One of the greatest chase scenes ever was filmed in the 1968 movie Bullitt. Steve McQueen, as police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, is pursued by, and then pursues, organized crime figures bent on killing him in a 1968 Mustang GT. Two cars were used for the movie: one was so damaged that it was sent to be scrapped, the other was sold to a private owner. But Steve McQueen wanted the car for himself, and traced it from owner to owner, trying to buy it back. In 1977, the car's owner indicated he would never sell the unique vehicle to anyone, and McQueen gave up. Almost forty years later, Sean Kiernan revealed to a friend that he had inherited the car from his father, and maybe they could use it to finance a movie project. They brought in Kevin Marti to authenticate the vehicle.
“I walked in to see the car,” he said, “and thought, ‘Here’s another car that looks like the Bullitt.’ I went over, looked at the VIN on the tag, and immediately, my emotions flipped from skepticism to ‘Oh, my god, it’s real.’ ”
Marti marveled at the modifications made for the movie. Underneath the rockers, three metal tubes were clumsily welded perpendicular to the car’s center line for camera mounts. There were holes cut in the trunk for the cords that ran from a generator to power the cameras and lights. Even tape residue remained—on the tachometer to mark the redline, and on the floor, presumably to secure the seatbelts and wires. “Ninety-eight percent of the original car is there,” he said. “It’s an incredible artifact.”
Meanwhile, Chad McQueen, the movie star's son, was also looking for the Bullitt car. Read the incredible story of one Mustang over its 50-year life at Hagerty. -via Metafilter
PS: Ford is reissuing the model in 2019.