Steve McQueen’s Million-Dollar 1963 Shelby 289 Cobra Roadster Is Up For Auction

By Gary Gastelu

·August 5, 2024

A sports car that spent a couple of years in Steve McQueen’s garage before going to Europe is coming back to California to be sold.

The classic 1963 Shelby 289 Cobra Roadster was purchased new by film producer David Wolper who sold it to composer Elmer Bernstein in 1965.

It was originally silver with a red interior and equipped with an accessories package that included a chromed air cleaner and valve covers, chromed front and rear bumper guards, a chromed luggage rack, wind wings and tinted sun shades, competition seat belts, a Smith heater and whitewall tires.

Bernstein loaned it to his friend McQueen, 1965 to 1967 until he sold it to a man named Richard A. Mathis, who allowed McQueen keep it for a few more months before taking possession, according to Mecum Auctions.

Mathis sold it to the manager of “The Fifth Dimension” in 1969 and it passed through a number of other owners until it was moved to Switzerland in 2003.

There, it was painted black and equipped with a black interior, roll bar, Halibrand wheels, a hood scoop and chrome quick jacks for vintage racing. It then moved to the U.K., where it remained from 2006 until 2024.

The car is now being offered at the Mecum Monterey event on Friday, Aug. 16. Despite the cosmetic changes, it retains its original body and numbers-matching engine, which has 27,544 miles on it.

The pre-auction valuation is $1.25-$1.5 million, which is in line with several recent sales of the same model without the celebrity connection.

A McQueen provenance may not have the impact it did a decade ago when a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 he’d owned that was probably worth $5 million without the connection went for more than $10 million, but it still adds a little extra some fans of the era.

His most famous car, of course, was the 1968 Mustang from the film ‘Bullitt’ that was sold at Mecum’s Kissimmee, Fla., event in 2020 for $3.74 million.