Before he passed away in 1980, Steve McQueen ordered the above-pictured 1976 Porsche 930 Turbo Carrera, and now, the car will be auctioned->ke2845 off at the Mecum Auctions during the upcoming Monterey Car Week in August. The car features a slew of special custom touches as executed by the legendary actor/racer/all-around badass McQueen, and is expected to cross the block for well over a million dollars. 

As anyone familiar with McQueen will tell you, no vehicle in the man’s extensive collection of machinery could be seen as “run-of-the-mill,” and such is the case with this 930 Turbo.->ke930 The exterior is painted in a special-order Slate Gray, while the engine is an early production, non-intercooled 3.0-liter unit, making for what’s considered to be one of the more rare and pure iterations available. Grip is assisted thanks to positraction in the rear. 

Also included is a sunroof and dual side mirrors, while the interior is draped in black and is equipped with sport seats. McQueen swapped out the old wheels in favor of +1 rollers measuring 8 inches up front and 9 inches in the back. There’s also a switch on the dash to kill the rear lights in the event of a high-speed chase down Mulholland Drive. Did I mention McQueen was a badass?

“The car is rich in history. This is the last of the McQueen cars, really,” says McQueen’s son, Chad. 

A portion of the proceeds at auction will be donated to The Boys Republic, a non-profit treatment community for troubled youth based out of Chino, California. McQueen was a 1946 alumnus of the organization and attributes it with being the one place that turned his life around.

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Why it matters

While unlikely, it’s possible a few of you out there are unfamiliar with Steve McQueen. Also known as “The King of Cool,” McQueen came to prominence as a big-shot Hollywood actor in the ‘60s and ‘70s and is characterized for his laconic style and anti-hero persona. The man created some of the best gas-powered movies ever produced, including Bullitt, The Great Escape and LeMans.

What’s more, he was known for performing his own stunts, and even considered a career as a professional race driver before taking up acting. He drove a Mini->ke57 in the BTCC, won the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 908/02 (with a broken leg, mind you), and participated in several off-road races, including the Baja 1000, Mint 400, and Elsinore Grand Prix.

In the early ‘70s, McQueen poured his passion into the creation of arguably one of the greatest racing->ke447 movies ever to hit the screen: Le Mans. “I’ve always wanted to shoot a motor racing picture because it’s always been something close to my heart, and I sometimes thought, ‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t do it.’ When something is close to you, you have a tendency to become too much of a perfectionist with it,” McQueen is quoted as saying. Despite a whirlwind of setbacks, the film was eventually released in 1971, and anyone interested in learning just what made McQueen so awesome is advised to a) watch Le Mans and b) check out the upcoming documentary on its creation slated for release this November.

"When you’re racing, it’s life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting,” he’s quoted as saying.

Suffice to say, McQueen was the real deal. “He was an avid lover of all things mechanical, not just cars. He loved motorcycles, he loved airplanes, he loved to go fast, he loved mechanical things,” says Mike Regalia of Regalia Concours Restorations, who has connections with the 930 and other McQueen vehicles. “He didn’t just talk about it, he did it. He raced motorcycles successfully, he raced off-road successfully, he raced sports cars successfully, and I think that’s why, for collectors, his cars are really special.”

And when it comes to unique, big-dollar vehicles exchanging hands, Monterey Car Week is the place to be. Held annually every August on the central California coast, this event sees all kinds of exclusive, uber-expensive motoring goodness come out to play. Not only are there a slew of auctions, the week plays host to such prestigious events as the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, where priceless historic race cars->ke148 tempt fate on the corkscrew at Laguna Seca,->ke981 and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance,->ke2839 a competition between roughly 200 of the most prized collector cars and motorcycles on the planet. 

Super-deep pockets vying for a genuine slice of gearhead history? Sounds about right. And topping it off is the fact that a portion of the money will go to a good cause.

“I think what we’re gonna create here is the life story of Steve McQueen,” says Regalia. “The life story of what The Boys Republic meant to Steve McQueen, still means to Steve McQueen and his family and his legacy, and I think that this car and then the future owner of this car is getting that.”

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Produced between 1975 and 1989, the 930 was Porsche’s premier production sports car during the entirety of its lifespan, and at the time of its introduction, the fastest production car in Germany. The car was more than a handful for novice drivers, with a rear-engine layout and short wheelbase that combined with significant turbo lag to create oversteer that could easily overwhelm the unwary. Engine output was rated at 256 horsepower, although Porsche bumped displacement to 3.3-liters in 1978, adding an air-to-air intercooler and increasing output to 300 horsepower. Performance for the 256-horsepower unit was clocked in at 5.2 seconds for the 0-to-60, while top speed was 153 mph.

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