Some random Bulllitt stuff

[Ghoste]

Just some photos I saw, I like the one with the two cars attached and the trip wire to free the Charger and send it to it's sad demise.

[Ghoste]

Steve liked that Mustang.

[Ghoste]

One more.

[6bblgt]

that's funny - the Mustang VIN is missing a digit 

[69wannabe]

I never really looked at how thin the charger tire's were compared to the mustang until I read it on the forum's here!! 

[Mike DC]

I've always been amazed that bumper rig was strong enough to do the job. 

[tan top]

     good pictures Ghoste !!    never seen those before , thanks for posting 

[PrisonHack]

 "Unless there is too much money involved?"  Wasn't Steve the highest paid star of his day??    Guess he didn't want the guy to ask for a million bucks or something.

[Dino]

"Unless there is too much money involved?"  Wasn't Steve the highest paid star of his day??    Guess he didn't want the guy to ask for a million bucks or something.

He was also very frugal and hated to spend money.

[wingcar]

"Unless there is too much money involved?"  Wasn't Steve the highest paid star of his day??    Guess he didn't want the guy to ask for a million bucks or something.

He was also very frugal and hated to spend money.

Read about his childhood and you will see why he was frugal...............But, I am sure that he would have paid a bit for that Mustang as he really wanted it.  He also understood that his name would have raised the asking price....

[PrisonHack]

 Yeah he didn't grow up in ideal circumstances, and your right he was probably afraid that because of who he was the guy would really try to gouge him on the price.

[fy469rtse]

thanks for posting Ghoste,
love bullit stuff, always new they somehow towed the charger to its demise, but great to see how,
is it true it took a couple of attempts ?, it just didnt want to die

[Kern Dog]

It could be internet BS but I read that the Charger was fitted with smaller tires to handicap it, trying to reduce its abilities. The efforts were supposed to try to EVEN the field for the Mustang to keep up. The Chargers, heck MOST of the cars from the 60s always seemed to have tires too skinny anyways. The tire fitment on the Mustang actually looks good.

[TUFCAT]

Can any body tell what the cable was for in picture #1?  It goes from the bumper attachment to the inside of the charger.

My guess its a disconnect triggering devise so the movie crew knew exactly where to detach the cars, and how much time was needed for the final explosion.  

[Patronus]

For the sake of knowing, did he get the car? And do we know the price?

[Mike DC]

McQueen didn't get it. 

[Bob T]

Haven't seen those before, Cheers Ghoste

[FastbackJon]

Wow, too bad we haven't seen a similar letter about the surviving Charger from George Phillips. Makes me think the information was out there somewhere if they had it for the Mustang.

[6bblgt]

I believe there was a Warner Bros. property room fire in the late-'70s.    Lots of property & paper were lost.  Or fire is a good dead end excuse.
& someone should've asked about the Charger 2 years after the movie - if someone would've we'd know for sure today.

[Mike DC]

      

Purely BS opinion here -


I wouldn't be surprised if the surviving Bullitt Charger did end up being sold to the public.  Maybe as a "slightly used" car or maybe even as a more or less "new" one.

Either WB or Chrysler probably did eat the price of the car for liability issues.  But this hobby has such a long history of uncovering cars that were supposed to never end up in the public's hands for one reason or another . . .  Chrysler & WB can instruct people to scrap a practically-new '68 R/T, but that doesn't mean anyone is necessarily going to do it.  The suits that wrote the big checks didn't feed that car into the crusher themselves.  Every person between them & the crusher was one more person who stood to make/save several thousand bucks by not scrapping it.  


Maybe it got some kind of salvage title.  Maybe somebody got a deal on the car for signing an extra waiver.  Maybe a dealership or junkyard's owner, or the employees, or the owner's son, got to use it as a beater.  I dunno.  But one way or another I'll bet that brand new '68 R/T 4spd didn't end up going from the movie set directly to the crusher.


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Same with the "Vanishing Point" Challys.  I'll bet at least some of them ended up on the roads somehow.  

[6bblgt]

I saw Arnold's "Bullitt" charger before the restoration, FWIW I believe it's the real deal - but proof would be nice (understatement of the year?).  Mustang "hero car" survived why wouldn't the Charger "villain car"?

Ford provided the Mustang & other cars for the film and was credited with "VEHICLES PROVIDED by FoMoCo", production company bought the Chargers.

Rumor has it - Chrysler Corp. provided the Challengers, Imperial & others for VP, after seeing the final cut - wanted nothing to do with the film & no credit - then scrapped what was left of the Challengers.

[Ghoste]

My understanding was that they had to purchase the Chargers themselves because Ford was the vehicle sponsor (McQueen was a Ford guy as far as domestics go).
I'd like to believe the surviving one is the real deal but I just can't embrace it without some documentation.

[jaak]

Cool stuff, Ghoste 

Jason

[Mike DC]

My understanding was that they had to purchase the Chargers themselves because Ford was the vehicle sponsor (McQueen was a Ford guy as far as domestics go).
I'd like to believe the surviving one is the real deal but I just can't embrace it without some documentation.

Same here. 

The story on that car does seem very possible.  But it's pure speculation based on what we know now, and probably always will be. 


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Rumor has it - Chrysler Corp. provided the Challengers, Imperial & others for VP, after seeing the final cut - wanted nothing to do with the film & no credit - then scrapped what was left of the Challengers.

The director of VP has said they got a bunch of cars from Mopar.  He also said they weren't supposed to wreck that police car that they rolled.  They set up the wreck as an intentional "oops!" with plausible deniability.  (Notice there are no helmets or rollcage in that car, and yet it rolls right in front of two cameras.)


With some of the Challys being repainted white, differently optioned, interior colors, etc . . . those VP cars probably didn't come directly from Chrysler itself.  More likely Chrysler contacted some dealerships to supply the cars and then reimbursed them for the cost.  (Just my opinion.)  And if that was the case then the cars probably went back to the dealerships after the movie was done.  Chrysler itself may never have laid eyes on those VP cars.  

And if all this speculation was the case, then IMO the survival odds for at least some of the Challys gets much higher.  Granted they were probably a lot worse off than the lone Bullitt closeup car, but my same feeling applies - those were brand new hi-po cars.  People have a tendency not to feed brand new cars into crushers.  Damaged or not, I doubt every one of those white Challys rolled its last mile during the movie shoot.