While filming the movie ?The Great Escape? in Germany, Steve McQueen and his friend and stunt double Bud Ekins took a break to watch the International Six Days Trial (ISDT) that was taking place in Germany. Two years later, in September of 1964, Steve McQueen (together with Bud and Dave Ekins, Cliff Coleman and John Steen), was chosen to be a member of the US team for the ISDT. The ISDT was considered the most challenging motorcycle event in the world. Each member of the team would ride 200 miles per day, competing in a range of endurance and skill-based events, through mountains, forests and rocky trails, against the best riders the world had to offer. The 1964 ISDT took place behind what was then the ?Iron Curtain? of communism in East Germany, during the height of the Cold War. On September 5, 1964 in a packed hall in Erfurt, East Germany, complete with a large picture of Lenin, McQueen -- in what has been reported as one of the proudest moments of his life -- carried the 'Stars and Stripes' for the US team at the opening ceremony. Several days into the event disaster struck for McQueen when, hurtling along a narrow ravine at high speed on his 650 Triumph, a spectator suddenly rode his motorbike out onto the track. Sideswiped by the spectator, McQueen was sent airborne. Landing brutally, his face was smashed against a rock, and the skin was torn from his kneecaps. He was lucky to survive, though, as his bike flew off into the ravine. The race was over for Steve McQueen. Overall, however, the US team did well, with Dave Ekins and Cliff Coleman winning gold medals and John Steen winning Silver.
The present lot, Steve McQueen's International License from the 1964 ISDT, was sold by Neile McQueen Toffel. It is undoubtedly one of the most significant and personal pieces of McQueen motorcycle-related property to be offered at auction.