This Mustang is No. 1 with a ‘Bullitt’
There were a few movies in 1968 that prominently featured cars.
Two of them were family films: “The Love Bug,” a Disney comedy about a Volkswagen Beetle race car that had a mind of its own, and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” featuring Dick Van Dyke and a Roald Dahl screenplay based on the Ian Fleming novel about a broken-down Grand Prix from the early 1900s that, given some TLC, is able to fly.
And then there was “Bullitt.” Rated M (equivalent to PG today), it’s about a car — a 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback 2+2 in Highland Green with the 335 horsepower, 390 cubic-inch Thunderbird Special V8 and a four-speed manual transmission stock engine with a set of American Racing mag wheels and a white cue-ball shifter added (badges removed). It also flew, but only because Steve McQueen was at the wheel, chasing a couple of bad guys all over San Francisco.
How well does “Bullitt” resonate 52 years later? Well, the family of the man who bought one of the two identical Mustangs used in the movie — the only one still fully intact — for $3,500 in 1974 sold it at auction last January for $3.4 million.
On a retail level, Ford has found “Bullitt” to be a profitable association twice before. The first time was 2001, when it took a Mustang GT and nudged the horsepower from 260 to 265, painted it dark green and gave it a cue-ball shifter and some wheels that looked kind of like the movie car’s. I drove one at the time; it was OK. That generation of Mustang looked nothing like a 1968; the proportions were wrong, and the performance was not noticeably better than a regular Mustang GT.
The 2005 redesign of the Mustang changed everything, and made the 2008-2009 Ford Mustang Bullitt a lot more convincing — especially given that 315 horsepower was now on tap.
I think McQueen would approve of the current version, which debuted last year and will only be available through 2020. It is easily the meanest-looking since 1968, so the Dark Highland Green (it also comes in black) and the black wheels make it look positively sinister.
(photo credit: Mike Hagerty)
