I saw a DVD of the ?Bullitt? movie and remembered that HJ had described it as the definitive car chase movie. So I indulged and bought it. After watching it I had to agree. I thought that the baddie was the better driver though because the Bullitt character almost lost it a few times.
I think that the Bullit?s car was a Mustang ; how thin those tyres look now.
Can any BR tell me
A. what model the other car was
B. how many Mustangs were written off in the production
C. did Steve McQueen do the driving ?
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Source - IMDB.COM
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Two Mustangs and two Dodge Chargers were used for the famous chase scene. Both Mustangs were owned by the Ford Motor Company and part of a promotional loan agreement with Warner Brothers. The cars were modified for the high-speed chase by veteran auto racer Max Balchowsky. Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin got Bud Ekins to drive the Mustang for the bulk of the stunts. Both of the Dodges were junked after the filming, as was one of the Mustangs. The other less banged-up Mustang was purchased by a WB employee after all production and post-production was completed. The car ended up in New Jersey a few years later, where Steve McQueen attempted to buy it. The owner refused to sell, and the car now sits in a barn and has not been driven in many years.
Bud Ekins who drives the Mustang also did the motorcycle jump for Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963).
The chase sequence takes place over a number of non-contiguous streets in and south of San Francisco. The sequence apparently starts under Highway 101 in the Mission District. When the Charger does a U-turn on what is Precita Avenue to follow the Mustang, a storage tank on Potrero Hill, in the southeast part of SF, is visible in the distance. The next few scenes are in the Bernal and Potrero areas; you can see green hills to the southwest on the horizon in one shot. Twenty-one seconds later, Coit Tower appears in the Mustang's front window to the east (as can be ascertained by the buildings' shadows). They then come to a stop for a Cable Car on Hyde Street and Filbert. The twin towers of Sts. Peter and Paul Church are visible just to the right of Coit Tower. They turn hard left next onto a four-lane street with a concrete median, what might be Columbus. A F-type street car is seen coming the opposite direction. They top a rise and Angel Island comes into view slightly on the left, placing them on about Stockton and Chestnut. They turn north, then west, then south uphill. In the next cut, they are coming downhill, north towards the Bay. They turn west and the next few scenes are inter-cut, reused footage of the same street sequence, as shown by repeated presence of the same Cadillac and a Green Volkswagen Beetle. They drive downhill or north, towards the Bay, and turn west in front of the same Caddy, several blocks north of Van Ness. They turn left or south, going uphill. They then are headed north and turn from Larkin St. onto Francisco St. headed west. In the next scene the Dodge is going north, rounding Laguna onto Marina, having leaped six blocks. They turn from Laguna St., in front of Ft. Mason, onto Marina and in front of the Safeway. (The bottom of the store's name can be seen as the Dodge veers onto Marina.) They accelerate down Marina with the Marina Green and the Bay visible in the background. In the next cut, Ft. Mason is again visible in the background as they once again round the turn on Marina onto the Marina green. With the next cut they turn in front of the Safeway again. The next cut puts them eight miles away, back in the Vistacion Valley district, turning right from University St. on to Mansell St. From there they cut to the San Bruno Mountains three miles away, heading west. After spinning out in the dirt shoulder, both cars are now headed east, evidenced by the shadows, before the Charger crashes.
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Pretty much the same info on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt
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Bud Ekins who drives the Mustang also did the motorcycle jump for Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963).
On a Triumph bonneville 650 twin in the heart of occupied germany , brilliant film though , my favourite character was the forger .. donald pleasense
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It was a TR6 not a Bonneville.
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my favourite character was the forger .. Donald Pleasense.
"take me with you - I can see"
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Oh PU, I can almost hear the hugh dennis accent ;>)
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C. did Steve McQueen do the driving ?
This one depends on who's telling the story I think. Some say that McQueen did most of the driving (perhaps that was the press release at the time?) but most agree he barely did one or two scenes.
You can generally see who's driving if you look at the rear view mirror too, if it's tilted out of the way it's Bud Ekins. The driver of the Charger is always Bill Hickman, he's the actor as well as the stunt driver!
Edited by Garethj on 03/05/2008 at 09:38
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAlklV5TZrE
Beware this clip may contain material that may excite you.
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i think steve McQueen played one of the german soldiers seen getting out of an army lorry at some stage , somewhere in the film around the famous bike chase sequence i believe
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I think that the Bullit?s car was a Mustang; how thin those tyres look now.
According to someone on imcdb.org the Charger was fitted with narrower tyres than standard to hinder it, as it had a bit of a horsepower advantage over the Mustang.
Surprising as the Mustang should have had handling advantage as standard, but was also fitted with stiffer springs and Koni dampers for the film.
I've not watched the film for ages but AFAIR there is a quite alarming bit of axle oscillation on the Mustang in one scene. They should have fitted some trailing links to the back axle, or maybe they hadn't thought of that in 1968?
The Mustangs were fitted with GR70-15 tyres (on those gorgeous Torq Thrust wheels), equivalent to a 225/70-R15, which were wide top-spec tyres in those days, and they were radials.
The basic tyre for a 390GT was a 185/100-14 cross ply, which must have been "interesting" in a 300bhp car!
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Bud Ekins who drives the Mustang also did the motorcycle jump for Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963).
Sadly Bud Ekins passed away last year. Besides being a stunt driver/rider he had also been a motorcycle racer and winner of an ISDT Gold Medal. For those interested there is a write up at:-
www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/hofbiopage.asp...6
A great character and a real American hero!
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HJ had described it as the definitive car chase movie. >>
Also worth considering are the car and the train on the elevated railway in The French Connection.
A number of the sequences in Vanishing Point. Also a Dodge Charger, I think.
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.A number of the sequences in Vanishing Point. Also a Dodge Charger I think.
Dodge Challenger.
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Also worth considering are the car and the train on the elevated railway in The French Connection.
The Driver, starring Ryan O'Neil has a pretty good chase in it.
The Tarantino film, Death Proof, has very little plot but features some cool old cars and is full of references to old road movies. A group of girls borrow a white Challenger because they want to drive "the Vanishing Point car". The Kurt Russell character has a Convoy "rubber duck" bonnet mascot on his Chevy Nova.. The big long chase scene at the end, they are keen to point out features no CGI, its all real impacts and jumps like in the olden days..
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The Driver, starring Ryan O'Neil has a pretty good chase in it. >> And an interesting sequence in a multi-storey car park when he demonstrates how good a driver he is.
There's a chase in The Parallax View which concludes in a supermarket.
And in a not very popular British film called Bellman and True there's a getaway sequence gone wrong which includes the "stoppo driver" forcing an old Jaguar, probably a Mk II, to and fro into a narrow gap until it narrows enough to drive through.
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I've not watched the film for ages but AFAIR there is a quite alarming bit of axle oscillation on the Mustang in one scene. They should have fitted some trailing links to the back axle or maybe they hadn't thought of that in 1968?
It's called axle tramp, and real men have so much power they can get it all the time. Coooool
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