The chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen flick, “Bullitt,” was, is, and remains the most iconic ever filmed. There’ve been some valiant challengers: the late John Frankenheimer’s heart-pounding work through the streets of Paris in “Ronin”; making Minis fly in “The Italian Job” (the original and the remake); some intense, authentic action in the recent Bourne movies. But when the lists are made and the bets are laid down, “Bullitt” comes out on top. Every time.
Ford’s global V.P. of design, J Mays, knows how to mine a car company’s past in search of future product. Mays was involved when VW recast the old Beetle into the New Beetle. And it’s due to him, along with other like-minded designers, that the current Mustang exhibits so many styling cues from the 1965-1970 models. Mays and Ford chief designer Doug Gaffka wowed us in 2000 with the Mustang Bullitt Concept. That project was immediately greenlighted for production as a 2001-only model, of which 5582 were sold.