FORD HONORS STEVE MCQUEEN!

The 2008 "Bullitt" Mustang GT

Lieutenant Frank Bullit's Office!

(Photos Courtesy of Ford Motor Company)
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It's nice to know that I have something in common with Rock and Roll's Jeff Beck, Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. We are all car enthusiasts! Around Easter of 1968, Steve McQueen and legendary stunt car driver Bill Hickman worked for two weeks filming over a 22-block area of San Francisco with 51 film assistants and a handful of police officers one of the most dangerous car chases ever filmed. The movie was "Bullitt". As Steve predicted during production in the 10 minute film, "Steve McQueen's Commitment to Reality", "The things we'll be doing today with these cars will be unequalled, I would think for many years". Today, nearly 40 years later it is a fact of life that no one has equalled what theater goers recall as the most fantastic car chase in cinema history. Steve drove a majority of the chase in a 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback with the exception of the dangerous airborne hill jumps. These were undertaken by Steve's long-time screen double Bud Ekins (who also handled the motorcycle jump in "The Great Escape"). Carey Loftin handled executing the release of the Dodge Charger R/T from a tow bar-equipped Mustang GT Fastback at the end of the chase. Bill Hickman (then the world's most sought after car stunt driver) handled all of his own driving in the menacing 1968 black Charger R/T. Bill spent most of his career as a stunt driver, and was also involved in the epic car chase scenes from "The French Connection" and "The Seven Ups". Bill spent some of his earlier days as driver and friend to James Dean and was, in fact, driving the Ford station wagon and trailer following Dean on the day of his fatal accident. Bill was first on the scene of the 1955 collision where Dean tragically died in his arms. If you've ever seen Walt Disney's original "The Love Bug", "The French Connection" or "The Seven Ups", Bill served as the stunt coordinator and driver of "Herbie" (the VW Bug in the 1969 film), Gene Hackman's Pontiac car chase under Brooklyn's Bay Bridge and 86th Street in 1971, and in New York driving a 1973 Pontiac Granville for Robert Urich (friend and fellow stunt driver Jerry Summers drove the beat up Chevrolet Nova for Roy Schieder). What characterizes each of these Philip D'Antoni produced films is the sheer degree of danger. In "Bullitt" McQueen insisted on filming using actual speeds of 130 miles per hour. A bit of trivia here: Steve is actually behind the wheel in "Bullitt" when Bud Ekins lays down his Triumph motorcycle on the Canyon Highway and McQueen swerves dangerously onto a dirt and gravel birm fighting mightily to regain control of the car. Today only Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, and Don Gordon survive --among the main cast members of that film, along with Steve's personal friends and stunt doubles: Bud Ekins, Carey Loftin and Loren Janes. Steve McQueen died of Mesothelioma at age 50 in 1980; Bill Hickman died of lung cancer in 1988. He was 65. The incredible interest in "Bullitt" led Ford Motor Company to produce a commemorative "Bullitt" Mustang GT in 2001. However, the 2008 model pictured here is closer to the actual vehicle used in the original film. Smiles! :D))