give it some more power."

The French Kiss of Death
Back in the spring of 1970, Steve McQueen's Solar Productions descended on Le Mans to start work on the film. To make his stay in France even more agreeable, McQueen bought a Porsche 911S that he would use both in the movie and as personal transport. McQueen was so happy with his 911 that at the end of filming he decided to keep the car, but not before Porsche transported it to Germany, where the transmission was modified.

The 911 was then shipped to McQueen's home in California. The problem was, McQueen already owned a 1969 911S and had gone to some expense installing a state-of-the-art stereo system in it. When Solar Productions went bankrupt in the wake of the film's troubled production and McQueen's marriage also began to unravel, the 1970 911S soon became surplus to requirements and was advertised for sale in the Los Angeles Times.

Jesse Rodrigues laughs as he recounts the story. "The guy I bought the car from, the second owner, is a real 911 enthusiast," he says. "He bought a Targa S in 1969, but unfortunately the car was stolen in early 1971. He wanted to buy another S, so he went to the L.A. Times and found an ad for a 911S. He called up the number and arranged to go and see the car, and guess who opened the door? Steve McQueen. The McQueen family still owns the '69 911S stereo car to this day."

The ex-Solar Productions McQueen 911S stayed in the hands of its second owner for the next 34 years, and it functioned as a daily driver for 20 of those years. Then in 2005, Jesse Rodrigues happened to attend an office luncheon. "It's a once-a-month affair," he recalls. "And just like any other group of colleagues, we talk about work and hobbies. On this particular day, I mentioned I like old Porsches and one of the ladies said her husband owned an old Porsche.

"It went no further until one day I met her in Starbucks and she said her husband was thinking about selling the car. At no point had there been any mention of McQueen or Le Mans."

Want To Buy a Used Car?
In truth, Rodrigues was not really interested in this used Porsche. He had discovered it was a 911, but his passion is for the 356. Rodrigues and his female colleague continued to talk over a number of weeks until finally a meeting was arranged.

"I went up to the owner's house," remembers Rodrigues. "The car was sitting, and pretty much in the condition we see it today. It was in the open, in the driveway next to the garage. There were dusty cat-paw marks over the hood and roof. It just looked like any number of other cars to me."

A few weeks later, Rodrigues returned to look at the car again. "Again we stood talking in the driveway," he says, "which is when the owner finally told me the car was Steve McQueen's 911. Obviously I know who Steve McQueen is, but it was almost of no consequence to me. I wasn't sure I could afford the car anyway, and we hadn't even spoken about a price yet."

Rodrigues headed home. It looked like a troubled deal, because the car had covered 116,000 miles and seemed certain to have engine and transmission concerns. One of Rodrigues' friends warned him off the deal, while another implored him to buy the car.

Finally Rodrigues told the owner of the McQueen 911S that he wanted to buy the car. The response came as a surprise. Rodrigues says, "The owner felt it was only right to offer the car to the McQueen family, which I totally agreed with. That's the natural thing to do." Fortunately the family declined.

Doing the Deal
Finally Rodrigues had the deal, but during the drive to the owner's house to pick it up he revisited his concerns about the engine and transmission. A mechanic was willing to look over the 911, but he wasn't available for another three days.

"I told the owner about my concerns," recalls Rodrigues, "and said that my mechanic couldn't look at the car for three days. Incredibly he handed me the keys and said, 'Take it.'"

After three long days the mechanic was able to give the all-clear and Rodrigues headed back to the owner's house. "Until then, all our conversations had been held out on the driveway, next to the car. It's better not to negotiate business like this in someone's home. When I finally walked into the house there was a poster on the wall of Steve McQueen." It was the one where McQueen is making the traditional British rude gesture (which the uninitiated think means "V" for victory) to his rival from Ferrari.

"The owner looked at me and said, 'Yes, that's the movie poster.' I didn't know which movie until he told me it was Le Mans. Can you believe I had never seen the movie? In fact I wasn't even aware of it!"

At this point the now ex-owner started bringing out file after file of documents to support McQueen's prior ownership of the 1970 Porsche 911S. "I really didn't know what I had," admits Rodrigues. "McQueen had kept every piece of correspondence, every detail of his ownership, every step of the car's trip to the U.S. including its registration."

On the Road Today
Little about the Steve McQueen 1970 Porsche 911S has changed since it left the Circuit de la Sarthe. It had been repainted sometime during its life, and Rodrigues has restored the wheels and fitted new tires. There's a new windshield, which is why the stickers (including race circuit parking) that can be seen in the film are not present on the car's glass today.

Nevertheless, the car is just as McQueen ordered it, with air-conditioning, a Blaupunkt AM/FM radio, leather upholstery, tinted windows, electric sunroof, aluminum wheel trim rings and driving lights.

"I've now bought the movie," says Jesse Rodrigues as we drive the streets of L.A. on a quiet Sunday morning in Steve McQueen's 911. "Some people say this is the most iconic 911. They could be right, but this is Steve McQueen's car, not mine and that is how it should stay. The person who owns it now should be of no consequence.

"The funny thing is, I recently ran into the guy who sold me the car at another luncheon and he said to me, 'What would you think if I gave you back all the money you paid for the car and the expenses you have incurred and took the car back?' We laughed about it, and I said, 'I respectfully decline your offer, but will bear it in mind for the future.'"

Ghost Driver
Of course for Steve McQueen's 1970 Porsche 911S from Le Mans, its days as a daily driver are well and truly over. While the car has spent its entire life in Los Angeles following its departure from Europe, the chaos in today's Southern California traffic makes it too risky to drive during the work week. But before sunrise every Sunday morning, Jesse Rodrigues pulls the gray Porsche 911S out of its garage and heads for the freeway and a 20-mile blast.

We glance to the right as we pass another burger joint, Rodrigues still at my side. The Sunday morning streets remain mercifully quiet as the massive window of the fast-food joint throws back the reflection of Steve McQueen's Porsche 911S, clear and true.

Our eyes rest for a moment on the surface of the glass. We see the car and a small restaurant with a flower box for decoration. Is that a cathedral, and a pretty woman buying flowers? Finally, we notice a street sign. It's pointing east and in our mind's eye it reads, "Le Mans, 5,718 miles."