Steve McQueen's Ferrari 275 NART Spider Is Heading To Auction, So Start Saving Your Nickels

Many celebrities and cultural icons claim to love cars and their engineering, but they don't know the first thing about either. McQueen, though, was different.

Dubbed the "King of Cool," McQueen was a hugely talented presence on-screen and unquestionably suave off it. He also had a genuine appreciation for cars and motorcycles. McQueen competed in various levels of motorsport throughout his years and was once even a road tester for Sports Illustrated. As you can imagine, his personal garage was pretty insane, with five vehicles selling for over $1 million at major auction houses. 

One of McQueen's cars, his old Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spider, is heading to auction at Gooding Christie's upcoming New York event, which takes place from November 20 to 21 at the Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. The Spider is projected to sell for anywhere between $15 million and $20 million, which actually isn't so insane considering the most expensive car ever sold at $143 million.

Ferrari built 10 examples of the NART Spider, and this car, number six, is one of only two finished in 'Blu Sera' (Evening Blue). McQueen purchased it sometime in 1967 and made several modifications soon after, including a darker metallic blue paint finish and reupholstered seat patterns. He also added a smaller motorsport-esque rearview mirror and a quick-fill gas cap, among other things.

It was already a true one-of-one car, but following an accident along the Pacific Coast Highway, which badly damaged the front and rear, McQueen saw further opportunity to customize. He took the car to famed automotive restorer and master painter, Hershel Conway of Junior's House of Color, who flared the fenders a little further and added the 'flip tail' upward-facing rear spoiler.

Oh, and if you're wondering about performance at this point, this diminutive drop-top beauty has around 300 hp in stock form courtesy of a 3.3-liter V12. That's the Ferrari 'Colombo' V12, to be specific, which is considered by many as one of the best engines of all time. If you get the changes right on the five-speed manual shifter, you'll hit 60 mph in just 6.7 seconds and pass a quarter-mile in 14.7 seconds. Remember: this car is almost six decades old.

McQueen sold the Spider in 1971 to designer, inventor, machinist, and amateur racer J. David Kopf, who sold it to NYC's Ferrari specialist, Grand Prix SSR, in 1985. There, the team reverted the Spider to its original Blu Sera paint and completed any other vital work necessary before it found a new home with collector and tech businessman Anthony Wang. It has been with him ever since, and is believed to have only been showcased twice — once in 1996, and another time in 2003.

This car has reached mythical status, given its rarity, history, and condition. We fully expect it to reach the estimated auction price, and then some. McQueen's Porsche 917K from "Le Mans" was previously sold for ... a lot of money, as did the 1926 Excelsior Super X motorcycle he used to ride around his ranch. So, what's stopping this one from landing an eye-watering hammer price? After all, who doesn't want such a significant piece of automotive history floating around their home?