After 18 months, we no longer had a need to have the big hulking Excursion (COAL). It worked very well when we needed a tow vehicle, but without anything to tow it really just felt like excess. My partner James had not really been actively looking for a replacement vehicle. Our roommate was a Ford salesman, and he called us to come and look at a vehicle just received on trade. That night, James had signed the papers on a 2001 Bullitt Mustang.
I had been shopping for a Ford Mustang convertible to replace my 1992 Tempo GLS (COAL). Our roommate Andy worked at El Cajon Ford. He called and told us that he had just taken in a nice Mustang on trade that we had to come and look at it. Even though it was not a convertible, we obliged to come and see this special ‘Stang. He was right, it was a very nice Mustang. A dark green metallic paint job, black leather interior with more aggressive seats, and it appeared to be lowered. Andy cranked the car up, and the sound of that exhaust system was intoxicating. I knew we would be going home with it when I looked over and saw James grinning from ear to ear.
[The 2000 Bullitt Mustang concept.]
At the 2000 Los Angeles Auto Show, Ford showcased a one-off concept car inspired by the 1968 Mustang GT featured in the movie “Bullitt”. The “New Edge” style Mustang had been out for about a of year, and this concept was built to keep interest up in the Mustang until the next generation was scheduled to debut in 2005. Due to the overwhelming positive reaction, Ford introduced the limited edition Bullitt Mustang for 2001. It would be the first of a long line of limited edition Mustang models that Ford would produce, such as the Mach 1 Mustang for 2003 and 2004.
What makes the Bullitt so special? Compared to the standard Mustang GT, the exterior of the Bullitt had several enhancements to visually tie it to the 1968 Mustang featured in the movie. The pony corral on the grille was painted black, the C-pillars were reshaped, the side scoops were eliminated and smoothed over, and the side sills were smoothed as well. At the rear of the car, the rear spoiler was eliminated for a smooth look and an aluminum gas cap cover was installed. Wheels were 17” Bullitt-style aluminum rims and red painted brake calipers were visible behind them. On the inside, the stock seats were replaced with Cobra-style buckets but trimmed in a leather pattern similar to that of the 68 Mustang. Brushed aluminum shifter ball, Bullitt branded aluminum sill plates, and retro-font gauges rounded out the interior upgrades. The engine was upgraded with a new aluminum intake manifold, larger twin-bore throttle body, and different pulley ratios. The exhaust system was upgraded with larger diameter pipes, and polished rolled tips. Finally, the suspension was upgraded with different shocks and springs (lowering the car by approximately 1”), upgraded stabilizer bars, and frame rail connectors. There were 5,582 production Bullitt Mustangs. They were available in Black (1,818), True Blue (723), or an exclusive color Dark Highland Green (3,041) (Source).
[4.6L SOHC engine with special aluminum Bullitt intake.]
Our Bullitt Mustang was a Dark Highland Green car. When we bought it, there were a couple of modifications already done to the car. The exhaust system had been cut, and dumped right before the rear axle. The Bullitt tips were still there making it look stock, but it sounded a lot meaner. At the front, a Mach 1 chin spoiler had been added. This car was a rocket, and it handled very well. Magazine tests all claimed that this was the best handling Mustang to date, and I would definitely agree with them.
When we bought the car, it came with the personalized license plate 266. Every Bullitt Mustang came with two holographic stickers with their Bullitt serial number on it. One was located under the hood on the left shock tower, the other was located under the rear seat. Looking at the serialized holographic sticker under the hood of the car showed the numbers 0266, hence the plate. After buying the car, I went to register it with the International Mustang Bullitt Owners Club website. After registering #266, I was informed by members of the site that we may have purchased a fake car as #266 was already registered to a well known member. Panicking, I pulled the rear seat from the car to confirm. The sticker under the seat read 0265. Checking with the sticker under the hood, it also said 0265…but a slight smudge in printing made that 5 look like a 6.
Another addition the original owner did was put stickers on the rear view mirrors that said “Object In Mirror Are Losing”. The night we bought the car, we went out driving around. Within a few minutes, another New Edge Mustang came up next to us and paced us, revving the engine for about ¼ mile. When he downshifted to pull away, James did the same and wouldn’t back down. We started to pull away from the other Mustang and into triple digits when James saw the flashing lights from far behind. The cop pulled both cars over. As the cop is walking up to the car, our roommate says from the backseat “Don’t you wish the mirrors didn’t say what they say?” Through some combination of luck and smooth talking, we left with a ticket for 85 in a 65. Thankfully the car wasn’t impounded for street racing. My advice to everyone, take it to the track and keep it off the streets.
Driving the Bullitt was a blast. It was definitely a modern muscle car with all the right sounds and all the right moves. It cornered very well. Many magazines dismisses the Mustang as a relic with the live axle rear suspension. The basic platform dated back to the 1978 Fairmont. It didn’t matter, it was a great joy to drive. We weren’t driving a BMW or a Mercedes to compare, not that we wanted to at the time. It didn’t matter it wasn’t the most sophisticated, it brought a lot of smiles and joy for not a lot of dollars.
As I have come to expect from all the Fords that we have owned, the Bullitt was a rock solid reliable car. We never had any issues with it. Regular maintenance was performed by us and was super easy to do. Gas mileage averaged between 18 and 24 mpg, depending on how much fun you were having.
After about a year of ownership, another car opportunity dropped into James’ lap. He traded loud and aggressive for big and bling. When my dad heard that we were selling the Bullitt, he called us up and made an offer. While my dad owned the car, it did encounter a few mishaps. One day in his way home from work, he saw smoke from under the hood. The alternator had caught fire! He caught it soon enough and was able to douse the fire before significant damage was caused. The paint on the hood had blistered. About a year later he was rear ended by a young lady on the freeway who was more concerned with texting than driving. It wasn’t significant damage, but insurance fixed it all.
After my dad’s retirement from the Air Force and graduation from college, he decided it was time to get his dream car. Once he got his 2011 Challenger SRT 392, it was now my brother’s turn to own the Bullitt. It was sold to him, and now it is his fun and weekend car. It’s still in the family, and probably will be for a long time. If my brother ever decides to sell, I think I’ll probably snatch that one back up and keep it.
“It would be the first of a long line of limited edition Mustang models.”
While Ford upped their limited edition Mustang offerings in the 2000’s, the Bullet package was far from the first. The Mustang has a long history of limited edition Mustangs, dating back to the first generation car (the Shelby GT350, if not something even earlier).
I’m no expert on the subject, but there are several webpages devoted to this topic.
Like much of the Mustang history, information varies from site to site- There’s on going debates about the exact number of “official” variations (since over the years dealer groups, parts suppliers and aftermarket tuners have all participated in the limited edition game), as well as debate over actual production numbers for many of the earlier examples.
You’re right, not the first limited edition Mustang models. When writing this, I was thinking more around the retro-themed models that came out during the retro-craze of the 2000s. You had the SVT Cobra, and the Annivesary models, but this kicked off the retro ones. ’01 Bullitt. ’03-’04 Mach 1. For the 2005 retro redesign, that brought the Shelby moniker back. The California GT Special. The rehash of the Bullitt in ’08 and ’09. That’s where I was going with that statement.
That ‘4.6 High Performance’ emblem on the rear deck is not stock, either.
I’m not particularly enamored with most of these latter-day, special-edition ‘collectible’ cars, but the two Bullitts, along with the mentioned Mach 1, were okay, mostly because they had some actual performance enhancements to match the exterior upgrades. In fact, the Bullitt harkens back to a day when musclecars were low-key and tasteful, and tape stripes, spoilers, and such were kept to a minimum. A great example is how most sixties’ Hemi-equipped Mopars came with small ‘426 Hemi’ fender emblems and a small, solitary, metal ‘HEMI’ badge on the right rear of the trunk lid. That minimalist approach spoke volumes about the seriousness of the car.
The one aftermarket upgrade that would have been nice would have been if Ford had actually produced the Bullitt concept’s retro 3-spoke steering wheel. That really would have completed the package. Likewise, it would have been great if Ford had decided to reproduce the old-style GT hood vents on the second edition car.
As for the car itself, Bullitt car performance seems just about perfect. They were plenty speedy enough for all but the most ‘intense’ circumstances and overall nice driving (and looking) cars. It’d be great to see another one based on the current platform.
On a related note, I once saw a brand-new, first-edition Bullitt on a dealer lot with the standard, non-scoop Mustang hood. Apparently, a few of them got through like that. It would have been a tough call to get the dealer to install the correct hood, or keep it the way it came from the factory as a more rare car.
Dark Highland Green should have been the only color that a Bullitt was painted.
The Bullitt is my favorite from the “New Edge” generation of Mustangs – sharp looking little cars and a nice way to generate a some excitement while waiting on the next generation Mustang to debut.
+1 on the Highland Green. How could it be a Bullitt car in any other color? It’s like you read about it and think “Great Idea, absolutely they should trade on that bit of history” until you get to the part about the other colors and then the only thing left to do is Facepalm…
And it works great. Nice car, the package sets it apart from regular GT’s perfectly.
Agree. That DHG color is amazing, looks so good. On the 01s and the 08-09s.
The Bullitt was a nice package (although I like the Mach 1 seats better for the perf leather).
And as already stated, it was actually better with the non-scoop hood and should have only been offered in the Dark Highland Green.
Great Mustang, neat story! Indeed, I hope you’re able to keep it in your family permanently.
Not a “new edge” Mustang fan, except for the Bullitt and the Terminator versions. And the Mach1 was cool with it’s functional shaker scoop. Ford did a nice job on these special editions to set them apart from their regular production GT siblings.
When they were new I became obsessed with the 2008-2009 Bullitt ‘stang and over several months late in their production run in ’09, I would go multiple times on weekends to the several local Ford dealers who had one or two or their lots to oogle them. Something about the low key look just spoke to me, in Dark Highland Green, of course. They looked “just right” and based on road tests , they drove just right, too. I was smitten and wanted one bad.
When I finally decided to “pull the trigger” (i.e., got the green light from my wife), they were all sold and the dealer I’d contacted could not find another new one. Opportunity lost. Sigh.
That sucks you weren’t able to get one of the later Bullitts. It is an amazing car, a guy here at work has one in Dark Highland Green.
I also loved the functional shaker hood scoop on the Mach 1 Mustangs. Tune in next week, one makes an appearance in my next COAL entry.
driving home in very heavy traffic last week i allowed a dark green mustang to slot in front of me– the traffic was stop-start and being a car buff observed the bulitt emblem on the rump–immediately i raved about how the name came about and how few of these cars were built[[my figure of no more than 3000 was more in line with my favourite studebaker hawk models]–for the 10th time my wife had to endure the ”audio” of the car chase through the city of san francisco with steve mcqueen in the mustang g.t and the crooks in their black 68 dodge charger–the next workday i cancellled my order for a chevy impala ss[427] and ordered a —no//–a charger r/t with 440 stump puller
The New edge bullitt was always a favorite of mine, much more so than the fat 08-09 bullitt, which was merely a highland green GT with a fancy dash appliqué and dimensionless wheels. The enhancements done to the 01, while subtle, really changed the look of the New Edge for the better, and those retro torque thrusts were just perfect, they actually looked more authentic than American racing’s own 17″ versions.
I never really considered these or Mach 1 a special edition in the typical sense, like the like the 40th anniversary, the Mach in particular I considered as legitimate of a package as the Cobra or GT, offering a truly unique to drive package on top of the stripes and shaker for a full two model years until the end of the SN95 line.
Didn’t the second-edition of the Bullitt Mustang have the same performance upgrades as the first? It certainly looked closer to the original with a true, blacked-out grille and much more sixties, retro styling, both inside and out.
Really, the only thing I didn’t like about the second Bullitt was, if a satellite radio was specified, you got the black antenna ‘wart’ on the trunklid. I thought it was inexcusable that Ford couldn’t figure out a concealed location like, say, underneath the upper part of the rear window.
Not to the extent of the 01, which had a unique intake manifold 13″ brakes sourced from the SVT Cobra on top of other suspension and wheel differences(the bullitt wheel eventually was an option on the GT but it was designed specifically for this package). It was just more impressive of an execution all round, standing distinctly out from the GT. The 08 was fairly standard fare, it looked like a spoiler delete GT with a V6 grille. In fact it was essentially a rehash of the 07 Shelby GT(not 500) which wasn’t far removed from the regular production GT itself.
The 08 didn’t even have the throwback upholstery come to think of it, it was shown in the initial press photos but seemed to get decontented for production.
That intake was unique to the Bullitt, it wasn’t used in any other application.
Correct. Technically it’s a slight redesign of the SVO intake manifold for 96-98s previously available over the counter from Motorsport/Ford Racing.
Damn! You guys know how to have fun! You got to appreciate cops with a heart too. And there is the secret to the success of the Mustang condensed into one phrase: “It didn’t matter it wasn’t the most sophisticated, it brought a lot of smiles and joy for not a lot of dollars.”
I have a ’99 New Edge, and they’re great cars…..I love the styling, as it still looks new to this day (many non-hardcore Mustang enthusiasts are surprised that it’s 17 years old). These Bullitt’s are great cars……they have a bit of a performance upgrade, and the limited edition nature of them makes them hold their value pretty well (not as well as the Mach 1 or Terminator, but still of higher value). It’s been forever and a day since i’ve seen a True Blue one here locally; ditto for any Bullitt, period.
I admittedly never found the 1994-2004 Mustang to typically be particularly stylish cars, but you point out a couple things here I did not know that explain why the Bullitt always caught my eye. At the time I remember thinking to myself it odd that some Highland Green paint and a spoiler delete could so improve the looks of the New Edge Mustang for me. I had never noticed before that the Bullitt actually reverted back to the 1994-1998 rear glass window treatment and roof line; that along with the less aggressive side scoops was what my eyes were picking up on, but could not “see”. Those two small details really transform the New Edge looks for me from being too blocky to just the right amount of sharp edges and subtle curves. What a cool thing to learn today!
Yes, they were all pretty subtle touches done to the car that overall make it a cleaner (and meaner) looking car. The updates to the suspension as well, that give it just enough of a drop to make it look good but not “slammed”. The New Edge Mustangs always had a huge amount of wheel gap stock, so that little bit of lowering definitely helped in the looks department.
These have to be the pinnacle of the “New Edge” design, as basically everybody has mentioned. It really didn’t take a lot to clean up the basic styling, and although it doesn’t make much sense, these would look equally good in black or blue.
As an aside, your COAL series has been a nice addition to the catalog, Brian.
Thanks Aaron, glad that you are enjoying them.
For me and the New Edge Mustangs, you have to raid the parts bin for the pinnacle of styling. The side windows, scoop deletes, and the lower rockers from the Bullitt Mustang. The Shaker hood of the Mach 1. The front and rear bumpers from the Terminator Cobra. Throw all of that on one car, and that’s the best looking. I come pretty damn close in next weeks entry. 😉
We didnt get new Mustangs when this was made so a Bullit edition should be unknown but as usual Ive seen one in green and guessed it was a one off custom but now I realise someone sought one out to import, Green should have been the only colour I mean the original movie only had one colour of Mustang in that famous chase.
One of the things I’ve wondered about the Bullitt-edition Mustangs was why it took Ford so long to get one into production. I mean, here they have what is arguably the most famous Mustang in history, yet they failed to capitalize on it until 2001. Does anyone know if there’s a story behind that? Was there some hold-up with the estate of Steve McQueen who, I assume, still hold the rights to the specifically styled name and font? Or was it simply that it took the impetus of Bill Ford, who I can vividly recall talking about Bullitt in a commercial which actually included a few seconds of the chase scene.
Hopefully, at some point in the future, there will be another version based on the current car. It’s not like it’s particularly difficult to create one. Highland Green paint, blacked-out grille, Torq-Thrust D wheels, replacing a few emblems with ‘BULLITT’ types, along with some subtle performance and interior upgrades, is all that’s really required.
Nice car! Not generally a fan of these generations of Mustang but it’s certainly cleaned up styling-wise, and the wheels and color seal the deal.
I’ve got a Bullitt too; it is a HGM ’08 I bought new.
While it is a nice car to drive (5 speed manual and wonderful sound from the engine), the best thing about my continuing experience with the car is the looks. It is a subtle car that generally does not attract any looks from anyone. It could be a secretary six. The HGM draws no notice at all. There are no badges stating “Ford” or “Mustang”; the only word on the exterior of the car is “Bullitt” on the (fake) fuel filler cap.
In addition to being subtle it is also sinister – but only a very, very few people notice that aspect and that is a good thing.
The final thing I like is simplicity. No foglights. No SYNC/MyFordTouch/satellite radio. No spare tire. Fixed mast antenna. It is as simple and honest as a car could be in 2008 and even more satisfying in that aspect in 2016. Also, it is theft-proof/carjacking-proof with a manual transmission.
Try the ’08/’09 if you can find one.
A guy here at work has one of the later ones (i’m not sure of the year) in Dark Highland Green. It is a gorgeous car. I agree with you, all of the extra touches are subtle, even the color. Most people won’t know what it is, but those who do appreciate it.
While Ive never been a fan of this generation of Mustang (Ive always called them the blobstang) the ’98 refresh which added some much needed edges and solid lines really made the previous gooey looking cars a lot more attractive. The Bullit saw the return of the coke bottle mags in a slightly up dated design, and I remember drooling all over those wheels when these came out. This style of wheel is timeless, and it just looks right on just about anything with even the slightest of performance aspirations. When the ’05 models came out with the Bullit wheels, it was as if the mid 70s thru early aughts with their questionable or downright craptacular styling had never existed.
I remember seeing info on these when they were new, including the ad with Steve McQueen.
What fun! Along with some others, this was never my favorite Mustang from an appearance standpoint, but the Bullitt package fixed it. I would take one of these in a heartbeat.
I can only imagine the sheepish exchange with the police officer who pulled you over: “I, uh, just got it today. 🙁 )
Yup. Having to hand over copies of the paperwork to prove that it was just purchased. Makes for a great story now.
I bought a Bullitt new in 2001, enjoyed it for 13 years. It was only driven weekends and car shows stored for winter. When it was new it got a lot of attention and then after the Mach 1, 05’s and Shelbys came along it got kinda lost at shows. The last 2 years I owned it, it seemed to be rediscovered by car enthusiasts and I got lots of comments. Sold it to buy a 15 Mustang (Guard Green) but there just isn’t the same magic. Canadian Bullitts only came one way, the Mach 460 was standard and our cars had the lights in the sun visors like convertibles came with. I still have the window sticker and build sheet.
Very cool car and some fun stories to go along with it. I never noticed until reading this that the C-pillar shape was different–great subtle touch. I assume that the quarter glass was the same shape and the pillar wrapped in front of it? Or maybe they still had the molds for the previous piece?
Great to hear the car is still in the family. Hopefully that continues and perhaps you will get the chance to have it in your driveway again some day!