A Ford Mustang 390 GT used in the 1968 car chase film Bullitt has been found nearly 50 years later in a Mexican scrapyard.
Steve McQueen, who drove the car chasing two criminals in a black Dodge Charger – all with on-board cameras – was unsuccessful in trying to find the Mustang before his death in 1980, The Telegraph reports.
Two Mustangs were used in the film. One is privately owned, but the other went missing after filming was completed.
Car fan Hugo Sanchez and friend Ralph Garcia Jr, who makes a living turning old cars into replicas of the “Eleanor” Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds, discovered the second Bullitt Mustang in a scrapyard in the Mexican state of Baja California.
Garcia planned to turn the priceless Bullitt relic into another “60 Seconds” replica. Luckily, he has a policy of checking any Mustangs he might receive with the Ford production database held by the company Marti Auto Works.
According to Fox News, he was “shocked” when the results came back for this particular model.
The car’s vehicle identification number (VIN), along with tell-tale evidence of a long-ago green paint job, revealed that it was almost certainly the long-lost 1968 Mustang from Bullitt.
The VIN didn’t appear to be a fake, and some of the original modifications made to the car for the film were still in place, although the vehicle’s rear axle had been replaced with one from a different model.
Despite the fact that the discovery could be worth a considerable sum, Sanchez and Garcia want to restore it themselves.
The Mustang is already looking more like its old movie-star self, with new green paint and a licence plate identical to the one in the film. Garcia is busy sourcing parts for a full restoration.
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