Mystery of the Bullitt Chargers

[Auggie56]

https://jesusbehindthewheel.com/201...thbLPWeNP8PpMjm1C6c1-oKuSPN-PVbhZVWzvkCsNloc4

 

[1968rt]

From what I read people confused the 4 speed Inland shifter as an automatic.Maybe because of a console?

 

[Badvert65]

Very interesting reading.

 

[fratzog lover]

The 68 was for sale a few years ago for 1 million. There was not really any provenance or documentation. jut holes in the body which anyone could have done, especially in this age of big bucks and classic car fraud. I heard the price went way down...

 

[chargervert]

According to the article that I read in Muscle Car Review back in the eighties, the director and the guy who prepared the cars said that there were two Mustangs, and two Chargers. Steve McQueen and the director decided that there were too many Fords,and to make the film more realistic they decided that the villain vehicle needed to be something different. The director and the mechanic went around to a bunch of local car dealerships looking for the right car to be the villain car. They bought two 68 Dodge Charger R/Ts one blue,and one yellow. The blue car was used as the stunt car,and was an automatic transmission equipped car, and the other car was yellow, and was a 4 speed car. They were both painted black to appear more sinister looking. They took the cars to a local racetrack the day before filming and they said the stock Chargers ran rings around the Mustangs, and they tried to handicap the Chargers by running smaller tires. They addad a cam,carb and intake upgrade to the Mustangs and the stock Chargers were said to just pull away from the Mustangs like you wouldn't believe,said the mechanic! They did some gussets on the suspension systems of the two cars used in the hill jump scenes, but other than a tweak and tune sessions the Chargers were unmodified.

 

[chargervert]

The 68 was for sale a few years ago for 1 million. There was not really any provenance or documentation. jut holes in the body which anyone could have done, especially in this age of big bucks and classic car fraud. I heard the price went way down...

The Mustangs were supplied by Ford, and the studio had records to prove that they purchased them. Fords have great documentation because of the Marti reports, so they were easily documented. The Chargers were purchased from an expense account, and no reciepts with numbers have been found to this date. As we all know Chryslers record keeping was scetchy at best.

 

[BB14404SPD]

From what I read people confused the 4 speed Inland shifter as an automatic.Maybe because of a console?

In the scene where the shotgun is loaded the ring of the boot is shown. It did not have a console.

 

[Richard Cranium]

In the scene where the shotgun is loaded the ring of the boot is shown. It did not have a console.

You're correct. It's when he loads the 3rd shell.

 

[fratzog lover]

McQueens distributor also had to be recurved. To be fair, the 390 was a station wagon/pickup truck engine.

 

[64BEL]

From the comments in the link:

Frank
December 14, 2019 at 6:24 am
I saw a special on tv a long while back about the making of “Bullitt” and it showed McQueens son now had possession of the the Mustang his dad drove in the movie. Was this BS?


Frank must not get on the internet much lately in regard to the collector car hobby.

 

[Frankb]

I've seen this car firsthand both before and after the resto work. I've known Arnold for years. He did upholstery work on the side and did the work on my Charger and GTX. (We both live in Tucson). Arnold is a long time Mopar guy with a lot of knowledge. When I brought the seats for the GTX to his house the Charger was outside. It was yellow. Looked exactly like in the pic in the article. He knew every inch of the car. That's when he told me the car was the second Charger for Bullitt. After the resto the car was stored in a small shop about a mile from my house. I think they did detail work there but I don't remember. I don't know if this is the real deal but I've never known Arnold not to be truthful.
Frank