Hi folks, after watching Top Gear on thursday
they had the new Ford Mustang special on "The Bullitt" with reference to the 70's Steve McQueen film. They mentioned the 'great' car chase in the film, however I've seen the film and the car chase is far from 'great'. Personally I think it's rather disapointing, it's not really that spectacular, or long. Saw the specs on the cars many moons ago and pretty sure they were only pushing out around 150bhp which is not really muscle car credentials!

Anybody else think the Bullitt car 'chase' was pants?

CRAFT

 

I thought it was pretty good, had some skillful driving in there.

Best car chase of all time though has to be the Blues Brothers. Funny as hell and some seriously impresive driving at times.

 

maybe Bullit hasn't stood the test of time, but for when it was released it was certainly pretty hairy.

saw it in a late afternoon showing in 1968 in a cinema on Streatham High Street; now, if I can remember that, the film must have been pretty awesome, eh? (or, I don't get out much).

I think it was the innovative camera angles and full-on soundtrack that made the chase segment.

Agree that the Blues Bros chase scenes are incredibly funny

My most recent take for car chase scenes is the movie 'Ronin' - set in France, all European marque cars - fantastic race scenes (stars Robert de Niro). It didn't make the main screens over here and was a surprise find at the video store. Watch the stars cream a few Audis, Mercs and Beemers.

- and having just seen 'Fast and Furious', Ronin chase scenes leave 'Fast and Furious' for dead.

[This message has been edited by philc (edited 13 October 2001).]

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by philc:
<B>maybe Bullit hasn't stood the test of time, but for when it was released it was certainly pretty hairy.

saw it in a late afternoon showing in 1968 in a cinema on Streatham High Street; now, if I can remember that, the film must have been pretty awesome, eh? (or, I don't get out much).

I think it was the innovative camera angles and full-on soundtrack that made the chase segment.

Agree that the Blues Bros chase scenes are incredibly funny

My most recent take for car chase scenes is the movie 'Ronin' - set in France, all European marque cars - fantastic race scenes (stars Robert de Niro). It didn't make the main screens over here and was a surprise find at the video store. Watch the stars cream a few Audis, Mercs and Beemers.

- and having just seen 'Fast and Furious', Ronin chase scenes leave 'Fast and Furious' for dead.

[This message has been edited by philc (edited 13 October 2001).][/quote]

You just don't get car chases nowadays in films. They aren't PC anymore. But I have seen Ronin and the chases are fab - That's why I bought it on DVD yesterday as one of "two for £20". Dead chuffed.

 

Ronin =

 

It's true that compared to today, this car chase can be kinda disapointing. But fellas, remember this, it was the 1st REAL car chase in a movie. No talking, no sound-effects, no music with the exeption of the musical V8 big-block. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Camera angles were revolutionary for the time, and it was a brand-new idea to use the San Francisco streets as back-ground for the chases.

For a movie made in the 70's, it's quite awesome......



[This message has been edited by PsychO (edited 13 October 2001).]

 

I'm sure a charger has got a lot more than 150hp......... try 375hp if it was the 440ci engine that came as standard in the later ones.
Shelby mustang was only 250ish but its still not bad as these cars have usually got a little torque in reserve And still does the 1/4 in less than 15secs and 0-60 in 6.3secs which aint bad for so much metal.

Martin

 

If I remember rightly , the exhaust note and engine noise of a Cobra was dubbed onto McQueens car.

 

no - he had a shelby mustang that had the soundtrack from a GT40 put over it

 

Stage 1. Couldn't have been a GT40 - they had a "cross over" (aka "bunch of snakes") manifold that destroys the note of a twin plane crank V8. Whatever it was, the note was of a conventional twin plane crank with twin exhaust manifolds.

Slippy Diff. The engines could have been the same, but they both sound cool to me.

As for the chase, well it was good at the time, and beets those in most films today which are just screeching tyres.

Duncan

 

It was a 1968 Ford Mustang GT390, with 325 bhp. Most of the chase scenes were driven by Steve McQueen himself. The Dodge Charger was driven by Bill Hickman - who also done the chase in The French Connection.
Steve was a pretty good driver himself. In 1970 he finished 2nd in the Sebring 12 hour race, 20secs behind Mario Andretti !!!!!!

That's the end of my useless information for today.

David

A guy in Edinburgh imported a 68 Mustang for £3k a few years ago. Lucky B.

[This message has been edited by DR Motorsport (edited 13 October 2001).]

 

the bullitt DVD and 2 books incuding countless sites say it was a gt40 that they took the engine note from.

 

PsychO`s right, in it`s day it was superb, in fact I could still watch it over again now. I saw "Bullit" when it first came out at the "flicks" I couldn`t for the life of me remember what the film was about, but I sure understood that chase! I`m trying to remember who the "Indy" driver was in the Charger?
(That Puma ad. doesn`t quite have the same effect except when he parks it next to the "Detroit iron" - Magic!)
JohnD

 

The Bullitt chase is showing it's age a bit - count how many times Steve overtakes the same VW and the incredible appearing car as they take the last corner out of the city!!

Ronin is excellent & I really like Fast and Furious too, but how long does it take them to do that first 1/4 mile? And just how many gears can they fit in those cars anyway (I do realise it would have been pretty crap if it had lasted 14 seconds though!).

Dean

 

I thought the bullit chase was very average. Even by the standards of the day. Personally I prefer Dule (is that how you spell it!) and the original gone in 60 seconds. Also the Paul Newman film the hunter has a great bit with a JCB and Trans Am.

But the best chase ever is Ronin. As EVO mag says, it makes Bullit look like an IAM Training Video.

 

Vanishing point was a good oldie

 

Anyone see Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry on Friday night, closing time, BBC1?

Good ol' American car chase movie starring a fettled yellow Dodge Charger and as many 'cop car crashes through billboard into lake' scenes and plenty of V8 soundbites to keep you entertained.

Oh, and Susan George as a young lass wearing tight jeans and a bikini top. Nice.

Nothing has yet surpassed The Italian Job though.