We recently stumbled upon the trailer for the forthcoming documentary on the making of Steve McQueen’s 1970 passion project Le Mans.

If you’re reading this you probably know a fair bit about the story. It was a madly complex production shot live at the 1970 24 hours of Le Mans and has since become one of the cult classics of car culture.

McQueen undertook the project in order to not only take control of his career – but finally make a feature length picture about the most important thing in his life: motor racing.

The resulting film – abstract, gritty, edgily rendered – is not exactly your typical Sunday afternoon matinee blockbuster. And though the film as a piece of commercial movie making is shot through with flaws it retains the texture and ambition of the epic McQueen set out to make.

The intrigue behind the making of the movie itself is well worthy of a documentary. And with newly found footage and never-before-seen material and testament from McQueen’s contemporaries, the film is sure to resound with fans the world over.

Just to see those snarling Porsche 917s saturated into moving film stock is good enough. I could watch that footage on a loop.

Another layer is laid onto the heavily stacked cult of Steve McQueen.