Limited edition Steve McQueen Bonneville

HE'S been dead for 31 years but an industry has grown around Steve McQueen's image and now Triumph is cashing in on the fact he appeared on a TR6 Trophy in The Great Escape.

Forget for a moment that said TR6 was actually a stand-in, used by the film makers in the belief (probably a correct one) that the average cinema-goer wouldn't notice that it was a 1960s Triumph and not a real 1940s German army machine.

Somehow what started as an appalling lack of attention to detail on the part of the film's makers has turned into a publicity coup for Triumph, with the snowballing Steve McQueen mania making the simple fact that he was seen on such a bike in the movie enough to warrant a replica.

Just as the original movie bike was a pretty weak attempt to fake a German military bike, the new Triumph Steve McQueen isn't all that convincing as a replica of the TR6 he actually rode in the movie (and only rode for close ups, as Bud Ekins actually did the famous jump scene in the film). Based on a modern Bonneville T100, it gets green paint, a single seat and luggage rack, a smaller, black headlight, no chrome and a bash plate under the engine.

Only 1100 will be made. But even if you get one, nobody is going to really believe you're the reincarnation of the Cooler King himself.