Possibly the Coolest Car Known To Man – IOTW Report

Possibly the Coolest Car Known To Man

FORD/jalopnik.com

One look at the Highland Green 1968 Mustang GT and you know you’re standing in front of a movie legend. The Steve McQueen “Bullitt” Mustang has resurfaced and is again on public view, along side Ford’s 2019 Mustang that was inspired by the original.

One of two used in the movie, the model on display was stored for years in New Jersey. The car had changed hands and locations a few times and McQueen reportedly tried to buy the vehicle back in the 1970’s. Other than a few replacement parts, like an air cleaner that had been stolen in Kentucky, it’s all original.

The other Mustang used in the movie had ended up in Mexico where it was found last year. Though restored, it took a lot more replacement parts and thus makes it less valuable.  More 

49 Comments on Possibly the Coolest Car Known To Man

  1. Big McQueen fan. When I was a bag boy at Safeway in Pacific Palisades, I noticed a black limo pull into the parking lot that was covered with mud. I watched it pull into a spot on the far side of the lot, and the driver door opened, and out stepped Steve McQueen. I wish I had asked him why he was driving a nice limo thru the mud, but I simply and gladly bagged the few items that he bought and he quietly left the store, got back in the limo, and drove off.

    Cool dude. He lived next to James Garner in Brentwood, and he used to throw empty beer cans in Garner’s yard to piss him off.

  2. Fun fact: The two movie cars were prepared by Max Balchowsky, famous California hot rodder, known for his Old Yaller home-built race car that bested Ferraris at places like Riverside raceway.

  3. Sold my last Mustang, a grabber blue Mach 1, a few years ago. I had my fun racing cars & motorcycles back in the 1970’s & 80’s and just don’t have any interest any longer. We had Mustangs including a 1970 Boss 302 & a ’66 GT350H, big block Fairlanes and my brother had a 1968 427 Mercury Cyclone.

    I drove a new 2017 box stock GT the other day and I can tell you right now that it would eat a 1966-68 GT350R alive on a road course and if you have ever ridden in a GT350R they are a miserably uncomfortable vehicle to travel any distance in. Noisy, hot and sprung like a buckboard. I had a buddy that had a ’68 GT500KR convertible and it was pretty comfortable to travel in. The new mustang super cars would make that GT I drove look like a joke on the track.

  4. I was listening to some guys talking about chase scenes the other day in a restaurant and I think they covered them all except one, the one that was never brought up was Dirty Mary & Crazy Larry. I mentioned that to a friend and he had never even heard of that movie.

  5. The car so cool they had to give it Keanu Reeves as part of his motivation for take out the Russian mob when it got stolen in “John Wick.” Then they go and destroy it in the sequel.

  6. “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle.”

    Nothing can beat my ’77 Ford Pinto. Had an 8-TRACK blaring, “Shout it, shout it, shout-it-out-loud!” Pumping my fist out the window, flicking tongue at up-tight chicks, mullet blowing in the wind…

    Keep your Mustang, I’ll go back to that time with my Pinto.

  7. A bit off track, but I get a big kick out of the chase scene through the San Francisco airport. Look at the hangers – every one of those airlines is out of business; Pan Am, Air Cal, TWA etc.

  8. “I’ve read that the ’68 Charger basically smoked the Mustang on that shoot.”

    The fastest Mustang I’ve ever seen was a 66 fast back with a Chevy small block stuffed in it.

  9. Back in the early 1980s I traded a large drum set for a 1965 Mustang Fastback. The previous owner had customized it with gold metalflake paint, elaborate pinstriping, hood scoop, naugahyde interior, custom wheels, and a 350hp 289 engine. People would mistake it for a Shelby and ask to take pictures of it. I got more tickets in that car and finally sold it after a juvenile delinquent vandalized it in front of my house.

  10. Brad: Regarding that video, I cruised Van Nuys Blvd. many times in the late 60s-early 70s. At 0:32 on that video you can see Pollard Wittman Robb Chevrolet at VNB and Oxnard, where I bought my Nova SS in 1970. Good times.

  11. Tony R

    I spent a lot of nights in NorCal (Bay Area) digging up street races. I had a 70 A body Mopar that was turning high 11’s. No laughing gas. Now days they have guys on the street driving 8 second cars. pretty crazy.

  12. Actually the coolest car I ever saw was a 1908 Model T Ford, the 1st year they built Model T’s. It belonged to an older gentleman in Lostine, Oregon down in the Wallowa valley. His father had bought brand new in 1908 and had been in the family for 70 yrs. or so when we met him in 1978 visiting relatives. He told us he had learned to drive in that car back in the 1920’s and it was his prized possession.

  13. It’s hard to imagine today that Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang were in a close race for sales in 67-70. today at any car show or vintage race, you probably see 10-20 Camaros for every Mustang of that vintage.

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