As a post script on my Scottsdale auction series, the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale had a small Bullitt theme running through it. Fans of the Highland Green Mustangs had three choices, all of them great. I thought I’d take the opportunity to show these cool cars and throw in a little history. Click through to see more, and watch out for black Chargers!
If you follow new Mustangs, you’ve probably seen that Ford is making a 2019 Bullitt-edition Mustang. It’s pretty sweet. The naturally aspirated 5.0L Coyote V8 puts out 475hp and 420 lb-ft of torque (15hp more than the GT), enhanced with the GT350 intake manifold, bigger throttle body, programming and active-valve exhaust. Bullitts come with a white cue ball handle on the standard six speed manual (now with rev matching), while a 10 speed automatic is available. Color is, of course, Dark Highland Green metallic but you can get it in black if you prefer. Either way comes with black painted wheels and unique ponyless grille. Interior in not substantively different, besides the digital instrument panel is standard and has a heated steering wheel, green stitching on the black leather seats and Bullitt badges. The interior is mostly what you’d get with with the $2,200 Premier option on the GT.
The Bullitt is about a $7,000 hike over the regular GT Premium. Not too bad for the panache and all the miscellaneous extra equipment…
Unless you want the very first production car made. Then you would have had to be a bidder at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale this year. They had a prototype cross the block, representing the yet-to-be-made first Bullitt car. That 2019 Mustang Bullitt cost the generous bidder an even $300,000. I say generous, because the entire purchase price goes to a charity so it’s all for a good cause. Some wealthy buyer gets a cool car and a good feeling!
So if you like Bullitt Mustangs, there were a couple other options at B-J this year, neither of which I showed in my Mustang articles. They had a 1968 Mustang Bullitt recreation that sold for $83,600. This car would fall in the category of restomod, because it’s fully restored and has some modern enhancements like A/C, 5 speed transmission, and digital instruments. I would totally drive this car, since it’s cool as hell and should be reliable and comfortable. It just needs the tires turned around to have blackwalls.
At Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas auction this year, there was a more accurate one that sold for $77,000.
The last Bullitt at Barrett-Jackson was a 2001 Mustang Bullitt. Ford made these for one year, building 5,582 of them. In addition to the cosmetic enhancements, they had a number of engine and chassis improvements that made them the fastest and best handling regular Fox chassis Mustangs up to that point (265hp 4.6L V8. Cobras were another matter). This one sold at Barrett-Jackson for $21,450 and according to their online database, it’s the first one they have offered in all their auctions. Not a bad price if the seller’s claim of 300 miles is true!
I really lusted after these when they were new. Unfortunately, it was not financially do-able for me then, but that’s OK because newer ‘Stangs have eclipsed this one in every metric and I got to buy one of the new 5.0 GT’s when they came out.
The only Bullitt not represented at Barrett-Jackson was the 2008 edition. A Bullitt on the S197 platform was a natural, since the retro styling is so reminiscent of the 67-68 fastbacks. They made 5,808 of them and as with the 2001 and 2019 versions, mechanical enhancements were modest but worthwhile. The 4.6L SOHC Modular V8 put out 315hp (15 over the GT), the highest power rating the 24 valve version of this engine was ever offered with (the 2010 GT had the same hp and torque and only the 32 valve Cobras surpassed it).
This might be a good place to come to a hard stop to remind ourselves why so many people care enough about the ’68 Bullitt Mustang to build and buy recreations and new special editions. The car chase from the movie “Bullitt” is the very definition of iconic. There have been countless car chases filmed since then, some of them quite good, but it is hard to imagine that any will ever be as remembered and beloved as the 1968 granddaddy of chase scenes.
As far as I know, this chase far surpassed anything put to film up to that point. The length: 7 min. The soundtrack: sweet engine sounds unencumbered by music. The realism: all on real city streets with no sped up trick filming. The intensity: through hilly San Francisco with plenty of in-car first person shots. All were unprecedented and mindblowing to the contemporary theatergoer. In retrospect, it’s iconic status is cemented by the facts that it was done with two of the most popular cars from the musclecar era and starred Steve McQueen, leading candidate for Coolest Guy Of All Time.
Newer chase scenes tend to be let down by the modern tendency to use quick-shot editing. I think producers and directors believe that split second, constantly panning, extreme close up shots make scenes more exciting. I disagree. I think it’s a cheap way to simplify filming and use trickery to try to fool people into thinking they are seeing something that wasn’t actually filmed. For example, the first Bourne movie (Identity) had a chase through Paris filmed more or less in the Bullitt style. It was really good. The second movie (Supremacy) had a chase through Moscow that had a lot of potential, but with a different director it was hampered by the frenetic editing style. I found it very disappointing. I love the long shots in Bullitt that clearly show cars actually going dangerously fast.
Were it not for the car chase, the movie would probably not be well remembered. I like it as a movie, personally, but it has a couple other elements that are really priceless. For CC’ers, there are an abundance of street scenes with dozens, if not hundreds, of really clear shots of great curbside classics. My favorite is probably the Pontiac station wagon with 8 lug wheels seen at the car wash. As a paramedic and RN, the ambulance and hospital scenes really interest me. There is a very underplayed and realistic-seeming scene of the attempted resuscitation of the witness who was shot. I have not seen much about it, but I believe it was filmed at least mostly with real doctors and nurses and accurately portrayed then-current procedures and equipment. I really geek out over that.
The Mustang is great, but Mopar fans also love the bad guys’ black ’68 Dodge Charger R/T. With a 375hp Magnum 440 and four speed stick, it is said to have retained stock power and required just suspension beefing up for the chase stunts. With a vinyl top, hubcaps and whitewalls, the villainous Bullitt Charger uses only its great bodywork and speed to look bad ass and does so very well. The Charger also came standard with double layered hubcaps (that’s assumed on my part since it loses 8 hubcaps over the course of the chase).
Fans have good-naturedly ribbed the chase for continuity errors, some of which are obvious and others noticed only by those familiar with San Francisco streets. The makers of the movie weren’t concerned with making a geographically accurate guide to San Francisco, though, they were busy breaking new cinematic ground in action movies.
Jason Shafer wrote a really good CC article on Bill Hickman, the stunt driver who drove the Charger and played one of the two hitmen. He was also instrumental in the great chases in The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups (1973).
Until last year, most people had never seen the actual Bullitt movie car since the chase ended (R.I.P. fictional bad guys and their real life Charger). Articles about the movie and car up until last year always said there were two Mustangs used in the movie and that the one used in most of the chase scene was damaged beyond repair and sent to the junkyard while the other car was sold to a reclusive owner who hasn’t allowed the car to be seen in decades.
The public has only learned the whole story in the last year. This owner had died in 2014 and his son recently decided to go public with the car. He was the fourth owner, counting the movie studio, having bought the car in New Jersey in 1974. It had been used as a daily driver and continued to be by his wife until the clutch went out in 1980. It was then parked and not driven again, apparently until the present day.
It moved with the owner from New Jersey to Kentucky to Tennessee, reportedly being kept in garages or barns the whole time. It’s not clear how much of its excessive patina was acquired in its first 12 driving years versus its last 38 parked years. The steering wheel, gearshift knob and air cleaner were stolen over the years by covetous souvenir seekers. The son says he and his father planned to get it running and reconditioned just enough to be road worthy while retaining as much originality as possible, especially after the father retired. However, a Parkinson’s diagnosis and other family events conspired to keep it in parts, stored and immobile. The car remained a closely held family secret.
From here the story gets strangely serendipitous. The son of the owner (who inherited the car) works in sales of automotive paint, but his boss also had a side interest in movies and was working on a script in partnership with a producer/director. The plot involved two guys who agree to buy a barn find classic car, but before they can make their fortune on it, it gets sold out from under them multiple times to buyers who don’t suspect its true value and the guys spend the movie chasing it. The car, of course, is the Bullitt Mustang but the writer has no idea that his employee owns the real thing! The owner tells his boss the family secret and agrees to be a partner in the movie, with the plan that they will use the real car as a promotional aid to help secure financing for the film.
Over this same time, the long-assumed-lost movie stuntcar was claimed to have been found in a Mexican salvage yard. At the time of the announcement last year, it had been vouched for by Kevin Marti to have an authentic VIN and had been at least partially restored. You can read more here.
To make a long story short, Ford eventually signs up as a financier for the movie and used the real Bullitt Mustang to promote its new 2019 Bullitt. The photos above were taken at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show, where the new car was announced in January. Presumably, the prototype was then sent to Arizona to be used in the Barrett-Jackson auction a few days later. I wish the original car had been sent out west, too, so I could have seen it!
If you want to read the whole story, the original Hagerty article is here. I haven’t heard anything on when or if the movie will actually get made.
To wrap up this article on all things Bullitt, I can’t resist showing a couple of model cars off my shelf. The Charger is one of my favorite models and is the only diecast, pre-built model I own. I’d never seen or heard of this Revell Bullitt replica until I happened across it at a hobby shop in the early 2000’s. Of course, I bought it on the spot. I’ve never seen another one and I love it! The trench coat-wearing passenger is even holding a shotgun.
I couldn’t find the companion Mustang, so I built my own. I didn’t build it as an exact replica, mainly because it is a ’67 rather than a ’68. I liked the ’67 AMT kit better than the ’68 Revell kit that was available at the time. They have since released an unbuilt diecast ’68 Bullitt kit, which I haven’t gotten. So, mine is just a Bullitt-style Mustang which differs in the interior and some other details. However, I think I captured the overall look okay. I just need a scale Frank Bullitt driver…
Bill Hickman, the driver of the black Charger, is one of the best movie castings ever. One of the great scenes in the movie is when Hickman looks in his rear view mirror at a traffic light, sees Frank Bullitt in the Mustang behind him and fastens his lap belt in unison with his bad guy front seat passenger. That sets the stage for you know what’s coming next!
I’ve never understood why Dodge didn’t create some advertising for the modern day Charger out of the bad-ass image of the Charger in the movie.
I know I’ve posted this video here before when we’ve discussed the Bullitt chase scene, but it’s worth a revisit.
The TV show was on Fox and called Alcatraz and only lasted one season in 2012-2013 if memory serves. This was its season (and sadly series) finale.
They did a pretty fair job of recreating the chase scene, although it’s a lot shorter. The green VW is in it, and the bad guy drives a black Charger (and like the movie, the older one with the odd taillights, rather than the newer taillights that go all the way across the car (’69 for the Bullitt Charger’s body – I forget when they did this on the newer current Charger).
The ‘stang she commandeers is a 2013, as Ford sponsored this show, so it was an excellent product placement opportunity.
However, the real irony of it all: Her character actually drove a ’68 Mustang on the show in… wait for it… Highland Green, with all the badges removed, 390 (presumed), and the torque-thrust-wheels… a real Bullitt look alike tribute car.
I suppose that besides the 2013 GT product placement, they probably didn’t want to risk the beautiful 1968 Mustang, racing around on the Streets of San Francisco.
He needs a passenger with a Winchester Pump! Nice video!
What I liked when I first saw this on TV was the second he looked into the rear-view and clipped into his seat-belt, you knew exactly where this scene was going.
My wife (then fiancée) was watching this series with me. When this scene came on (and I had no prior knowledge of it), I started to get really excited as I knew what was coming next.
She looked at me like I had three heads. She is a) not a car person, and b) unfamiliar with the famous Bullitt chase scene to which Alcatraz was paying homage.
Sadly, there was no one in the room to share in my excitement, except for maybe the dog.
I love that seat belt bit. That whole sequence from when he looks in the rear view mirror to when he burns out and cuts across traffic is just great. May be the best start to a chase scene ever. Which is fitting, since it kicks off what’s arguably the best chase scene ever.
Would you want to be in charge of an auto ad campaign that pointed out the fact that your car came in second….no matter the reason,,?
Here is a more comprehensive article on the locations where the scenes were filmed
http://reelsf.com/reelsf/bullitt-car-chase-complete
I love the green tinted glass on the new one. Reminds me of 1950s Fords with tinted glass.
Very cool, thanks! I love how the original car seems to have more ground clearance than a Subaru Outback 🙂
But why is the modern Highland Green Metallic such a different shade of green than the original? I’ve always suspected it was different through all the versions and seeing them side by side finally really shows it.
The new one is an emerald green rather than a pine green. As you say, quite different.
I like the 5-speed recreation. I’d drive that for sure.
Both the original and the new one are meh for me. What the heck would you do with the original, other than put it in your living room? Can’t drive it, can’t restore it.
What do you do with any historical artifact? The value would be off the charts, I’m sure, but nowhere in the story did it say the owner is planning to sell the car. Perhaps it will show up at Barrett-Jackson some day when the owner needs to pay for kids college or retire. There are always rich guys out there willing to pay big bucks for historical items, particularly if it can be rationalized as an investment.
The charity items like the first production 2019 Bullitt really are a matter of generosity, because unlike all the other big buck cars, the purchaser would have no realistic expectation of ever getting his 300k back on the car. I imagine, though, that the purchase may be technically considered a donation that would be tax deductible.
A very interesting write-up. Ford has certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of that movie car through the decades. It is funny that in real life the Charger was the far better and more badass car. However, the Mustang was cool and sexy and popular in a way that the Charger never was then. The Charger has grown exponentially in esteem since 1968, while the Mustang was always popular. And I scratch my head along with Steve above as to why Chrysler has never done kind of Bullitt edition.
Second thought – if you are going to do a Bullitt Mustang, why screw with the color? Really, the new one evokes a 94 Taurus more than it does the Bullitt Mustang. Maybe they are counting on the common male trait of a low ability to perceive color? That shade kind of ruins the whole thing for me. But then I had an up-close and personal experience with that 1968 color on the fastback Mercury Montclair owned by a family friend, so I know it well.
I for one HATE the new color, there’s an almost chameleon effect in the metallic they used in it. The 2001 and 2008 had the accurate dark highland green, which completely aside from movie prominence is just a damn better looking green.
What exactly would a Bullitt Charger look like? To be true to the movie, it would be black with hubcaps, whitewalls and a vinyl roof. On a 4 door car?
I have never thought that Charger was a good name for Dodge’s modern car. I see how it is probably good business to cash in on the nostalgic appeal of the name. I just never thought that the new 4 door bore enough resemblance to the original to justify the moniker. As far as the movie cars, the producers made Bullitt’s Mustang look cooler than stock, while the Charger was seemingly dressed down to be nondescript, like what hitmen who wanted to keep a low profile while driving the fastest car available would choose. Doesn’t seem like that formula lends itself to a modern tribute as well as the Mustang. Plus, who wants to pay tribute to murderers (even if it’s just a movie)?
The Mustang isn’t any more true to the movie really, you see a center console in the 68? Or a woodgrain instrument panel in the new Bullitt?
I do agree that don’t think it would have the appeal or recognition but I think Scat Pack in black with the way toned down SXT body parts and some minor detail changes would play the part well without having to go impossibly full authentic. Given the huge number of option packages Dodge offers on the Charger and Challenger I am actually a little surprised they haven’t tried this route, but they probably don’t want to seem like they’re collaborating with Ford. Plus what would they call it? Bullitt was the name of McQueen’s character, who owned the Mustang. They’d have to call the Charger “Hickman” or “hired goon”
Well it didn’t end so well for the Charger so that’s a good reason not to memorialize it…Who wants to buy the loser car? (You know what I mean). Better to just go with the Duke boys, which is where half the population knows the Charger from anyway. But then again, nowadays that flag is not so much of a selling point either. So…nothing. But I would still like a Charger.
I was going to say dirty marry crazy larry edition, but then it ran into a locomotive…
And Charger’s always got hosed somewhere along the line in any movie. How about Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry? A ’69 Charger didn’t miss that train.
The Fast & The Furious? I flipped when I saw what they did to that ’68.
Plus there was Ron Howard’s early movie in which a ’70 (I think) was driven off the showroom floor and promptly crashed.
Incidentally, there is a channel on YouTube, called Car Chase Wonderland, where a person can find all of these.
The fast and furious franchise is more of a cancer to 68-70 Chargers than the Dukes of Hazzard. At least the 200 some Chargers wrecked for that show were relatively common used cars at the time, trashing any for entertainment in the last 20 years however is just poaching. I think the Ron Howard movie you mentioned is Grand Theft Auto, it was a 68 IIRC
Hollywood always claims that they find crappy cars to use to wreck, but if they sourced the bodies from Southern California, I call BS.
I’m a car buff (obviously) and have seen lots of movies featuring cars from Mon Oncle to Hot Rods to Hell, The Italian Job (both) and Genevieve. And I grew up in the Bay Area and I’m familiar with much of the territory covered in the chase scene. But I’ve never seen Bullitt. Not sure why … though probably because I was not quite old enough (11) and had protective parents who would not have approved, even if I could scrounge together enough loose change to buy a ticket.
Outstanding article about preparing both cars for the chase scene.
REQUIRED VIEWING “BULLITT” | THE GRANDDADDY OF CAR CHASE SCENES
https://selvedgeyard.com/2009/09/26/required-viewing-bullitt-the-granddaddy-of-car-chase-scenes/
I had been following the story last year about the Bullitt found in Mexico, I remember getting a laugh at the video where the mariachi band at a Ford dealer was literally blowing a trumpet in Kevin Marti’s ear while he was trying to decipher various VIN and ID tags, among other intricate details! Then maybe a month or two later the other car shows up out of the blue and completely took the wind out of the sails of the Mexico find, and I haven’t heard any word about that car since.
Of the special editions, I still hold the 2001 in the highest regard. Yes it has almost half the power, yes it’s not retro(no less so than the 2018 though) yes it’s on the dated Fox chassis. Don’t care. The 2001 was the most substantially changed of them, featuring bodywork that was exclusive to it and a huge improvement over standard fare Mustangs, like the side scoop deletes and reshaped sail panels. The torque thrust style wheels were dead on recreations, and many may forget exclusive to the Bullitt initially, the interior had recreated seats based on the SVT Cobra units in the right comfort weave pattern and the brakes were straight off the Cobra too. The 08 looked the part of course, but it was like all they did was take a GT, slap on the V6 grille, paint it and call it good. Same with the newest one really, which doesn’t even look the part anymore(the wheels are super ugly IMO).
I like the movie, many fans of the chase write it off the rest as a bad movie without it, but it builds tension right to the chase scene and gives it its stakes. The problem is the movie kept going after it, and the climax at the airport, in the dark, wasn’t exactly climatic after what we just saw 20 minutes earlier.
Ironically, the problem with the movie is the realism that McQueen insisted upon. What (I assume) he was trying to recreate was the actual reality of police work, which I’ve read can be described as long periods of mind-numbing boredom, punctuated by brief moments of stark terror. That’s not too bad a summation of Bullitt.
Like I said, I find most of the movie enjoyable because of that, it set the stage for gritty 70s cop movies like The French Connection, which is an excellent movie with or without the chase scene. Most prior 60s movies I have a very difficult time sitting through in comparison, Bullitt isn’t the best but it should get more credit for setting the stage for movies in the next decade, besides just the car chase.
“The steering wheel, gearshift knob and air cleaner were stolen over the years by covetous souvenir seekers.”
The Hagerty article states that all the thieves got was the air cleaner. This makes sense since the steering wheel would be tougher to get off, and the gear shift knob, being old and yellowed, wouldn’t be worth stealing. Whomever took the air cleaner likely had no idea of the value of the car they were stealing it from and just wanted to use it on whatever POS car they had..
I also read that the steering wheel was a custom one and the photos seem to confirm it. It’s a Shelby steering wheel, but the originals have a wood-grain rim and the one on the car is leather-covered.
I’m curious about what appears to be a couple of cheapo, aftermarket speakers on the flip-up rear deck lid. Were the speakers installed for the movie and, if so, what was their purpose? It’s been speculated that the car sounds in the movie are not from the Mustang but dubbed in from a racing GT40. But maybe those speakers were used with microphones to amplify the real sounds of the car.
I was also wondering about the fenders. I once read that McQueen had intentionally put a big dent in one of them for realism, and the dent can be seen in the movie. So, where’s the dent now? Well, the article explains that a bunch of bondo had been used to repair some later damage.
I also like the explanation for the undercarriage camera mounts. I thought they were there to stiffen the body.
It really is a historical artifact and I’m so glad that it’s now available for fans of the movie to enjoy.
The Hagarty article does say that the steering wheel and shifter knob were stolen when the car was shipped to New Jersey in the 70’s, though you are right it doesn’t say that they were stolen because it’s the Bullitt car. Could have been ordinary opportunistic thievery. Same with the air cleaner, being the easiest thing to remove on a car. But why steal a rusty old air cleaner if you didn’t know the car was historic?
I’ve read elsewhere that the original steering wheel was a Shelby piece that was wood rimmed, but wrapped in black leather for the movie.
Yeah, I see that, now. I missed it because the air cleaner being stolen happened separately in Kentucky and was mentioned further down in the article. But it still seems very odd. If the steering wheel and shift knob were stolen, it seems strange they’d be able to find replacements that were virtually identical to the originals.
The shift knob I can kind of understand (the original shift knob on 4-speed Mustangs had a lower plastic woodgrain and a white flat top with a racing stripe down the middle), particularly if it’s got an aftermarket Hurst shifter.
But that steering wheel is a puzzler. It really looks like the one in the movie. Maybe it really wasn’t a one-off, after all. The leather wrap definitely looks like a factory install so maybe it wasn’t so hard to find another.
FWIW, it looks like it has the same orange Koni shocks that the Shelby cars came with. In fact, that sort of detail leads me to believe it’s a big reason the guy who modified the car, Max Balchowsky, stayed with Ford parts as much as he could. Since Ford was sponsoring the movie, he probably got all the Ford parts he needed gratis. Of course, that might not have been in the best interest of performance; he supposedly stuck with the smallish Autolite carburetor which almost certainly hindered the 390’s ability to keep up with the Charger.
And something I’ve almost never seen mentioned is the modified camera car. I don’t remember much about it, but I think it was some kind of modified ex-Can Am car.
My guess is they sourced a new steering wheel and had it professionally recovered. The leather looks way too smooth and fresh for it to be 50 years old. Just look at it compared to the rest of the well worn interior
For those not aware of it, Ford used footage of McQueen behind the wheel in advertising for the European Ford Puma (at least I hope my memory is correct). The Puma is/was? based off the Fiesta. In the advertising you see McQueen behind the wheel, and IIRC, he is driving the Puma around San Francisco…really enjoying the experience.
Maybe the ad is available on Google Images or YouTube?
Ford charges very little MSRP premium for the Bullitt vs. a comparably equipped (performance pack, active exhaust, etc) Mustang GT, but actual average transaction price of the Bullitt is quite a bit higher, since the regular Mustang is discounted more.
There should be a factory badge-delete option to remove the gaudy Bullitt logos and the red-painted brake calipers to make the new car more faithful to the original.
I bought a new ’08 Bullitt in May, 2008. Still have it and plan to keep it. The price then was reasonable, not much more than a standard GT and I got it at the Ford “X plan” price. The ’08 is a satisfying Mustang in that is so simple. It has no NAV, no satellite, no wing, no stripes, no pony in the grille, no fog lights but it does have simple instruments. It is quite a basic Mustang – but for the stunning color and the specially tuned noise it makes. It is very satisfying.
The 2019 piqued my interest. It was on display at B-J last January and I watched it up close for several minutes on the Ford stand. I saw it six months later at the Ford tent/hangar at Oshkosh. Unfortunately (but for my checkbook) it did not attract me. It is much too complicated, too busy, too modern and too big. It is wide; the hood is tall and long. The instruments and controls are complicated and not intuitive to use. The new Bullitt is a show car. It just does not attract this long term owner of the previous generation Bullitt.
Somebody paid $83,000 for a 1968 Bullitt Mustang recreation. I’ll be kind and keep my mouth shut given that there is nothing original about it. Also nothing that no one else could do by painting a Mustang Highland Green Poly, swapping a five speed for a four speed onto a 390-4V, and then adding your prototypical Torque Thrust mags. I know there are more than a few doppelgangers running around the country. No different than a Starsky & Hutch Torino or the General Lee.
As for the movie I have driven all of the route used in the movie. There was once a Mustang get together in San Francisco back around 1993 maybe. A hundred or so Mustangs, of all stripes, drove the route from Bernal Heights, to the Marina Green, to 280. Also had many a brunch in the early ’80s at that hotel down 101.
I agree with the comment about all the over the top badging which should be dropped. Either be true to the original or don’t bother but obviously there is a lot of ego stroking here given the cost.
Oh, speaking of doppelgangers, here are two no less. I now know where the Charger currently is. Down the street, at a shop, quietly sitting up on a lift under cover.
I can just hear the 17 double clutch upshifts looking at that picture!
This must be Highway 24 near Orinda…I don’t remember whether it’s west bound or east bound
That looks like Westbound to me. Orinda is to the left of this picture so the hill is to the right. The town is physically below 24 in that area. That stretch used to be part of my daily commute…Ugh.
Went down a rabbit hole researching Hickman – very interesting
I saw Bullitt for the first time right after it’s initial release at a local theater. I was in college and took my girlfriend there on a date. I never get motion sickness, but actually got a little queasy during the shots from the in car viewpoint.
A couple of years later I watched it at the local drive in . The inside the car viewpoint shots from inside the Mustang were interesting from where I sat. I was in my ’67 Mustang that had a black interior. So, basically I was looking out through the windshields of two Mustangs at the same time.
I agree that the best shot in the movie is when the Mustang appears in the Charger’s rear view mirror. It sure got a reaction in the theater.
Wow, that’s neat to have seen it in a theater on its original release. I can only imagine how much impact that would have had on a youthful car lover.
I’m too young for that. My only meager comparison is getting to see Ronin in the theater. Possibly the 2nd best car chase movie.
Going in I had heard there was a car chase of some kind in the film, but was totally unprepared for what I was about to see. I remember realizing about half way through it that the were not speeding up the film to get their effects like just about every other movie or TV chase I had ever seen.
I have been a car guy all my life. Little did I know at the time that this would become a classic and that I, too would end up owning Mustangs for most of my adult life.
My 2009 V6 5speed Mustang has the upgraded handling suspension and is a ball to drive. I can just imagine how much fun an upgraded GT is.
Well, that does it. I am going to have to watch my DVD of Bullitt this weekend.
There is indeed a 1:18 die cast model Bullitt Mustang available with a Steve McQueen figurine that fits right in the driver’s seat! I bought one earlier this year, and it looks great. Greenlight Collectibles is the manufacturer, I think. I didn’t know about the Revell one of the Charger & crew – now I’ve got to track one of those down!
And I feel compelled to offer my unsolicited opinion that the 2008 Bullitt Mustang is just the right balance of style and modernity. It is so damn awesome. I’d like to think I’ve matured beyond lusting after fast cars, but not that one – I want it so badly, and probably always will!