50 years after the film, Mustang Bullitt brings McQueen cool
Jim Kenzie tested the new commemorative car on the streets of San Francisco, where the 1968 movie was set The third-generation production Bullitt, a 2019 model, starts at $57,025.
SAN FRANCISCO— When I reviewed the 2001 Ford Mustang Bullitt, I commented that it set a new record for the longest time between the release of a movie and the release of the commemorative car. The 33-year gap easily surpassed the former record held by the Alfa Romeo Graduate, which was a mere 18 years.
Either way, that’s jumping on a movie product placement deal when it’s hot.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Bullitt the movie — well technically, the 51st — comes the third-generation production Bullitt, a 2019 model, on sale if you hurry at your local Ford store, starting and very nearly ending at $57,025.
And why “very nearly ending” at that price? Because there is only one option in Canada, the Recaro front seats. The other Stateside options, MagneRide suspension and something called the “Bullitt Electronics Package,” which includes SatNav, a trick Bang and Olufsen stereo, the always-irrelevant blind spot monitoring system and the marginally-more-useful cross-traffic alert system, are all standard back home.
As always, Bullitt starts as the range-topping Mustang GT, with every option box on the order form ticked.
Perhaps most important for the target market, the car gets external mods which mimic those on the car involved in the best movie car-chase scene ever filmed.
Unless you are of a certain age, you may have never seen the movie. Do whatever you do to see old movies, and watch it. You will thank me some sweet day.
The car is de-badged except for the Bullitt medallion on the back. There’s a unique black honeycomb grille, exclusive black five-spoke 19-inch alloy wheels and larger-than-standard Brembo brake calipers, painted that company’s signature red.
You can have it in any colour you want as long as it’s Dark Highland Green, which is as close to the movie car’s paint as they could get.
For some reason, Ford also offers it in something called “Shadow Black” which A) is grey; and B) makes me wonder why anybody interested in a movie-replica car would want it in any colour other than what the original bore.
Ah, the mysteries of automotive product planning departments …
Suffice it to say that even if you have never seen the movie, the Mustang Bullitt looks terrific from any angle.
One of our two test cars had the Recaros, the other did not. I found the Recaros fitted me perfectly; other testers found them a bit too restrictive.
The other major unique interior touch is the Bullitt logo in the steering wheel hub.
The car shares the 5.0-litre V8 engine with other Mustangs, but with more power — 480 versus 460 ponies at 7,000 r.p.m. — thanks to some internal goodies borrowed from the Shelby GT350.
However, the torque peak is identical to the lesser engine — 420 lb.-ft. at 4,000 r.p.m. — so acceleration isn’t likely to be much if any different.
Top speed is largely irrelevant for our market, but for the iTunes download (the modern way of saying “for the record”) it is given as163 m.p.h. (260.8 km/ h) which is eight m.p.h. (12.8 km/h) higher than for the regular GT.
Whatever, nobody is likely to complain about a zero to 100 km/h time in the four-second vicinity.
Bullitt also gets something called an “active valve perfor- mance exhaust system,” for which you can read “louder.” No sneaking home much too late in this car.
Is there really anywhere else you would want to test a Mustang Bullitt except on the streets of San Francisco? But the streets of San Francisco probably aren’t the best place to test a high-performance car such as a Mustang Bullitt.
Not unless you want Frank Bullitt’s real-world successors to invite you to enjoy the city’s hospitality for two years less a day.
We, and by extension you, already know that the currentgeneration Mustang is the besthandling Mustang yet, especially when equipped with the MagneRide dampers. These contain a special fluid which changes viscosity almost in real time to deliver smooth ride when needed, and firm control when needed.
Best of both worlds? Absolutely.
That said, it is a big, heavy car, and better suited to fast sweepers than tight twisties. Or the streets of San Francisco.
We were asked — no, it was demanded of us — not to attempt to emulate McQueen’s aerobatics from the movie.
The engine is eager to rev, and the slick manual gearbox shifts with precision. The round white ball shift knob is a classy touch.
Clutch take-up was a bit long in both our test cars, so I can only assume it is characteristic. Made launches on the steep hills a bit of a test.
Downshifting? Nobody needs to know that the car has revmatching, so you’ll always look like a pro. (Oops, I just told everybody.)
You can program a variety of drive modes via the touchscreen, but anything other than Sport or Race seems inconsistent with the nature of the car.
About the only drawback to the car is that shared by all Mustangs — the interior trim level looks downscale even at the base model’s $27,000 price. At nearly $60,000 for this model, the hard plastics don’t ring true, especially when compared to the high-zoot digital display that comes with the Bullitt edition.
Bottom line — if you aren’t attracted to any Mustang, this won’t matter.
If you are attracted to any Mustang, it probably won’t matter either — you will be used to it. You will lust mightily for the performance, the look and you can only hope, a ruboff of some of the McQueen charisma, of the Bullitt edition.