Paul Newman – racing driver…

People

There’s been an acreage of McQueen love from these pages over the last couple of years. Of course, the king of cool was indeed the petrol headed totem of all Hollywood time.

But the beautiful Paul Newman was, of course, a pretty accomplished racing driver in his own right – and was no slouch in the cool stakes, either.

Newman, the story goes, became seriously committed to driving racing cars after training for his role in the (not very successful) 1969 movie Winning (see trailer below).

He was to play a dangerously obsessed racer alongside his wife to be Joanne Woodward – and trained at the Watkins Glen Racing School to acquire to appropriate racing steez.

Over the next couple of decades He went on to race in everything from the SCCA series to Le Mans, Can Am and NASCAR – and right up to his seventies was deeply involved in the business as well as behind the wheel.

We’re not sure wether he ever had head to head race with McQueen – if there was documentary evidence it would be the stuff of which Autoblog dreams are made!

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2 Responses to “Paul Newman – racing driver…”

  1. vipertruck99

    dont knock newman,mcqueen lived cars and bikes,but dont forget newman had a volvo 850 with a cosworth dfv fitted,this was his daily driver about 10 years ago.must have sounded nice

  2. I give Newman the nod over McQueen because I like his salad dressing and spaghetti sauce.