A muscular Mustang McQueen would love
Forty years after the legendary on-screen car chase, there’s a new Mustang Bullitt ripping up the roadways.
Ford Motor Co. will debut the latest variant of the growling, retro-styled Mustang at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the public Friday after two days of media previews. The 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt, an update of the iconic 1968 pony car driven by Steve McQueen in the movie “Bullitt,” goes on sale in January.
Automakers typically promote their greenest vehicles in Los Angeles, but the show has no shortage of horsepower.
The Bullitt is the latest in a line of specialty Mustangs that Ford has brought out to keep the sports car fresh since the latest redesign hit the market in 2004.
Ford could use the boost.
Mustang sales were down 18% in the first 10 months of this year, according to Autodata Corp. It’s also facing looming competition on the retro front from the “Dukes of Hazzard”-inspired Dodge Challenger, which hits showrooms this spring, and the redesigned Chevrolet Camaro, which comes out in 2009.
Ford will produce just 7,700 Bullitts, many of which will probably be snapped up by the car’s legions of fans. The starting price is $31,075.
Ford designers reviewed the movie frame by frame as they built the new Bullitt. There’s a bright accent ring around the grille and no exterior badges or spoilers, just like the original. New to the Bullitt is a 4.6-liter V-8 engine with 315 horsepower.
“We think it’s going to be a modern classic,” chief Bullitt designer Doug Gaffka said. “It’s not exactly like the original, but it’s the way you remember it.”
At a media preview of the Bullitt near Ford’s Dearborn, Mich., headquarters, Ford’s president of the Americas, Mark Fields, said he decided he wanted to be part of the auto industry after he watched the seven-minute chase scene in “Bullitt” when he was 10.
Fields said Ford considered the variations of the Mustang to be collectors’ items with prices that put them within reach of fans. Most recently, Ford produced the Shelby GT Mustang in collaboration with racing legend Carroll Shelby.
