BY THE BULLITT
David Redhead’s 1968 ‘Bullitt’ Mustang and Chris How’s 1968 Dodge Charger 440 R/T are a tribute to one of the most famous car chase scenes in history: Steve McQueen’s legendary sequence in the film Bullitt…
1968 Ford Mustang and 1968 Dodge Charger
The feature film Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen and Jacqueline Bissett, incorporates one of the all-time greats when it comes to car chases and remains so to this day. Indeed, 2020 marks the 52nd anniversary of the film, so this year it was particularly topical to feature David Redhead’s 1968 Ford Mustang and Chris How’s 1968 Dodge Charger 440 R/T. David and Chris are lifelong friends and seriously passionate about cars, which led them to purchase and perfect their Mustang and Charger.
David remembers going to see the film Bullitt when it was first released at the cinema and he wasn’t overly enamoured with the plot or story line: “It was that Highland Green Ford Mustang that was the main attraction for me,” he remembers. “It may have looked a bit battered, rather tired and a tad underwhelming and that was before the car chase even started, but I loved it! Following the film, I never got that car out of my mind and a great many years later I mentioned to my wife that one day I would really like to own a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback in Highland Green. She replied: ‘If you don’t do it soon, you may never do it.’”
This was seen by David as a green light to proceed with the purchase of his ultimate automotive dream, so in 2002 he started to search for a suitable car. The first port of call was the Mustang Owners’ Club GB, followed by surfing the ’net, which led to finding a contact in the US, who put him in touch with Bruce Reckard in Los Angeles, who owned a garage and was a Mustang specialist. After much discussion over the telephone, Bruce agreed to source David a car and transform it into a replica of the Bullitt Mustang, after which he sent Bruce the specification he required and the deposit.
Creating a legend
In 2003 David, accompanied by his automotive accomplice Chris How, flew out to Riverside, California, to check on the progress of his Mustang build. After parting with the deposit the previous year, Chris joked with David that he hoped they’d not arrive at some deserted workshop, with tumbleweed blowing around and an empty envelope that once contained the deposit: “With that vision indelibly etched in my mind, I didn’t sleep for the rest of the flight,” laughs David.
“We hired a car and drove to Riverside, arriving there at 4am. Later we met up with Bruce and his son Chad (he was obviously a McQueen fan) and saw that the Mustang was roughly 80% completed, but was driveable. It wouldn’t be too long before it could be shipped to the UK.” While in the US, David and Chris drove to San Francisco, where the famous Bullitt car chase took place and hooked up with a Lieutenant in the San Francisco Police Department, who took them on the car chase route in his cop car. “I think he tried to scare us a bit, by racing up and down the corrugated plateaus of San Francisco’s streets, tyres smoking and front air dam scraping, but he didn’t know we were from Essex, where this is considered normal driving!” quipped David.
About three months later, the Mustang arrived at Chatham Docks and David thought it would be a great idea to drive the car back to his Essex home. After covering only 10 miles, the car broke down and had to be recovered. That was David’s first taste of the joys of owning a classic American car! Over the course of a great many years, David has fastidiously transformed his 1968 Mustang into what is probably one of the most authentic replicas currently out there, although the car came with a 302cu in, which maybe one day will be replaced with a 390cu in.
“I’m unsure quite why Steve McQueen made so many subtle alterations to the film car,” ponders David. “However, I’ve painstakingly changed the front grille, reversing lights, side marker lights, gear shift lever, indicator stalk and lowered the exhausts. The hardest aspect was sourcing the door mirror – it took years; although the most expensive bit was the steering wheel and the wheels were shod with cross-ply tyres.”
For many years Chris How posed with David’s Mustang as a Steve McQueen lookalike, attired in the clothes similar to those worn in the Bullitt film and to great effect.
However, age catches up with all of us and with Chris perhaps getting too old for the task (sorry, only joking!) it triggered the idea of making a mannequin of Steve McQueen which, after a great deal of research and effort, took more than a year to perfect. On the other hand, the Arriflex movie camera bolted to the inside of the car and the body camera mounts under the sills didn’t take quite so long.
The villain’s car
All that remained now was for Chris to acquire a 1968 Dodge Charger and the Bullitt film replica cars would be all set for action. It was late summer of 2009 when Chris was in a financial position to go ahead with the purchase of a Dodge Charger and it was his son, Dan, who finally coerced him into action. After perusing many American books and magazines, ultimately Chris was persuaded.
“There weren’t any suitable cars available in the UK at the time, so the search was widened to the US and preferably the dry state of California, which seemed to be the best bet,” Chris pointed out. “We focused our attention on three possible cars, but in reality only one of them ticked most of the boxes.” Chris contacted their friend Bruce Reckard in Riverside, Los Angeles, asking him if he could check out a car located in Burbank. This was duly completed and the good news from Bruce was that it was indeed a rust-free car in ‘show condition’. A deal was struck with the vendor and Bruce stored the car for a few months, during which time Chris located most of what was needed to transform the car into a ‘Bullitt’ Charger.
The car was shipped to Chatham Docks and the container was then transported to the shipper’s depot in Derby. The car was duly collected and then taken to Custom Exotics in Harlow, Essex (www.customexotics.co.uk/01279 441133) where Scott and Brett Brocklehurst were entrusted to complete all the necessary work to bring the car up to Bullitt film specification. This would involve a nut and bolt groundup refurbishment, after the car had been transported to West Sussex for the bodywork to be media blasted and coated.
It took a further five months to convert it into the villain’s car from the film yet in spite of this, the brief was to keep the car as stock as possible.
“One of the hardest parts to source was a set of hubcaps,” reveals Chris. “My son Dan eventually found a good set on eBay, then I saw another set and in the end I purchased 14 – well, I guess it’s always best to have some spares! The other thing I needed was a pump-action shotgun, deactivated of course! I think that every 1968 black Charger should have one. Mine was eventually sourced in Scotland. It was great to see the car finished, previously painted Teal, but now resplendent in its black paintwork. Scott from Custom Exotics has truly worked his magic.”
Chris then settled down to enjoy relatively trouble-free motoring for around four years. The engine was strong when the car was purchased and it continued to run well. It hasn’t required any attention, other than to fit new core plugs and a few other
minor parts.
However, when it started to burn a little oil, that’s when Chris took the decision to remove the engine and embark upon a total rebuild. At the same time, the 727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission was rebuilt along with the propshaft.
“It’s little wonder that the Charger has to have such a massive engine, the weight of the component parts is quite astonishing,” jokes Chris. “The Charger weighs in at around 1.75 tons, plus the amount of stuff I have to carry in the trunk as well. Talking of which, I’m told that it’s a two-corpse capacity trunk… Why are black Chargers driven by villains?
“Following the engine rebuild by Bert Wheeler, he estimates that it is now back to factory specification. It’s certainly plenty fast enough on those skinny tyres!
“The Dodge Charger has, I think, always looked like a car with attitude, it does draw a lot of attention and I hadn’t expected that,” Chris admits. “I never intended it to be the attraction it is. Being asked to take part in photoshoots is good, but to do TV advertisements, including one for ITV4 for the Silverstone Classic, is fantastic. The car also appeared in a sci-fi film shot in London, along with other TV and magazine features, the latest being a new TV advertisement for Rimmel London. It has also been fun being invited to the best events around, almost always with David Redhead’s Mustang.
“The two cars are almost joined at the hip, which of course they were in the crash scene in the Bullitt film. One thing is for sure, the Charger is a pleasure to drive, look at and own –
I love it!” Chris concludes.