Following Gooding Christie’s record-breaking Pebble Beach sale at Monterey Car Week, attention now turns to the next major chapter: the inaugural Rétromobile New York Auctions this November, where the auction house will offer a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider first owned by Hollywood actor Steve McQueen, with a pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $20 million.
Chassis 10453 is one of the headline lots among early consignments of the upcoming auction, set to take place at the Javits Center in New York on November 20 and 21 alongside the first North American edition of Rétromobile.
Completed in September 1967 and invoiced to Luigi Chinetti Motors, chassis 10453 was sold to McQueen through Hollywood Sport Cars. It left Maranello in Blu Sera, or Evening Blue, making it the first of only two NART Spiders originally finished in that color.
McQueen’s ownership was relatively brief, but he left the Ferrari unmistakably his own. He had it repainted in a darker metallic blue, retrimmed the seats with a distinctive stitching pattern, and made several other cosmetic changes. Following an accident on Pacific Coast Highway, he sent the car to Junior Conway, the Los Angeles bodyman associated with the Barris shop and Hollywood’s custom-car scene, for repairs.
Conway’s connection to the car would become part of NART Spider history in its own right. Decades later, he was commissioned to restore another example, chassis 10749, specifically because of his earlier work on McQueen’s 10453.
By 1971, the Ferrari had passed to J. David Kopf of Tujunga, California. It joined its current owner’s collection in 1986 through Long Island Ferrari dealer Grand Prix SSR and has remained there for the past four decades. Rather than being returned to factory specification, 10453 retains its matching-numbers engine and transaxle, original Scaglietti body, metallic blue finish, and the custom details commissioned during McQueen’s ownership.
“Of all the high-profile cars owned by the iconic Steve McQueen, this NART Spider remains the most elusive and mythical.” - David Gooding, President, Gooding Christie’s
That preservation is central to what makes this particular NART Spider so compelling. Many important collector cars have undergone restoration, a process that can erase precisely the personal touches that distinguish one example from another. A concours-correct 10453 would still be a beautiful NART Spider, but this one is McQueen’s.
The ‘King of Cool’ rarely left his cars exactly as they came. His 1956 Jaguar XKSS, one of just 16 built and now part of the Petersen Automotive Museum collection, was also repainted and retrimmed to his taste. His 250 GT Lusso became another Ferrari closely associated with him, while the 275 GTB/4 that followed the damaged NART Spider was refinished in Chianti Red.
The NART Spider emerged from the broader Ferrari 275 family, but owes its existence largely to Luigi Chinetti, one of the most consequential figures in Ferrari’s early history. Chinetti won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times as a driver, including Ferrari’s first outright victory there in 1949, before becoming the marque’s first U.S. importer. He founded the North American Racing Team (NART) in 1958, and NART would go on to field the Ferrari 250 LM that won Le Mans outright in 1965.
Chinetti believed there was an American market for an open version of the four-cam 275 GTB/4 and persuaded Ferrari to build one. The original plan called for 25 cars, but the NART Spider’s $14,400 price was substantially higher than the $9,200 asked for a 275 GTB at the time. Demand proved limited, production stopped at just 10 examples, and chassis 10453 was the sixth.
Their rarity has since placed the NART Spiders among the most valuable road-going Ferraris. Its place in popular culture extends beyond McQueen. Chassis 09437, the first example built, raced at Sebring before appearing alongside McQueen and Faye Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair, a history explored in greater detail by both Petrolicious and Cavallino.
“Forever linked to its previous owner, Hollywood legend Steve McQueen, this brilliant Ferrari 275 NART Spider is the ultimate icon, uniting two global legends in a single machine.” - Ferrari historian and author Marcel Massini
Chassis 10453 itself appeared at the 1996 Louis Vuitton Classic at the Rockefeller Center and at La Bella Macchina: The Art of Ferrari at the Chrysler Museum of Art in 2003. Beyond those appearances, its public record has remained sufficiently limited that enthusiasts have spent years piecing together its history on FerrariChat. Now, nearly 30 years after it last appeared in Manhattan, chassis 10453 returns to the city, and this time, it will cross a public auction block for the first time.
Also among the early Ferrari consignments for Rétromobile New York are a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB, estimated at $2.25 million to $2.5 million, and a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, estimated at $1.4 million to $1.6 million, both featuring Scaglietti coachwork.
See Steve McQueen’s NART Spider in person at Rétromobile New York, which runs November 19 through 22 at the Javits Center. Get your tickets here.
Images: Gooding Christie's
