08 Ford Mustang Bullitt By ALAN GELL www.CarColumns.Net A few weeks ago,  I had the new Mustang Bullitt for a week-long test drive.   Neal White from the Waxahachie Daily Light had it the week before.  Wow!  What a thrill.  The Bullitt is such a modern delivery of power and performance.

It has been thirty to forty years since Steve McQueen was at the peak of his movie performances.  He even filmed a lot the movie, The Getaway, around San Marcos and New Braunfels.  That is the movie where his love interest shifted to Ali McGraw.  But before that and others, there was a movie called Bullitt that redefined what a chase scene was all about.  This was not a keystone cops chase.  This was all about the cars and movie chase scenes have never been the same.

Ford’s Racing Technology department has stepped up to the plate on this modern classic.  The 2008 Bullitt delivers driving dynamics performance handling as well as the sound of power.  It has a special chassis and suspension.  The Ford V-8 engine is a 4.6 liter with 315 horsepower and 325 lb-ft of torque.

I first drove the Bullitt at the Texas Motor Speedway.  The Texas Auto Writers group was holding their Spring Challenge in April and the Bullitt was capturing the attention of every journalist present.  I donned a racing helmet and revved up the engine for three laps on the in-field track before being waved back.  This baby is designed to be equally at home on the street or on a race track.  In fact, the Texas journalists named it as Car of the Year.

The original Bullitt was a 1968 model Mustang.  At the time, I was living in San Antonio and owned a new 1968 Mustang.  Obviously, I compared my own 289 convertible to the performance delivered on-screen in the movie.   But my Mustang had all the Pony badging.  In typical Hollywood fashion, the crew on the movie set had removed all the logos and exterior badging, including the little pony off the front of the grill.  Did that make a difference to movie goers?  Not at all. The Mustang was still as obvious as the silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock on the screen.  The 2008 Bullitt reverts back to those details.  It has the dark green paint job, no exterior badging, scoops, or spoilers. There are a couple of gun-sight graphics with the small word, Bullitt, superimposed.  But there is no mistaking this 2008 model as a Ford Mustang. 

The interior of the 2008 Bullitt is a Charcoal Black leather and a satin metallic trim.  It sports a leather wrapped steering wheel with the name and gun-sight graphic in the center.  The seats are patterned after the ones in the Shelby GT500, that help give the feel of a racing vehicle.

Ford will have a limited production of 7,700 of the Mustang Bullitt vehicles.  Starting MSRP is $31,075, including delivery charges.  My test drive model had a DVD based navigation system, some soft ambient lighting, Sirius satellite radio, and a few other options.  Bottom line on the test model was $34,705.

Whether you are a movie buff, a Steve McQueen fan, or a Mustang enthusiast, this 2008 model Bullitt will definitely appeal to you.