Everyone was shocked when Steve McQueen’s bashed-up 1963 Triumph desert sled fetched $143,000 a couple of years back, but that’s cheap! Last month, Bonhams’ put the hammer down at $320,814 when Steve McQueen’s 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross – the very bike ridden in the film On Any Sunday – went up for auction in Birmingham, Alabama.

Then his Bell helmet took an astounding $30,446. For a little less, you could have had a set of ex-Mike Hailwood leathers, from the 1971 Daytona 200, which sold for $23,486, or a much older Hailwood pudding basin helmet for a bargain (perhaps) $5219.

The auction was held in association with the Barber Motorsports Museum.

By Hamish Cooper

Steve McQueen’s Husqvarna 400 Cross