Of all the movie cars out there, Steve McQueen’s dark-green Mustang has to be one of the best. Featured in the 1968 detective flick Bullitt, the Mustang is the hero of one of the best chases in film history, hammering through San Francisco in hot pursuit of the bad guys in their Dodge Charger.
But for a long time, the original Bullitt Mustang has been missing. That all changed the day the phone rang at Marti Auto Works near Phoenix, Ariz. The voice on the other end of the line asked for some information on a car he had in his scrap yard. When he heard the serial number, Frank Marti froze.
Marti knew the number by heart from people calling in trying to build clones faithful to the original Bullitt build sheet. In this case, the caller claimed to own the car. And, when questioned, he had no idea that it was the original movie car.
Marti flew down to Mexicali in Mexico, where Ralph Garcia Jr. has a couple of shops specializing in customizing American muscle cars. He also has a sideline in turning Mustangs into “Eleanor,” the hero car from the movie Gone In 60 Seconds.
Two Mustangs were used in the filming of Bullitt, and this one was the car used in the jumps. Deemed too badly damaged to repair after filming, it nonetheless made its way down to Mexico, where it once again found life on the street. Decades later, it’s a wreck – but Garcia and his business partner Hugo Sanchez will be bringing the car back to life. What’s more, they’ll be getting a little help all the way from North Vancouver, in the person of Glen Kalmack, who owns a stunningly faithful ‘68 Bullitt tribute Mustang.
