Steve McQueen finished second in the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 21, 1970, sharing a Porsche 908 with Peter Revson. He drove with a cut-down cast on his left foot. Mario Andretti’s Ferrari beat them by 23.8 seconds after 12 hours of racing.

That was a serious result for an actor in a world championship endurance race. It also came in a privately entered car, against factory teams from Porsche and Ferrari.

Here is how the Steve McQueen Sebring drive came together, and how close it came to a win.

A broken foot and a cut-down cast

Shortly before the race, McQueen broke his left foot in a motorcycle race at Lake Elsinore, California, RACER reports. In Porsche’s Christophorus magazine, McQueen describes the foot as “broken in six places.”

He arrived at Sebring on crutches, according to Porsche’s account. To make the car drivable, the team shortened the left pedal. They also glued sandpaper to his shoe so he could work the clutch. Sports Illustrated’s 1970 report describes the cut-down cast he wore behind the wheel.

The Porsche 908/02 “Flounder”

The car was a Porsche 908/02 Spyder in short-tail form, a private entry nicknamed “Flounder,” Porsche says. Its article gives the Spyder a three-liter engine rated at 350 hp. RACER lists it as the No. 48.

On paper, that was a mismatch. Porsche says that with their 350 hp, three-liter Spyder, McQueen and Revson “didn’t stand a chance” against the five-liter class.

By comparison, Porsche’s factory effort ran the bigger 917. Jo Siffert drove the No. 5 Porsche 917K, according to RACER. In the end, the factory crew of Leo Kinnunen, Pedro Rodríguez and Siffert finished fourth, Porsche says.

Steve McQueen at Sebring: sharing the drive

McQueen was no passenger. He drove about 40% of the race and stayed “within seven seconds of Revson’s lap times,” according to Sports Illustrated. The magazine called him “dead-cool and totally professional.”

Revson carried the bigger share. RACER says he spent more than eight hours in the car, though not in one stint. Meanwhile, the team ran the whole race without changing tires or brake pads, according to Porsche.

The field was big. SI counted 68 starters from a rolling grid, and Andretti took pole at a record 121.954 mph.

Andretti’s late charge

Andretti started the race in the No. 19 Ferrari 512S with Arturo Merzario, RACER says. That car led by as many as 12 laps. Then gearbox trouble ended its race, and SI puts the gearbox failure on lap 227.

Instead of packing up, Andretti took over the No. 21 Ferrari 512S, which Nino Vaccarella and Ignazio Giunti were sharing. With less than two hours left, it ran third, a lap down. By then, Andretti had already spent more than five hours in the No. 19, and with about 90 minutes to go he was more than five miles behind the leader, RACER says. At the same time, a front hub problem on Siffert’s 917 put Revson into the lead.

That set up the finish. Andretti caught and passed Revson in the closing stages. Then he made a quick stop for about two liters of fuel, which cost him the lead. He then repassed Revson on the back straight and pulled away, according to RACER.

Second place, and a letter from Ferry Porsche

Andretti’s winning Ferrari covered 1,289.6 miles at 107.29 mph, both records, SI reported. McQueen and Revson finished 23.8 seconds behind. Porsche notes that they had led in the closing stages.

The result mattered in Stuttgart. Ferry Porsche wrote to McQueen afterward. “Your finish enabled us to keep the lead in the Manufacturers’ World Championship, and for that I would like to thank you,” he wrote, as quoted by Porsche.

The Sebring car had a second career, too. McQueen had planned to race at Le Mans himself with Jackie Stewart in a Porsche 917, but insurance concerns led him to step back, according to Porsche. Instead, Porsche says, the same 908/02 became a film car for his movie Le Mans. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams shared it to capture real racing scenes. They took ninth place but were disqualified for what Porsche calls a controversial rule violation.

At Sebring, though, the margin stayed what both SI and RACER recorded: 23.8 seconds behind Andretti’s Ferrari.

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This article was created with the help of AI and was reviewed and edited by Fast Lane Only editors before publication.