Steve McQueens’ Series II

The minute a picture is over, I run like a thief…I’ll put the old lady and the kids in my Land Rover and take off. Up into the mountains, out in the desert, anywhere… Man, I don’t want to be bugged by anybody.” So said Steve McQueen, as quoted in Marc Eliot’s 2012 biography. You don’t have to be a film fanatic to knowthat Terrence Stephen McQueen, actor, racer, spanner man and enthusiast of all things mechanical, loved his cars. As he became more successful, his fleet grew exponentially: Porsches, Ferraris and Mercedes featured heavily in his garage, as well as the famous Jaguar XKSS that he enjoyed so much he owned it twice. There was also a 1961 Series II SWB Land Rover, which, appropriately enough for such an unassuming vehicle, is one of Steve’s lesser-known rides.

This discreet and determinedly unflashy Land Rover was a vehicle that brought together all of Steve’s true passions of family, racing and – perhaps most importantly – time away from the superficiality of Hollywood. It was a private space that symbolised his enjoyment of simple pleasures – a love of mechanical objects, the freedom of the desert and calm silence away from the craziness of his profession.

The Landy isn’t the flash sports car that you’d expect a film star to be driving down Sunset Strip or Santa Monica Boulevard, but I bet that Steve loved every minute behind the wheel. Land Rovers weren’t designed to be cool in the 1960s, yet their no-nonsense attitude and consummate capability attracted people such as Steve. Not because they were trendy, but because of what they did. Like McQueen, his Land Rover’s actions spoke louder than words. McQueen took delivery of the Bronze Green 1961 Series II Station Wagon while in the UK filming The War Lover. According to Matt Stone, writing in McQueen’s Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon, Steve had the purchase of the Land Rover written into his contract for The War Lover, effectively replacing the use of a chauffeur-driven car during filming. “My agent had a special bit written into my contract,” saidMcQueen. “He had the studio agree to provide me with a limousine and chauffeur to get me to the set. But that wasn’t my thing, and I told the studio people: ‘Why not let me buy a small car and drive it myself?’ This saved them money, so they okayed the offer. As a result, I got me a 12-speed, fourwheel- drive Land Rover, which I shipped back to California after the film was over. I came out ahead on the deal.”In between filming at Shepperton Studios and Bovingdon Airfield in Hertfordshire, Steve ran amok around the British countryside in the Land Rover, as well as indulging his passion for racing with Stirling Moss in Mini Coopers at Brands Hatch (much to the productioncompany’s alarm). Filming took place between September 1961 and January 1962, with Steve’s home during that time being a large townhouse in Chester Square, London, SW1, rented to the studio by Lord and Lady Russell. Once the film wrapped, Steve, his wife Neile and the Land Rover headed back to California. A few weeks later, when the Land Rover arrived in the US,McQueen had the legendary custom paint and pinstripe specialist Kenny ‘Von Dutch’ Howard work his magic on the vehicle. Von Dutch had already customised a number of Steve’s motorbikes and his 1957 Jaguar XKSS, and it seems likely that he worked on the Land Rover several times duringMcQueen’s ownership. Firstly he added pinstripes echoing the vehicle’s boxy shape, then some logos from McQueen’s first production company, Scuderia Condor, on the frontdoors and tailgate. Steve’s informal motorcycle and racing ‘club’, Chicken Shit Racing (members included Charles Bronson, Sir John Whitmore, Bud and Dave Ekins, with ‘races’ allegedly taking place after dark on Mulholland Drive), was also immortalised on the right-hand front wing by Von Dutch. To keep things discreet, and as an in joke, Bud Ekins took a sample of chicken excrement to a chemist to be analysed and put into a compound formula. The resulting equation – H2PO3 (NH4)3C2O4 in case you wondered – was handwritten by Von Dutch onto the wing of the Land Rover (along with United Kingdom Branch), and remarkably these words are just about visible today.

The Landy occupied a unique spot among the growing stable of exotic cars that McQueen acquired during the midto late 1960s. Unlike the sports cars and bikes that Steve enjoyed piecemeal, the Land Rover was a presence thatfound its way into all elements of his life, largely because itwas both useful and fun. Steve drove it often while in Hollywood, it towed his racing cars and bikes, he enjoyed private time with his family and dogs in it, and it was a vehicle in which he could take out his celebrity friends and family to enjoy the great outdoors, more often than not near his weekend home in Palm Springs.As such, it was often to be seen speeding across the Southern Californian desert, Hollywood stars and starlets hanging on for dear life in the back; parked out in the scrub,windows fogged by cigarette smoke (or other puffs) while Steve hung out with fellow actors or his biker friends between filming; being used as a family runabout on warm days with the top off; pressed into service as a support vehicle for a motorcycling day out; and loaded down with gear, friends and beer for a weekend of camping, shooting or fishing in the mountains.