To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Steve McQueen’s Bullitt a limited-edition Mustang.
AT THIS STAGE THE limited-run Mustang Bullitt will only be available in the US. It’s powered by a tweaked 5.0-litre V8 mated to a manual transmission with a white cue ball gear knob in a nod to the movie car. “An active valve performance exhaust system is standard, and retuned to give the car a signature burble,” Ford said.
Inside it gets a 12-inch all-digital LCD instrument cluster with a unique Bullitt welcome screen that starts in green with an image of the car rather than the pony on other Mustangs.
“This new Bullitt is, as Steve McQueen was, effortlessly cool,” said Darrell Behmer, Mustang chief designer. “As a designer, it’s my favourite Mustang – devoid of stripes, spoilers and badges. It doesn’t need to scream about anything – it’s just cool.”
Exterior paint choices are Shadow Black and Dark Highland Green – as worn in the movie. Other features that pay tribute to the car McQueen drove are subtle chrome accents around the grille and front windows, and classic torque thrust 19-inch aluminium wheels. Inside and out, the vehicle uses minimal badging; only the circular faux fuel-filler cap Bullitt logo on the rear centre is visible on the exterior.
The whereabouts of the two vehicles used in the making of Bullitt had been a mystery; the hero vehicle driven by McQueen in the movie was sold by Warner Bros to a private buyer, and the other – used in many of the jumps during the famous chase scene – was sent to a salvage yard. That jumper vehicle resurfaced in Baja, California, in early 2017, but the other was lost to history. Until now.
Sean Kiernan, owner of the hero vehicle, inherited the car in 2014 from his late father, Robert, who had purchased the vehicle in 1974. To fulfil his family’s lifelong dream, Sean contacted Ford and the original hero car was revealed alongside the new car at the Detroit Motor Show overnight.
If you need to be reminded of just how cool and ever so slightly cheesy the original car chase was, watch this:
The XR8 had a stanard factory blower. It’s a shame that Ford fit the same to the Mustang.
Looks to me like Ford has stolen a march on Holden in that Ford made sure they had a V8 RWD in place when they pulled the plug on the XR Falcons.
Here’s an idea for Ford and GM. Release Panamera style 4 door versions of the Mustang and Camaro to compete against the Kia Stinger. To do that GM would first have to make the Camaro available as a factory RHD to avoid a $90k purchase price.