Mad About Cars

In his lifetime, Steve McQueen was an avid petrol head, not only being a keen enthusiast of both cars and motorcycles, but also a very accomplished competitor as well. His passion for cars and bikes was shown in many of his movies, and his 1968 crime thriller ‘Bullitt’ is just such an example.

Although the film is not strictly a motoring film, it is probably best remembered for the Ford Mustang driven by McQueen, and the extended car-chase mid way through the film, where Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (McQueen) chases two hit-men through the streets of downtown San Francisco.

In the film, Bullitt, along with his team, is assigned to look after a key witness, being held under police protection prior to a Senate meeting. The witness is due to give evidence in order to assist a Senator bringing down a powerful Mafia crime ring. However, when the witness is apparently shot by hitmen, Bullitt looks into the case and later finds the true witness had conned the Senator, paying another man to take his place. The end of the movie sees a final shootout, as Bullitt confronts the witness at San Francisco airport, about to flee the country.

The most famous scene is the car-chase in the middle of the movie, as the hit men chase Bullitt, before he turns the table and chases them instead, with the two hit men being forced into a fatal accident when they career off the road into a ‘gas’ station. Two 1968 Ford Mustangs were used in the filming, with the hit men’s vehicle being a Dodge Charger. Whilst McQueen wished to do most of the driving sequences himself, friend, stuntman and famed motorcycle racer Bud Ekins also assisted.

At almost 10 minutes long, the chase, and the San Francisco backdrop, is one of the most iconic in history, coupled with the superb soundtrack of the American muscle cars along with superb camera footage. In the forty years since the film’s original release, it has gone on to become a cultural landmark.

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