To increase the joy of Ferrari's 70th birthday, the Italians had come up with something fun: There would be a tribute to celebrities who drove Ferrari at the festivities. Nice is not it?
The once world famous movie star Steve McQueen has also had a Ferrari
And Ferrari wanted to celebrate that with a special 'custom made' California T that had to exude as much as possible the spirit of the 250 GT Lusso in which the famous American actor drove.
Of course Ferrari wanted to link the tribute to the actor's name
But the lawyers of the heirs of Steve McQueen put a stop to that. They claimed that she and she alone could decide on the name McQueen and first demanded $ 3 million in compensation for the use of their family name.
Italian and American lawyers are well matched
Somewhere in the background they often have the same country of origin. And Ferrari's Italians quickly demonstrated how flexible they were: they renamed the Steve McQueen Tribute model in "The Actor." And with all the newspaper buyers that preceded it, everyone immediately knew: "Ah: the car they named after Steve McQueen"
The Lusso as the most beautiful
In addition to the Formula 1 champions and the Le Mans winners, the Ferrari bloodline has some of the most stunning cars ever built. And as an example of beauty, for many Ferraristi no model in the history of the brand is equal to the Lusso. The flowing shape - sculpted by the Turin bodybuilder Pininfarina - is elegant and refined and has proven itself as a truly timeless design. The last model in the 250 series, the Lusso (Italian for "luxury") was a larger version of the 250 SWB. Ferrari unveiled the prototype at the Paris Motor Show in 1962 and produced 351 examples in 1963 and 1964.
Bodywork by Scaglietty
The body, which was built by Carrozzeria Scaglietti, consists of weight considerations of an aluminum hood, a trunk panel and doors. The aerodynamic 'Kamm' tail, with its inverted spoiler and the flat panel adorned with Ferrari's signature twin round taillights, is a nod to aerodynamics that foreshadows the shape of the Lusso's successor, the 275 GTB. While not built for track use, the Lusso was powered by Ferrari's 3-liter, Colombo-designed V-12, which produced 250 horsepower and allowed a top speed of 150 mph.
Chassis no. 4891 was purchased new in 1963 as a gift to Steve McQueen by his first wife, Neile Adams. McQueen owned it for at least four years and actually drove it regularly.
"The Prince"
In the context of name giving, we Dutch are naturally waiting for 'The Prince' edition. That will do him better internationally than 'Bernhard Leopold Frederik Everhard Julius Coert Karel Godfried Pieter, Prince of the Netherlands, Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld'. It is not exactly news that Prince Bernhard was a fan of Ferrari. He bought a garage full of it, including the beautiful 500 Superfast in which his grandson of the same name was once immortalized. Former Queen Juliana even joked at an official meeting in Genoa that her husband could not be there because he was in the Italian 'capital' Maranello.
With the idea of 'The Prince' edidtion, we assume that the lawyers of the Royal Ferrari family will not just allow the Prince's name to be used more simply. After all, the van Oranje family is at least as much a spider of money as the heirs of The Actor.
