Theres an Apple Car for sale but it's not the one you think

This is the first-ever Apple Car. It's 36 years old and Paul Newman once drove it.

Let's explain.

The problem with being a multiple-Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning actor, Newman found, was that it can make it hard for people to take your driving chops seriously.

Wherever the star of "Cool Hand Luke," "The Sting," and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" raced, local news outlets had a field day. Many assumed that Newman was just another celebrity with more money than sense.

But there was a big problem with that theory: Newman was winning. Often.

It was the same story when Newman showed up to Le Mans, the world's most famous endurance race, in 1979. International media picked up the story, and spectators flooded to the French race course to see Newman compete — setting an attendance record.

Still, Newman's skills as a driver were largely dismissed, so when he and his team came in second overall at the biggest race in the world it caused a sensation.

The 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans will forever be remembered not for who won, but as "the year Paul Newman came in second."

The car, a Porsche 935 owned by Dick Barbour racing and sporting a "Hawaiian Tropic" livery, will be offered for sale at a Gooding & Company auction at Pebble Beach in August. It is expected to fetch $4.5 million to $5.5 million.

So why is it the first Apple car?

Well, while Steve Jobs was famously a Mercedes man during the last two decades of his life, during the 1980's he loved Porsches — so much so that when Dick Barbour returned to Le Mans in 1980 with the same car, Apple sponsored it.

This particular 935 would be the first and last race car the tech company would ever sponsor.

The news that actor Paul Newman would race caused a media sensation. Crowds at the famous French endurance contest set an attendance record for the 47th running.

During the 1979 campaign the car wore this distinctive "Hawaiian Tropic" livery. While a second-place finish convinced many people that Newman's driving abilities were real, the media circus at Le Mans was so overwhelming that he never returned.

A year later, the Porsche would earn the distinction of being the first and last race car Apple would ever support. And yes, back then, pre-iPhone, the tech giant was called "Apple Computer."

The car would go on to win several major victories at Daytona and Sebring. In 2006, it was restored and returned to its Paul Newman/1979 look.

The following year it won best in class at the Amelia Island Concours.

Someone will have to come up with $4.5 million to $5.5 million to bring it home.

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