The Bullet Mustang get $3.4 Million!

[TruckDriver]

 
https://m.roadkillcustoms.com/bullitt-mustang-movie-car-sells-for-record-at-auction/?fbclid=IwAR2LB0PAr4ofO91deXwwqlwT6QNrMUTQTXOH-gzzsAn5TcLcIwjigSjFUYs

[Finoke]

I seem to remember reading about a car that was found in Mexico several  years ago that was also linked to the movie. Does anybody remember that?

[Drache]

I seem to remember reading about a car that was found in Mexico several  years ago that was also linked to the movie. Does anybody remember that?

That is this car. It was found in Mexico painted white, was pretty much nothing but a shell. It was sitting beside another mustang. The owner bought both cars for $5000.

The owner was originally going to turn it into an Eleanor clone until the restoration shop realized what they had. They planned to restore it to it's former glory from the movie but I guess plans changed.

So they threw some old parts onto the car and dropped an engine into it and sold it for a pretty nice profit.

[Mike DC]

That is this car. It was found in Mexico painted white, was pretty much nothing but a shell. It was sitting beside another mustang. The owner bought both cars for $5000.

Not exactly.    


There were two Bullitt Mustangs.

This auctioned one was the closeup car.  It was always known to exist but it just recently came out of hiding.  This is the first time it's ever been offered for sale (since the early 1970s).  That's still the original green paint.  The motor has never been out of it.  It's in honest-to-god "barn find original" condition.  

The car they found in Mexico was the stunt car.  It was always thought to have been scrapped until they recently found it.  The body was pretty solid but it was a stripped down shell that needs a total resto.



There were two Chargers.  The stunt car was totally destroyed on film.  As for the closeup car, a contender turned up a few years ago with some circumstantial evidence.  But the paperwork doesn't exist to prove it.  Neither Chrysler nor the movie studio has anything.  


The paperwork on the Mustangs is solid.  Ford had supplied the cars to the movie and Ford kept records.  But the Chargers were just bought from a local dealership during filming.  Dodge/Chrysler corp wasn't involved with the movie.    

 

[Drache]

That is this car. It was found in Mexico painted white, was pretty much nothing but a shell. It was sitting beside another mustang. The owner bought both cars for $5000.

Not exactly.    


There were two Bullitt Mustangs.

This auctioned one was the closeup car.  It was always known to exist but it just recently came out of hiding.  This is the first time it's ever been offered for sale (since the early 1970s).  That's still the original green paint.  The motor has never been out of it.  It's in honest-to-god "barn find original" condition.  

The car they found in Mexico was the stunt car.  It was always thought to have been scrapped until they recently found it.  The body was pretty solid but it was a stripped down shell that needs a total resto.



There were two Chargers.  The stunt car was totally destroyed on film.  As for the closeup car, a contender turned up a few years ago with some circumstantial evidence.  But the paperwork doesn't exist to prove it.  Neither Chrysler nor the movie studio has anything.  


The paperwork on the Mustangs is solid.  Ford had supplied cars to the movie crew and Ford kept records.  But the Chargers were just bought from a local dealership during filming.  Dodge/Chrysler corp wasn't involved with the movie.    

 

Thanks you for the clarification 

[Mike DC]

  
No prob.


IMO there's a decent possibility that the surviving Charger is real.  If it's fake then somebody went to a lot of trouble to hoax it.  

It's certainly possible to fake it.  But IMO that would not have been a smart way to risk your money & time.  There isn't a lot of surviving film/pics/info on the real closeup car.  Something new could always turn up and disprove (a hoaxed one).  A new behind-the-scenes photo showing a certain factory option.  Some kind of damage it got during filming.  Etc.   And by going public with your hoax car, you might just immediately flush out the info that disproves it.    

[Finoke]

 
No prob.


IMO there's a decent possibility that the surviving Charger is real.  If it's fake then somebody went to a lot of trouble to hoax it.  

It's certainly possible to fake it.  But I don't think that would have been a very smart way to risk your money & time.  There isn't a lot of surviving film/pics/info on the real closeup car.  Something new might turn up and disprove (a hoaxed one) at any time.  And you might just immediately flush out that info when you claim your hoaxed car is real.  

Very interesting, thanks!

[TruckDriver]

THIS WILL CLARIFY ON WHAT THIS CAR REALLY IS. VERY GOOD SHORT READ

A short video and a cool photo of the letter that Steve McQueen had wrote trying to buy the car personally.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/ford-mustang-steve-mcqueen-drove-in-bullitt-sells-for-3-4-million-at-auction/2198731/

[Mytur Binsdirti]

That letter was written only 3 years before he died at age 50.

[Mike DC]

              
He was diagnosed with cancer and then died like one year later.  It was very fast.  

IIRC it was asbestos-type cancer.  He had been exposed to a lot of it.  He cleaned up the stuff in the Navy as a teenager.  The racing firesuits were full of it in that era.   Hollywood soundstages were using it for soundproofing too.  Nobody knew bad it was.  
 

[Finoke]

So I read the letter. Not much of an offer. Sounds a little arrogant?

[Mike DC]

               
It doesn't strike me as arrogant.  McQueen was offering on the car but he wasn't willing to get too wild on the price.  That's a reasonable position.  


The car's owners have never said McQueen hassled them or anything.  He contacted them a couple of times and that was it.  

[Drache]

So I read the letter. Not much of an offer. Sounds a little arrogant?

Mcqueen probably didn't want them to think that since he was famous that they could ask for some stupidly unreasonable amount.

[Ghoste]

I don't read it as arrogant either.  Just a to the point offer.

[Mike DC]

              

Mcqueen probably didn't want them to think that since he was famous that they could ask for some stupidly unreasonable amount.

Very true.  

McQueen was the size of Brad Pitt or George Clooney or Matt Damon in that era.  By the 1970s he had probably dealt with getting higher prices because of his fame.  Cars, houses, etc.  

       
George Lucas used a fake working title to film his third Star Wars movie in 1982.  The obvious reason was to keep the press away.  But it was also to save money.  When his people tried to operate as 'Star Wars Inc' they kept getting jacked.  Hiring contractors, leasing property, buying & renting equipment, etc.
   
                 

[JB400]

Looks like Christine did not sell at this auction:

https://www.allpar.com/news/2020/01/christine-fury-doesnt-sell-at-mecum-kissimmee-47071

[Mytur Binsdirti]

Looks like Dana Mecum's commission just was't enough for him.....Talk about milking it!  McQueen must be rotating!

https://www.mecumshop.com/collections/bullitt/?utm_source=headerimage&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Bullitt&goal=0_fa410e9114-6b47245783-115092025&mc_cid=6b47245783&mc_eid=05b1840036

[Mike DC]

 
I'm kinda surprised that Ford itself hasn't made a move on buying that Bullitt Mustang.  They could probably get more 'mileage' out of it than any private owner could.  Public appearances, product tie-ins, etc. 

 

[Aero426]

Looks like Dana Mecum's commission just was't enough for him.....Talk about milking it!  McQueen must be rotating!

https://www.mecumshop.com/collections/bullitt/?utm_source=headerimage&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Bullitt&goal=0_fa410e9114-6b47245783-115092025&mc_cid=6b47245783&mc_eid=05b1840036

No revenue stream shall remain unexplored. 

[Ghoste]

Ford isn't going to spend that amount of capital on a museum piece in my opinion.  I'm sure there are a handful of people in there who would see the significance of the car but most of the decision makers just want to move product, improve market share through the methods learned in business school and claw their way up the political ladder.

[b5blue]

  Across the board I see it's a "Boomers" thing, older now things that excited 40-50 years ago tug at a younger memory. Right now is peak timing for late 60's anything to be in Boomers nostalgia cross hairs. (How long ago was it when we had no Camaro, Challenger and Ford trying to swap Mustang with Probe?)   

[Challenger340]

IMO,
very simply way too much "liquidity" in the system..... when rich people pay millions for a Mustang ?

[Aero426]

IMO,
very simply way too much "liquidity" in the system..... when rich people pay millions for a Mustang ?

Arguably cooler, and still significantly less than Paul Newman's watch.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hylabauer/2017/10/26/paul-newmans-paul-newman-daytona-sells-for-15-5-million-a-record-for-a-wristwatch-at-auction/#19a45b345313

[Mytur Binsdirti]

IMO,
very simply way too much "liquidity" in the system..... when rich people pay millions for a Mustang ?

You know, if the rich want to part with some of their millions in what we think is a foolish manner, I say let them. Their money is making the seller of the Mustang as well as Uncle Sam very happy.

[Ghoste]

Besides, what's the alternative, ban the wealthy and redistribute the wealth?  It has been tried and they didn't build any Chargers in communist countries.  Come to think, they didn't eat all that much better either.

[myk]

And with that kind of money to spend, I hope the new owner restores the thing...

[Mike DC]

And with that kind of money to spend, I hope the new owner restores the thing...

The Bullitt car?   Please, no!

Hollywood props are valuable for their history, like any other historical item. 

There are lots of Bullitt clones out there.  You can build a really nice clone for about 2% of that auction price.  Heck, the other car (the stunt car) was found as a bare shell - just restore that one and leave this barn-find closeup car alone. 



A piece of the Titanic's hull was brought up a few years ago.  It's in raggedy rusty shape but that doesn't mean they should restore it. 

[Ghoste]

I agree, preserve it but leave it as it is.

[djcarguy]

     What year was Steve trying to buy stang back ,any year on paper work or his offers to buy his stang back  

     


            What year did steve pass on to race track  or next phase of events   




            Wasn't there several mustang fastbacks,,1 being green with mags to look like the bullit stang    In Chad McQueens movie 

     RED LINE   MOVIE   made in or released in 1995

[Ghoste]

He tried to buy it back in 1977.

[JB400]

Looks like the new owner is going to keep it like it is for a while longer:  https://mustangforums.com/articles/bullitt-mustang-will-not-be-restored/

[TX9AAR]

I wonder if the Brothers Collection purchased the car. I was told by an owner of a big restoration shop that did work for the brother's that they were 7th Day Adventists and their sabbath is on Saturday. He had to sign a contract with them that no work would be done on their cars on Saturday. I thought it was strange that the auction sold the car on Friday and not Saturday.  Guess we will find out sometime

[tan top]

Looks like the new owner is going to keep it like it is for a while longer:  https://mustangforums.com/articles/bullitt-mustang-will-not-be-restored/

ridiculous amount for any car full stop ! & all it is ,   its  just a movie prop.   as for not restoring it I think its silly I could kind of understand if it had been put in a barn or storage locker directly after filming & not touched or saw the light of day for 50 years .   still each to their own

[Mike DC]

    

ridiculous amount for any car full stop ! & all it is ,   its  just a movie prop.   as for not restoring it I think its silly I could kind of understand if it had been put in a barn or storage locker directly after filming & not touched or saw the light of day for 50 years .   still each to their own

The thing you gotta remember is that the Bullitt car is not a '68 Mustang.  Nobody pays $3 million bucks for a '68 Mustang.  They pay that much to get the Bullitt movie car.  The buyer paid for $20,000 worth of Mustang and $3,380,000 worth of movie-prop history.  

Props are always most valuable in their original screen-used visual condition.  This car still has 80% of it.  It's best to leave it alone.  No question.  

[Homerr]

And with that kind of money to spend, I hope the new owner restores the thing...

An awesome way to make a $3.4m car in to an $80k one.