Although Steve McQueen may have shared Johnny Depp’s love of Native American wisdom, carried a .38 calibre Smith & Wesson in Bullitt and The Getaway and rode around Hollywood on a 1940 “Indian Chief” motorcycle, it appears he had more in common with Ruth Ellis’s nemesis David Blakely than Captain Jack Sparrow. If there was one thing the actor-rebel loved above all other things, it was to race – a passion best exemplified by his role in the 1971 classic Le Mans.

Motorbikes were his favourite racing machines. And nothing quite beats the 650cc Triumph TR6 Trophy with which he almost secured his freedom from the Nazis in The Great Escape. Although famed for doing most of his own danger work, it was his long-term stunt double Bud Ekins who actually made the bid for freedom across the barbed wire: “When he was working he would sometimes sneak out to race but he wasn’t supposed to: he broke his foot one time and he told them he slipped in oil on the back of his pick-up truck.”

McQueen’s internment in The Great Escape mirrors a genuine experience in the US Navy, where he spent 40 days in the brig after going AWOL with a girlfriend. It seems that with everything Steve McQueen did, the line between his art and his life was a blurry one.

Bikes

MOTO GUZZI V7 CLASSIC
Air cooled four stroke V-twin cylinder
Top speed 165.0km/h

BENELLI 750 SEI
Air cooled MK1 6 cylinder
Top speed 105.0km/h

BMWR 1200R CLASSIC
Four stroke Boxer alr
Top speed 195.0km/h

DUCATI 350 MARK 3 DESMO
Single cylinder 5 speed
Top speed 95.0km/h