Star Power

FORD TAPS INTO ITS HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE TO CREATE A SPECIAL-EDITION, 345KW STANG THATS NO SHRINKING VIOLET

STARRING in the eponymous film, Frank Bullitt was a tough as nails cop and the Mustang GT he drove in the movie has become a Hollywood icon. Steve McQueen didn’t just play the role of the protagonist, but also co-produced the film and, as a dedicated petrolhead, he got involved in details of the hero’s car. He famously did some of the stunt driving in Bullitt’s inimitable, 10-minute long chase scene.

Like McQueen himself, the 1968 Fastback was effortlessly cool, the sort of car a no-nonsense detective would drive, but that car’s aesthetic was by design. McQueen and his mate, racer and Hollywood car builder Max Balchowsky, built a Mustang that was a little understated and yet had all of the performance where it counts.

McQueen and Balchowsky decided on a minimalist program for the appearance of the hero car. In addition to removing the full set of badges, they also got rid of the reverse lights. McQueen liked the grey Torq Thrust wheels and Balchowsky sorted the rest of the mechanical modifications to handle the extremes of filming the legendary scene.

Balchowsky fitted the GT’s 390 cubic inch V8 with light engine mods that included different cams and truck manifolds, followed by a custom two-inch exhaust topped off with Thrush glasspack mufflers. The suspension was wholly modified, starting with Koni shocks all around, Ford F-100 truck springs in the front, and between damage and performance improvements the rear suspension specification was in a state of flux during the production.