1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Bullitt
When you think about famous car chases in movies, the classic footage of a dark green Mustang jumping up and down San Francisco’s hills in pursuit of a stoic, black Dodge Charger will most certainly roll in your memory. One of the two Mustangs used by the late Steve McQueen in that movie, ’Bullitt,’ has been found and it looks just as cool now as it did back in 1968.
This 1968 Ford Mustang GT was built as a spot-on Bullitt tribute built with a tuned 390ci V8, strengthened chassis, and performance suspension. The build was based on a clean and unmodified 68 fastback body wearing its original Highland Green paint, which the car retains, and the faded and worn look has been intentionally preserved.
The tuned and modified 390 big-block engine makes a dyno’ed 406 horsepower, and the close-ratio 4-speed toploader transmission has been rebuilt with a Hurst shift kit.
The Bullitt Mustangs came with a number of interior upgrades including an AM radio and the interior décor group package. This package includes the woodgrain center panel on the dashboard and the glove box, the trims on the door panels, an overhead console with map lights and extra buttons on the sides of the seats.
The suspension build employs Shelby-style dropped front control arms with roller bearing lower arms, a stiffer anti-sway bar, and Koni Classic shocks at all four corners. A quicker 16:1 ratio steering box with a roller idler arm has been installed. The 560 lb. front coil springs and 4 1/2″ mid-eye rear leaf springs have been dropped 1″ all around for a lower stance with roller perches on the front. Larger front brakes with slotted and vented rotors have also been fitted.
The iconic 1968 film “Bullitt” featured what most experts consider to be the first modern-day car chase scene, one that was executed with such innovation and finesse that it became the standard for all that followed. Longer, faster and more action packed than anything before it, the 10-minute car chase scene—featuring McQueen as Lt. Frank Bullitt chasing a black Dodge Charger while behind the wheel of this 1968 Ford Mustang GT—was the first to use cameras in a way that put the audience right inside the cars and alongside the actors. Throughout some of the most intense scenes of the famous car chase, McQueen could be seen right there, full screen, clutching the wheel of this very car as he expertly piloted it through the bustling and steep streets of San Francisco.
