If my memory serves, the car McQueen was driving was a Porsche 917.
Larry Steckel
>From: PbPied@aol.com
>Reply-To: PbPied@aol.com
>To: autox@autox.team.net
>Subject: "Driven"... in the good old days
>Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 23:59:35 EDT
>
>Movies? There are the "action flicks", like the latest issue,
>then there are those which more closely resemble the
>subject they purport to portray.
>
>As a college-age guy between stints in the establishments of
>higher learning, I passed some time and made a few dollars as
>pump jockey and occasional light mechanic at a Shell station
>in Kettering, Ohio. Full service. Fill the tank and check the oil.
>Wash the windshield. Smile.
>
>The station was located at a busy intersection, Far Hills and Dorothy
>Lane, I think... May have been Stroup Ave. Somehow I have gotten
>DL and S mixed up in the intervening few (ahem) years.
>
>Anyway, the place was busy, as was our rival for local fuel and
>mechanical/tires trade. That competitor was on the NW corner,
>the Shell was on the SE. Along with most of my buds, I was even
>then a gear-head, and went very soon after its opening to see
>"LeMans". I was really taken by the racing footage, and the
>cars themselves.
>
>I dragged my girlfriend at the time to the theater with me once,
>went another time with a couple of friends, and took in a late
>showing after work one evening.
>
>Because of my enjoyment of the film, what I really wanted was a
>poster that was quickly in short supply where it was available. It
>featured a shot of the refiner sponsored car and Steve McQueen,
>along with the movie title, and I think a small logo in one corner.
>The rival station had put one in their front window. Yep, it was a
>Gulf station.
>
>I had stopped at other Gulf outlets between work and home to
>try and get a poster, but they had none. Either they "never got any",
>or "sorry, they're all gone." One station manager said he had some,
>but was "giving them to customers who bought something like a set
>of tires." I was desperate, but even if I'd had the $, I would not have
>been inclined to put new rubber on a car that: 1. Didn't need it.
>2. Still belonged to my parents.
>
>Figuring that waiting even one more day was useless, I drove the
>Corsa into the rival Gulf on my way to work the day after I first noticed
>the LeMans poster on display. In my Shell uniform (remember when
>station personnel wore stuff like that?) I walked in the front door and
>said hello, then asked if they had any of the movie posters.
>
>The two guys in the place laughed and said something like "Yea,
>but why should we give one to you?" "My girlfriend is a real fan
>of McQueen..." popped out of my mouth, "and I'd be a real hero for
>getting her the poster." (She could have cared less, of course, and
>I felt a chunk of purgatory time land on me.) Somehow, that
>seemed to soften them a bit, since I wasn't asking for myself, I
>guess. Still, they were "almost out", an wanted to know what I
>could trade.
>
>I was scratching for any item that would precipitate a transaction, but
>they didn't want the car magazine I had out in the Corvair, and turned
>down an outright purchase offer for $5. (That was a full tank of gas in
>those days, folks.) Apparently they were not allowed to sell them.
>
>The older guy, whose name I have long since forgotten if ever I did
>know it, was presumedly the manager. He popped up with the "solution"
>that would get something for the Gulf station: "You really want one,
>huh? I'll tell you what. I'll give you one on one condition. You work
>over there, right?" (He motioned across the intersection) I nodded.
>"Ok, you promise me to post it in the front window while you're working
>tonight and you can have it!"
>
>Uhhh... After explaining that my boss would fire me and then a bit
>of negotiation, we settled on an hour between six and seven, times
>when I felt it unlikely that Tom would be at the station. I left the Gulf
>station with a rolled unused copy of the poster.
>
>The Sisters at Our Lady of Good Hope had reinforced my parent's
>teaching that I should live up to my end of a bargain, so since Tom
>had left around 5:30, I carefully taped that poster inside the front
>window of the station just before 6. It would make good copy in
>these days of "Driven" type hype to say that Tom, the station owner,
>had come back while a Gulf poster was on display in his place,
>and that I still carry the imprint of his boot on my posterior.
>
>But he didn't. I got busy and could not take McQueen out of the
>window until after 7:30.... Washed my hands first, you bet. And
>it went home with me that night. After 30 years and jumps all over
>this country, I have no idea what ever happened to it. But I do have
>some tubes with old posters in them around somewhere. Hmmm...
>I wonder....
>
>Alan Sheidler
>
>An extra credit question: Was it the Porsche or the Ford GT40
>on that poster?
>
>AX content: The Corvair was my autocross ride in the early 80's
_________________________________________________________________
|