: “ Nervously eyeing a Heuer Monaco, Steve
: McQueen sat in the racing car's cockpit,
: waiting for the grueling Le Mans race to
: begin. Once the flag dropped, this
: uncompromising, self-styled rebel of the
: 1960's was off with a loud VROOM, striking a
: uniquely dynamic and aggressive pose as he
: carved up asphalt. Magnetic statements were
: typical of McQueen. The unflappable, rugged
: hero of The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The
: Great Escape (1963), he epitomized star
: power. But as this iconic figure hurtled
: across the French countryside, showcasing
: his (real life) prowess behind the wheel,
: Man conquering Machine was only one of the
: potent celluloid images. Occasionally
: flashing that big and bold (1970) Monaco on
: his right wrist, McQueen also underscored
: the aerodynamic sleekness of this
: soon-to-be-popular timepiece, its rakish
: American personality, and the overriding
: fact that cars and watches are an
: incontrovertible marriage of mechanical
: wonders. ”

: -- Ed Kiersh: WatchTime October 2002, Page 48

: Wonderful story, Beautiful imagery, prose
: paints a vivid image...

: It's a shame it never happened…

: For while Steve McQueen drove in LeMans , the
: Movie , he never actually raced (to my
: knowledge) at LeMans the event …

: The deal was set for McQueen to spend the
: summer of 1970 doing principal photography
: for the movie, McQueen had even purchased a
: Porsche 917k and was planning on entering it
: in the race. Enter Mario Andretti, who said
: in an interview that LeMans was probably the
: most dangerous race in the world because of
: the extreme breadth of cars in the race,
: from Prototypes like the Porsche 917L and
: Ferrari 512M that were capable of topping
: out at over 240 miles per hour on the long
: Muisanne Straight to race prepared, but
: comparatively anemic Alfa's and Porsche
: 911's of the day. Andretti probably had an
: alteriour motive or two considering that he
: was put behind the wheel in a desparation
: move to salvage face in the 1970 Sebring
: race that February when a year old Porsche
: 908 driven by the late Peter Revson (one of
: the Revlon Cosmetics Heirs) and McQueen (who
: was wearing a cast on his broken clutch
: foot) very nearly won after attrition took
: out all of the 1st line Porsche and Ferrari
: contestants. The backers of the film gave
: McQueen an ultimatium: Drop out of the race
: or lose backing for the film. When faced
: with the decision to race for real for one
: day, or race all summer and have his dream
: film be made, McQueen wisely choose the
: latter, and today we can enjoy this film.

: The reason I bring this up, is one of the
: things I learned to do when researching
: products I was intending to buy over 20
: years ago, was to read an article or review
: and boil it down to facts, opinions and
: value judgements. And to really scrutinize
: what was printed. In these days of political
: operatives spoofing historical documents,
: and network news departments not doing the
: most basic of fact checking that would cause
: the reporter or editior of a High School
: Newspaper to be booted off the paper, there
: seems to be a dearth of research and fact
: checking by the authors or editors of many
: publications. I will give you another
: example... “THE SPEEDMASTER PROFESSIONAL
: CHRONOGRAPH FROM OMEGA (1957) It was an
: entirely normal Speedmaster Chronograph from
: Omega, water-resistant and with a tachometer
: scale on its bezel, that NASA ordered on
: September 29, 1964, subjected to grueling
: tests and ultimately selected to serve as
: the official astronauts wristwatch in early
: 1965. On March 23, 1965, the chronograph
: with the columnwheel Caliber 321 made its
: first flight into outer space aboard the
: Gemini 3 space capsule. The model was
: renamed the Speedmaster Professional in 1966
: in recognition of its professional
: performance on the wrist of astronaut Edward
: White during his historic space walk. The
: same timepiece also accompanied Neil
: Armstrong when he took mankind's first giant
: step on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969.”

: Classic Timepieces: 50 Wristwatches CHOSEN BY
: WATCHTIME'S EDITORIAL STAFF, WatchTime
: December 2001, Page 70

: Mr. Armstrong never wore his Speedmaster when
: he went EVA on Apollo 11! This is pretty
: basic and easy to check.

: I'll admit that my Article on which watches
: were worn on/near the moon had only been
: posted in TimeZone Classics since June of
: 2001, but I had posted, in essessance, the
: same article twice previously although I
: rewrote it each time. However, all of the
: websites from which I drew on to write that
: were up, and locatable via Google, Yahoo, or
: anyone of an number of other search engines.

: When writers, editors and producers of material
: neglect, either accidentally or
: intentionally even basic back-checking a
: smart reader/viewer must do that themselves.
: Don't take the printed or broadcast word as
: gosphel. Look a little deeper at the basis
: for what is being said and scrutinize it for
: it's value and worth.

: -- C P.S. Although I used two examples from
: WatchTime magazine, do not think that I am
: singling them out. It happens that Jeff
: Stein sent me a link to their archive pages
: and the two passages above struck me as
: being in error. Unfortunately, other watch
: magazines, other publications in general,
: and most media have similar gaffes. I'm
: likely not immune either… So scrutinize me
: too! As an esteemed U.S. President once
: insisted “Trust but verify!”…
____________________________________________
Hi crew Nice stuff to read trully a nice write up.
A bit about the above.. To put the P-car 911 and the Alfas in the class of the big boys thay where not. Thay ran in the same run group but NOT THE SAMe class. there where also Chevy Corvers But Not in the big Bore class.
But there was a meny winnig Alfas in the 70s in every Class, No car has more wins then Alfa Romeo in the history of Motor sport,

But the FAST class had the Alfa 33/3 very fast and 2nd over all in many races that year and later went on to win the world Championship 2100cc and I think like 650 horse power.
But back to this era My faverats is the F. 250LM but Ford did beat them at there own game with the GT40. But for the most part Yes the small bore 911s and Alfa TZ and the GTAs Renos and others where in the small bore class. not up there with the big bores. And it was the small bore sports races that got America hooked on road racing. Bla Bla Bla. any ways Thanks to both of you Great stuff
PSB