Article about the Bullit Chargers

[Mike Szadaj]

I came across this article about the two Chargers in the movie Bullit. It seems that stunt driver, Bill Hickman, who drove the Charger, and also acted in the film, was the person that bought the two cars for the film. The two cars were originally painted yellow and blue. You can see the blue paint under the black in the chase scene. Overall, the article was very interesting, but I find it very strange that the writer could make such a huge mistake by saying no 1968 chargers were painted black.

 

[kiwigtx]

I have always thought that Bill Hickman made a decent job of his role given that he was employed primarily as a stunt driver. He looked the part, and his facial expressions were spot on the entire way through his part.

That double-take in the rear-view mirror was priceless. I tried a re-creation with my buddy Wanga a few years ago....

 

[chargervert]

The original villan car was supposed to be a Ford Galaxie, but Steve McQueen complained to the director that there were to many Fords and it would not look realistic. So the director and stunt coordinator went to local dealerships to look for a worthy non Ford vehicle to play the role of the villains get away car. They settled upon the 68 Dodge Charger R/T. They needed a stunt car which would be destroyed and a close up car. The close up car would also double as a camera car for in car shots of McQueen in the Mustang. A Corvette with a cage around it was used to film the Charger R/T and shots of both cars together at speed. The stunt car was a blue 440 automatic Charger R/T, and the close up car was a yellow 440 4 speed Charger R/T. Both were painted black. They took the cars to a local race track to ring them out the day before the shooting of the chase scene. The Chargers were stock,other than a tweak and tune and some heavy duty shock absorbers. The 390 Mustang GT cars were given an upgraded camshaft, aluminum intake manifold and carburetor, and headers. On the track the Charger literally ran rings around the Mustang according to the stunt coordinator. He said that you would not believe how much the Charger just pulled away from the Mustang despite the Mustang having performance upgrades. They tried to handicap the Charger by putting smaller tires on it,but the Mustang was still way out of its league. After the filming, the blue Charger R/T was junked after getting destroyed in the gas station explosion scene. The yellow Charger R/T was returned to the dealer and sold after being repainted. It was later found in Arizona and restored to it's as filmed condition. The stunt Mustang was later found in a Mexican junkyard. The close up Mustang was later found in exactly the condition it was sold by the studio in,except for some wear and tear. It still had the duct in the trunk for the smoke machine used to simulate tire smoke. The Charger R/T didn't need a smoke machine as the 440 Magnum was quite capable of smoking the tires at will. The close up Mustang was later auctioned off for millions at Mecum and the stunt Mustang is supposedly being restored.

 

[Runcharger]

Unfortunately the facts will be forgotten over time. I wouldn't even want a Mustang.