This article, which appeared in the July, 2007, issue of Mustang Monthly, is based on an article I wrote for the April, 1990, issue of Mustang Illustrated. In 1990, I was elated to finally locate the surviving Mustang Steve McQueen drove in the movie "Bullitt." Imagine how disappointed I've been over the last decade to still see other magazines reporting that the cars are assumed to have been destroyed. Even though I've got paperwork proof and the car's history of owners going back to Warner Bros. studios, other automotive journalists have never acknowledged my discovery. Oh well, I guess it'll just be between you and me. -- Brad Bowling

Update: During a roundtable interview for a Bullitt-oriented podcast for www.themustangsource.com, Dave Severin of Columbia Pictures told me (and the audience) that he had also tracked down the Bullitt car, and verified that we had been in touch with the same person.

Seventeen years ago, while on staff with a car magazine that is no longer around, I stumbled across the biggest find in the Mustang world – the surviving ’68 fastback from the movie Bullitt. I had no idea then that well into the 21st century it would still be hidden from public view. Here are the most recent updates to the story.

The car was a 1968 Mustang 390 GT. The last thing in the world you'd take the green fastback for is a serious collector's item. Gifted with hindsight, it's difficult for us modern-day enthusiasts to consider owning the surviving Bullitt Mustang and thinking of it simply as transportation but, strangely enough, that's exactly how it has been treated by its three owners to this day.

Steve McQueen was a hot property in Hollywood in 1968. He had just completed The Thomas Crown Affair with Faye Dunaway and he was enjoying the kind of leverage every actor works for. Because he wanted more control over the production of his movies, he signed a six-picture contract between his Solar Productions and Warner Bros. The first (and ultimately only) product of that collaboration was Bullitt, based on the novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Pike. Originally optioned by television producer Phil D’Antoni as a “facing retirement” cop role for Spencer Tracy in New York City, McQueen’s interest in the project brought about major changes in the script – including the addition of several intense chase scenes. English director Peter Yates, a former club racer who once served as Stirling Moss’ race team manager, was hired to helm the movie.

As with most successes, the Bullitt chase scene had many fathers. McQueen, Yates, and the two men credited with writing the screenplay – Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner – have each made claims in interviews that the idea was theirs. Regardless of pedigree, it is a tribute to McQueen's persuasiveness and credibility that the city of San Francisco agreed to the mayhem he proposed for its streets. (Picture the meeting in which negotiations took place: "Okay, Mr. McQueen, you'd like to race two cars through our city at 100 miles an hour; could we interest you in burning down some of our buildings?") To get McQueen to sign on for the movie, Warner Bros. assumed a tremendous financial risk by giving in to several of the star’s demands. McQueen wanted every shot to have the grit and texture of the real 1960s San Francisco scene, which meant that easy shooting in a studio backlot was forbidden. Realism was enhanced by the use of a new Arriflex camera, a lightweight wonder that gave director of photography William Fraker tremendous mobility and flexibility.

Action was captured on celluloid from a Corvette-based chase vehicle known as the “Bullittmobile.”

Whether or not McQueen specifically requested his character drive a Mustang is unclear. An ongoing product placement arrangement between Ford Motor Company and Warner is most likely the reason for the choice. Two Highland Green fastbacks sporting GT packages, 390/4V motors and (according to Kevin Marti of Marti Auto Works) sequential vehicle identification numbers were shipped to the studio. Likewise, two new Dodge Chargers were purchased, reportedly with 440-cid motors, for the bad guys to drive. Hollywood car builder and racer Max Balchowsky modified all four cars with extra welding, bracing, suspension and engine work to handle the heavy abuse. The Mustangs’ shock towers were stiffened, and Balchowsky installed heavy-duty front springs, a thicker anti-roll bar and Koni shocks. A power increase came from milled heads and ignition and carb upgrades. Several pieces were removed from the Mustangs, including the driving lights, running pony grille emblem, Mustang lettering and even the GT badges. Stock wheels were pulled in favor of sportier custom-made rims from American Racing.

The fastback assigned to jump duty also received a rollbar-mounted camera so that thrill-seeking moviegoers could get a taste of what it was like to fly through the air above San Francisco's hilly pavement. Not only did that Mustang get trashed performing the jump scenes, but it was also the car responsible for the fiery destruction of the Charger at the end of the chase. Special towing equipment was mounted to the passenger side of the Mustang and two dummies were placed in the Charger so that, through clever editing, it would look like the Mustang ran the Charger off the road into the gas station where it blew up.

Carey Loftin was the movie’s stunt coordinator, with Bill Hickman acting and driving the Charger. Bud Ekins, a motorcycle buddy of McQueen who had doubled for him in The Great Escape, was hired to drive the Mustang during the dangerous downhill sections.

Because the main Mustang was so damaged by the time shooting ended, it is highly unlikely anyone at Warner even considered selling it. Most of the people behind the movie recall that it was sent to a junkyard where it was eventually crushed.

But what about the second car?

The First Owner

An employee of Warner Bros. named Robert M. Ross bought the surviving car after production was finished. When I contacted Ross to interview him for this story in 1990, he politely but firmly told me, "It will be a long time before I talk to anyone about the Bullitt car after the last time." Ross went on to explain that previous interviewers had misquoted him and "printed pure b.s." about the car. When he realized that I had located the Mustang, he offered some information but was still understandably reluctant to agree to a longer interview.

Ross suggested I talk to his friend Bill Norton, who owned Valley Ford Mustang in North Hollywood at the time. Norton is one of the few people who can claim to have driven the Bullitt Mustang when it was new. "The car was not at all beat up like you might imagine," Norton recalled, "it was very nice because it had not been abused like the Mustang that did all of the jumping." "It was a fun car to drive," he told me, "very powerful but also very squirrely, especially one rainy night on the Ventura Freeway when Bob and I were going home from a party. It was also really noisy because it didn't have any soundproofing; apparently the movie people had used that car to make the 'live' recordings (that were later dubbed into the soundtrack)."

Ross only kept the fastback for a year or so, according to Norton, before he put it up for sale in Hemmings Motor News. "It was sold to a cop back east who wanted it shipped to him," Norton said. "I remember that it was sent by train because that was the cheapest way to transport a car back then and the guy was a little on the thrifty side."

It seems that Norton got more from the Bullitt car than just his driving impressions: in a cardboard box at Valley Ford Mustang sat the GT driving lights that were removed before filming. Apparently, they went to Ross along with the car but did not wind up with the second owner.

The Second Owner

No one seems to have a name for the second Bullitt car owner. Ross did not supply it during our brief conversation; Norton couldn't remember it and no other previously printed material mentions it. Ross thought that he might have been a detective (like Frank Bullitt, perhaps) but didn't mention the city or state, only that it was somewhere on the East Coast. My best guess is that the Bullitt car stayed with that owner for approximately two years before the third and current owner found it for sale in the newspaper.

The Third Owner

In 1972, a 24-year-old man got the bargain of a lifetime when he happened upon the Bullitt Mustang, with documentation, for what he says was "an unbelievably low price." Because he is now a successful businessman and has no intention of selling the car or considering any offers, I had to promise him total anonymity in exchange for his cooperation. Let’s just call him "Joe."

Joe provided several pages of documentation, including copies of the first owner's card (registered by Bob Ross on Dec. 14, 1968, license plate VVE 590) and the latest (registered by "Joe" in his home state on March 7, 1978, license plate 850 IPZ). Both cards gave the vehicle identification number as 8R02S125559, which matches the number from the Warner Bros. letter. (Years later, Marti Auto Works verified for me that this car and its twin were initially shipped to the same office in Southern California as a few other “movie” Fords.)

Joe told me in 1990 he had not actually seen the car in almost six years because it was stored in a relative's garage on the East Coast, several states away from where he was living. He was surprised to hear that his car had been the source of such speculation. Joe was not a hardcore Mustang enthusiast and told me his interest in the car was a combination of the low asking price and the fact that a major movie star had driven it.

Joe's anecdotes about driving the car back up Bill Norton's stories about it being a real handful and noisy at any speed. In fact, during a rainstorm, Joe did some Frank Bullitt-style driving when he lost control of the fastback and slid 360 degrees around, resulting in some minor body damage.

According to Joe, he had made no changes to the car but it was equipped with an aftermarket shifter and non-stock steering wheel when he bought it and that's exactly how it sat in 1990, with approximately 40,000 miles on the odometer. "Otherwise," he told me, "the engine compartment, interior and paint all look original."

Despite the fact that he wasn’t driving it any more, he insisted it would never be for sale. Steve McQueen himself tried to buy it back in 1977 but Joe had already promised that it would not leave the family, flattered though he was by the offer.

The Last 17 Years

I have contacted Joe three or four times by phone since breaking the story in 1990 but have been unable to convince him to share the Bullitt car with the general public.

When I met Steve McQueen’s son Chad in 1997 while visiting some friends in Malibu, he asked me about the car. I showed him Joe’s paperwork (while maintaining Joe’s anonymity) and Chad became enthusiastic that something could be done to get the car into the open. I phoned Joe and discussed possibilities Chad had raised – such as the McQueen family buying it and promising that no one would reveal the owner’s name or whereabouts – but I could not move him from his position.

A year later, I called Joe at the request of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, which was celebrating Bullitt’s 30th anniversary with a special exhibit of period clothes and movie memorabilia. Hoping against hope to borrow the surviving original, my contact at the museum even offered to have board member Jay Leno phone the owner.

When I reached him, Joe was not happy to entertain questions about his car, which he had relocated twice in the 10 years since our first talk. It had been stored in his father’s garage in 1990, then was moved to a horse farm where it spent a few years in a barn. While there, a worker on the property told a Mustang enthusiast about a hidden green fastback that had a history. From the description, the Mustanger suspected it was the Bullitt car and snuck onto the grounds to take some pictures without permission. Joe told me he had dealt with the employee who allowed this to happen, then moved the car to the garage in his Tennessee home, where it was sitting next to his Porsche as we talked. He thanked me for keeping his identity a secret but once more declined to consider any offers to show the car.

The Petersen built its display around Dave Kunz’s replica of the movie car. In 2000, I happened to call Joe on the day of his son’s 16th birthday. He told me I was no longer the only person who knew about the car because the producers of the first Charlie’s Angels movie had tracked him down. It seems Drew Barrymore wanted her character to drive the honest-to-goodness Bullitt Mustang.

This exchange did not sit well with Joe because, “They would not take ‘no’ for an answer!” The producers called him at home and at work and even sent gifts to his house in an attempt to change his mind. Their offer grew to include money, a trip to Hollywood and dinner with Ms. Barrymore. Joe, whose privacy is apparently quite precious to him, finally threatened the movie makers with legal action if they did not stop bothering him.

He said he was dedicated to keeping the car’s existence secret because his son wanted to “clean it up and start driving it now that he’s getting his license.”

Before I let him off the phone, Joe promised he would consider showing the Bullitt car to the public if and when an official Mustang museum was built.

“Otherwise,” he declared, “it’s staying in the garage!”

That was the last time I heard from Joe.

SIDEBAR – Bullitt Trivia

• For his role as Frank Bullitt, Steve McQueen was voted World Film Favorite by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

• Because "Bullitt" production went well over the studio’s budget, Warner ended the six-picture agreement with Solar.

• Many studio-owned cars were used in the film to interact with the Mustang and Charger and it is possible to see some of them over and over if you know what to look for. The most obvious repeats are: a yellow cab, a white '68 Firebird hardtop, a green Volkswagen Beetle, a four-door Cadillac and numerous Mustangs. Beside supplying realistic street scenery, company-owned vehicles were placed alongside the road to "catch" the Mustang or Charger in case they lost control.

• Through the miracle of movie-making, the Charger loses a total of eight hubcaps during the chase scene.

• Steve McQueen's letter attempting to buy back the Mustang is dated Dec. 14, 1977, one month after McQueen and his second wife Ali MacGraw divorced.

• Three years after attempting to buy back the Bullitt Mustang, Steve McQueen died of cancer. His collection of cars, motorcycles and antique toys survived intact for many years in the hands of his son Chad.

Click here to read about the International Mustang Bullitt Owners Club at www.imboc.com.