Steve McQueen's Legendary Car Cobra Ready To Be Auctioned

1963 Cobra 289 Roadster. (Doc. Mecum Auctions)

JAKARTA The well-known automotive exhibition and event Monterey Car Week will be held August 12-14 in the Monterey region, California, United States.

At this year's exhibition there is a surprise where the late Steve McQueen's Cobra Roadster will be auctioned off. For automotive and film enthusiasts, of course, the names Steve McQueen and flight Cobra may be familiar. Both are icons in their respective fields, and now the history of both is ready to be auctioned.

1963 Cobra 289 Roadster to be offered at Monterey Car Week is Steve McQueen's private car.

As a legendary sports car, Cobra itself already has a very high selling value. In fact, launching Road & Track, August 5, these two cars that were auctioned through Bring a Trailer were recorded as successfully sold at a price of 900 thousand US dollars (equivalent to Rp14.5 billion) and 925 thousand US dollars (equivalent to Rp14.9 billion), respectively.

Obviously, with his history with the iconic actor Steve McQueen, the price of this car being auctioned could be far above the two cars above.

It is known, McQueen used this car for several years, from 1965 to 1967 to be exact. Before being owned by McQueen, this car had been owned by film producer David L. Wolper and then composer Elmer Bernstein.

The car is equipped with a V8 289 CI engine, aluminium FORged piston, steel craneshaft, 4 speed manual transmission, steel tubular chassis, front and back suspensions of wishbones per transverse leaf and telescopic damping, rack and pinion steering, 4-wheel Girling disc brakes with a 2-piston calipse, AC wood steering wheel, Willans seat belt, Smiths metric instrument, fire extinguisher, and Pirelli tires.

Mecum Auctions, the auction house that will handle the sale of this car, estimates that the selling price could reach more than 1.5 million US dollars (equivalent to Rp24.2 billion). The condition of the car that still maintains the body and original engine, as well as several improvements such as stainless steel and electronic brake channels, makes this car even more attractive to collectors.