In 1967, at the height of his reign as the “King of Cool”—the year he filmed both Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, arguably his two most iconic movies—Steve McQueen bought not one but two Ferrari 275s: an NART Spyder and a GTB/4. In Thomas Crown, McQueen’s love interest Faye Dunaway drives a drop-dead gorgeous, dark red 275 GTS/4 NART (for North American Racing team) Spider, one of the first ever built. While he didn’t drive it in the film, McQueen became so enamored of the car that he ordered one himself, from Chic Vandagriff, at Hollywood Sport Cars.
Priced at around $14,500 (about $135,000 in today’s dollars) it was one of only 10 NART Spiders built, and thus extremely rare; these later became a true holy grail for collectors, and top classic-car auction house RM Sotheby’s sold one for a record-setting $27.5 million in 2013. Unfortunately, McQueen didn’t own the NART Spider for long. As RM Sotheby’s notes, during one of his first outings in the convertible—on what must have been a pretty epic cruise along Southern California’s Pacific Coast Highway—a driver rammed into the back of McQueen’s car. No spare parts were available for the ultra-rare ragtop, and “it took an excruciating amount of time to repair,” Vandagriff’s son Chris recalled. “In the end, he [McQueen] was pretty burned out and sold it soon after.”
Being the King of Cool, this of course didn’t slow him down for long. “Frustrated with the NART being off the road, McQueen quickly bought another 275 from Vandagriff, this time a GTB/4 coupe,” the auction house notes. He immediately ordered that the metallic gold paint be replaced with a custom Chianti Red and took delivery while filming Bullitt; it would go on to be one of the most famous cars he ever owned. Though much less valuable than the NART Spider, RM Sotheby’s auctioned off McQueen’s GTB/4 for $5.4 million at its Monterey sale in 2023.
We’d say the buyer got a pretty good deal. In our view, the only 275 of equal import, in terms of celebrity provenance, would be the 1967 GTB/4 owned by legendary jazz icon Miles Davis. Ironically a subsequent owner of Davis’s car had it converted to an NART Spider in 2002. “I drive a Ferrari—not to be cute, but because I dig it,” Davis, who would go on to own other Ferraris throughout his life, once declared. The music legend’s 275 was last listed for sale by top UK classic car brokers Duncan Hamilton ROFGO and subsequently sold at an undisclosed price. Because late Spider conversions change the condition of the car from original to modified, they can actually impact the value. Then again, Davis’s ownership would certainly have driven the price upward.
Other well-known 275 owners over the years include James Coburn, Peter Sellers, George Harrison, Clint Eastwood and Eric Clapton. Celebrity provenance or no, many experts agree that the 275, with its resemblance to the “holy of holies” Ferrari 250 GTO, is the “best looking of all Ferrari GTs in berlinetta [two door, two-seater closed coupe] form,” RM Sotheby’s says. The 275 was actually designed to replace the 250, being more powerful, better balanced and Ferrari’s first road car with an independent suspension.
The 275 series of front-engine V12-powered grand tourers, including coupes and spiders, was produced by the famed Italian marque between 1964 and 1968 and “marked a significant evolution in Ferrari’s design and engineering approach, introducing advanced features for the time,” Sports Car Digest reports. “The car was designed by Pininfarina, with Sergio Scaglietti’s workshop responsible for crafting its stunning bodywork. Pininfarina’s design blended elegance and aggression, characterized by long flowing lines, a lowslung stance, and distinctive features like the pronounced front grille and muscular rear haunches.” In a September 1967 road test, Road & Track described the NART Spider version as “the most satisfying sports car in the world.”
Scaglietti, sold for $3.6 million by RM Sotheby’s in 2017 (RM Sotheby’s)
In the first two years of production, Ferrari also built competition versions for use in the 1965 Grand Touring-class sports-car racing season; the first being the 275 GTB Competizione Speciale, of which only four were made as intended successors to the 250 GTO. With Tipo 213 engines—tuned to 250 LM specification and good for close to 300 horsepower—as well as special ultra-thin alloy bodywork, these were formidable machines to say the least. One of them finished third overall at the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans, and today, the Competizione models rank amongst the most valuable 275s in existence, with RM Sotheby’s selling one for $26.4 million in 2014.
Legendary British driver Derek Bell MBE, a five-time Le Mans winner who drove alongside McQueen in the star’s 1971 racing flick Le Mans and started racing for Enzo Ferrari’s Formula One team in the late 1960s, acquired a silver 275 GTB/4 at the age of 28. “The 275’s styling was so beautiful, it was the prettiest car Ferrari ever built,” Bell enthuses. “And because of that, it didn’t really matter how well it drove, but with it being aluminum and lightweight, it lived up to expectations [and] handled wonderfully,” he recalls— wistfully. “I wish to God I’d never sold that car,” he sighs. “I could never afford to buy it back now.”
