The film opens with McQueen driving his sleek black Porsche 911S through the country lanes of France. This same Porsche, which was delivered to McQueen on the set of LeMans, recently sold for $1.25 million at an auction in Monterey California in August this year. In the opening sequence McQeen (Michael Delaney) stops the Porsche on the LeMans track, and goes into a flashback of the previous years race where he was involved in the fatal accident of Ferrari driver Belgetti. The action footage is superb, being mainly taken from the actual 1970 Le Mans race, with scenes shot later using the actual race cars, but mostly, the iconic Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512, with Lola T70's dressed up in Porsche and Ferrari bodywork for the crash sequences. The sound of these engines is something else, and if they sound this good via Dailymotion, lord only knows what they must have sounded like for real....... I wish!
A real build-up of tension starts a few minutes prior to the race start, with the camera darting between McQueen checking his gloves and dashboard switches (in that nervy pre-race way that any racer will be familiar with) and the clock, starters flag and crowd, and at the same time, a heartbeat gradually beating faster and faster until it reaches a crescendo......then.....silence, momentarily, before the engines bellow into life and all hell breaks loose! Epic and unmissable, even if you have seen it before!!
Of course those of you with a memory of the great Steve McQueen, will know that he was a racer himself, having started competing on motorcycles to fund his acting studies. He loved cars, bikes and racing and finished second in the 12hrs of sebring partnering Peter Revson.
Steve McQueen 'The King of Cool'
Click the title of this post to be linked through to the film.
www.carrepairpreston.co.uk
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| Steve McQueen shares his opinion! |
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