Ford GT40 Le Mans racer up for auction

Another day, another car with verified Steve McQueen provenance: witness the 1968 Ford GT40 Gulf/Mirage Lightweight Racing car, above. It's up for auction.

It was built for the J.W.A/Gulf team in 1968 and subsequently raced "extensively" throughout the year including Daytona and another little-known circuit in a small French town called ‘Le Mans'. Oh, and six-time La Sarthe winner Jacky Ickx - who Tom Kristensen still calls 'Mr Le Mans' - tested this very car in the Le Mans trials. That's proper pedigree.

But this GT40 - chassis P/1074 - was destined for greater celebrity status, because in 1970 it was sold on to Solar Productions and used as the camera car for Steve McQueen's film, Le Mans, before being sold on and entered into vintage racing events, including the GT40 25th Anniversary Reunion.

Gallery: the Ford GT40s up for auction

It'll be one of the star attractions at RM's Monterey sale in August, and pairs up with another Ford GT40 that has covered just 4,749 miles from when it was built in 1967, for goodness sake.

You probably don't need us to remind you of the GT40's ascent into the motorsport annals (it whupped Ferrari in the 60s), nor the special place it holds in Jeremy's heart (he used to own a Ford GT). You just need to find some money and head down to California in a couple of months.

We of course, will be heading down to the Gulf-liveried GT40's spiritual home this weekend as the 80th running of Le Mans gets underway. We've got a homemade version of Nissan's DeltaWing for the trip too, so fold-down these Internet pages for more updates over the weekend.