‘When you find your passion in life you’ve got it made’

- Neile Adams, on Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen and the ‘Le Mans’ production team preferred to let the cars do the talking in 1971’s 'Le Mans’. With a script notable for its lack of dialogue, the onus was on the drivers assembled to deliver the performances and speeds to make the action as realistic and compelling as possible.

Thankfully, an actor (and petrolhead) of Steve’s stature was able to call upon some of the best drivers around to help realise his vision for the ultimate driving film…

Peter Revson

A socialite and heir to the Revson cosmetics fortune, Peter Revson and Steve couldn’t have had more different upbringings. That said, in 1970 the two joined forces to prepare for Le Mans in the 1969 12 Hours of Sebring - a race that saw them finish second despite Steve racing with a broken foot. Perfect preparation for the film that lay ahead…

Derek Bell

Born on the 31st October 1941, Derek Bell MBE won his first race at Goodwood in March 1964, before moving quickly through the categories to drive a Brabham BT23C fielded by the Church Farm Racing team in Formula 2. Catching the eye of none other than Enzo Ferrari, the young Bell made his Formula One Grand Prix debut for Ferrari at Monza in 1968 - going on to pilot the then-revolutionary four-wheel drive McLaren M9A in its only Grand Prix outing at Silverstone in 1969.

With his proven racing pedigree, Derek was a shoe-in to help record some of the most demanding driving scenes in ‘Le Mans’ - needless to say, Derek took up the offer from Steve McQueen with some enthusiasm:

“Being paid $200 a day to drive some amazing cars in a film starring Steve McQueen seemed like a pretty sweet deal".

- Derek Bell

Though he became fast friends with Steve, Derek also suffered one of the worst injuries of his career during a set-piece scene on the set of ‘Le Mans’. Approaching Indianapolis Corner at high speed, his Ferrari 512S burst into flames due to an electrical wiring fault, leaving the 5 times Le Mans champion badly burnt in scenes eerily reminiscent of Nika Lauda’s crash in Ron Howard’s ‘Rush’.

As for the Ferrari? Well, it was painstakingly rebuilt from the charred remains up, and bought by Pink Floyd drummer and classic car collector Nick Mason in the 80’s.

Nick Mason’s 512S, seen here with an iconic Gulf GT40 at last month’s London Classic Car Show.

Jonathan Williams

A shooting star of the 60’s (who sadly passed away shortly after meeting with our co-director Gabriel Clarke), Jonathan Williams made his Grand Prix debut in 1967 wearing Scuderia Ferrari colours after performing well for De Sanctis in Formula 3. Despite clocking a number of impressive results, the tragic death of close friend Piers Courage in the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix saw his taste for motorsport tempered - the time he spent filming ‘Le Mans’ would be the last time he ever drove a car around a racetrack. He later went on to become a pilot, most notably becoming the private pilot to race driver and industrialist Alessandro de Tomaso.

Despite misgivings, he finished an impressive 9th overall at the 1970 254 (typo?) Hours of Le Mans in Steve McQueen’s own Porsche 908 cum camera car. We can only guess as to where Williams would have finished had he not been forced to stop every 20 minutes to have the on-board film reels changed…

David Piper

An occasional Formula 1 Grand Prix driver of the era, David ‘Pipes’ Piper (who owed nickname to the omnipresent pipe he could be found smoking in the pit at any given time) spent most of the 60’s racing and trading sports-cars - finishing sixth on his debut at Le Mans in 1963 - which saw him come to an agreement with Solar Productions to provide drivers and cars to generate footage for ‘Le Mans’.

In the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans event filmed by Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions crew, David ran in a strong third place for a long time, before his co-driver crashed in the middle of the night, dropping their car down the field.

This was ultimately to prove his final competitive event because, three months into the filming of ‘Le Mans’, he suffered the most serious accident of the movie’s making. Whilst filming a routine racing scene – if driving at 180mph through fast curves can ever be described as 'routine’ – David’s Porsche 917 broke up after colliding with an Armco crash-barrier. The impact left him with leg and foot injuries so serious that his right lower limb sadly had to be amputated.

“To this day, I still don’t really know what happened to cause that accident. The back end of the car just went…”

- David Piper

Faced with these setbacks, David simply strapped on a false foot and was to be found behind the wheel of an enviable collection of classic cars during the 90’s, winning the FIA D’Europe Historic outright in 1990.

A legion of other drivers were also recruited by Steve McQueen during the making of ‘Le Mans’, with each one issued firm instructions to drive at full racing speed. Amongst their ranks stood Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez and Mike Parkes - all of whom sadly lost their lives during the 70’s - truly motor racing’s most spectacular and deadly era.

Hear more from Derek, Jonathan and David - and find out exactly why Steve rated them so highly - in ‘McQueen: The Man & Le Mans’ later this year!

In the meantime, watch our teaser here: