faster than

So where did that $10,000,000 figure come from?
Well, if you go back and watch the chase scene from Bullitt (an honestly unimpressive movie, but a fantastic chase), you will notice that Frank’s Mustang had a unique exhaust note – a sound that was probably more-common back in those days, but has been slowly diminished over the intervening years and noise-pollution ordinances. In this particular case, the sound was occasionally a GT-40 overdubbed on the soundtrack, but it is still a sound, and a chase sequence, that has been imbued into the American car culture.

Almost 40 years later, Ford decided to re-reincarnate the iconic Mustang from that movie, and, thankfully, learned from their mistakes of the 2001 version. That first attempt was, by and large, almost indistinguishable from its GT cousins, and scant more than a cute marketing ploy from those Ford executives willing to bank on a name – its suspension was dropped a little, 5 more horsepower were found in the engine somewhere, larger (and red… red!) brake packages and a brushed aluminum (!) gas cap were installed, spoilers and foglamps were removed, and a little fiddling was done to the exhaust to get the noise in the right direction. But the car was available in “True Blue” and Black, in addition to the iconic “Dark Highland Green”, and apart from a cute little serialized holographic sticker, it was pretty much just another fourth-generation Mustang – a car already not well-suited to mimic the fastback used in the movie.

Seven years later, the Ford engineers decided to give the idea another shot (it made money last time, right?), and I think it is safe to say that they were significantly closer to the mark this time.

So what was the magical equation this time? Take a Mustang GT, paint it Dark Highland Green (or black – Ford was still paranoid about only offering it in the one color), completely debadge it (no “GT”, no “pony”, no blue “Ford”s, nothing other than the “Bullitt”-branded faux gas cap on the back of the trunk), remove all chrome everywhere, drop in a new specially-tuned suspension (lowering everything by 6mm), install a 3.73:1 axle ratio for quicker acceleration (up from 3.31:1), bolt on some anthracite wheels and blissfully dark brake calipers, increase the engine’s redline by 250 rpm and have it suck through a Ford Racing cold air intake (pulling out 315hp from the engine – still 10 shy of the original Bullitt’s, though), run that mill through a close-ratio, short-shifting Tremec five-speed transmission, throw on a cute metallic shift knob, special steering wheel badge, and an “engine-turned” aluminum dash plate, and round it out with a frame-stiffening strut bar bearing each car’s serialized commemorative plaque… oh, and spend $10,000,000 to get the exhaust note sounding just right.

Ten million? Well, that is the rumor. Ford’s official statement is:

The custom-designed exhaust system continues Mustang’s traditional use of a true dual-exhaust system with a new H-pipe specifically developed for Bullitt. The all-new mufflers, featuring larger 3.5-inch chrome tips (versus the 3-inch tips on the standard Mustang GT) are tuned to minimize backpressure, maximize horsepower and provide the Bullitt with its powerful exhaust note.

“We wanted to get the exhaust note as close to the original movie car as possible, so we based it on a digitally mastered DVD,” said Randle. “We wanted something that would rumble your heart, literally buzz you – and the Bullitt team delivered.”

Lacking a portable DVD player, I have not listened to the movie right next to the car, but I can tell you this much – if they did not get it exactly right, they were pretty darned close… and it was money well spent. Simply cranking over the engine makes it very clear that this is not a run-of-the-mill Mustang, and opening up the throttle creates positively wonderful sounds. Those sounds do try to crawl in to the cabin by way of the fold-down back seats, but this is a muscle car, after all.

And speaking of that strut-bar-mounted plaque, each of the 7,700-odd Bullitts produced had their own sequential serial number, starting at 0001 – so where did my car’s number of “1PP10″ come from? Logically enough, the “PP” indicates a pre-production model, with mine being the 10th to roll off the assembly line at the Flat Rock, MI assembly plant. So far as I know, only 20 of these particular units were made, with most of them being used as review cars, test beds, publicity photo shoot models, and “benies” for high-end Ford executives and dealership owners. Once their time as show cars was through, they were to be returned to Flat Rock to be either destroyed (urk!) or sold off through private dealer auctions. PP10 logged about 11,000 miles of showing off, then it managed to rack up another 3000 or so bouncing between about four car dealerships before finding a home. Unfortunately, though, I have no idea what it was used for before I purchased it (unlike PP06, which is this car with Steve McQueen’s son Chad behind the wheel).

So what did Ford do wrong? Well, I have only been scooting around in this car for about a month now, but I have a short list: lack of quarter-window louvers (given that this is a car commemorating a 1968 fastback, these should have been a no-brainer, but at least now I have a choice over what I install), inclusion of “ambiance” foot-well lighting (really?), lack of heated seats (they were an option for 2008 GTs, just not the Bullitt) insufficient lumbar support/adjustment for the passenger seat, and the lack of an extending steering wheel (if my Mazda 3, at 2/3s the price of a Bullit, can have this, there is no excuse). Of course, a switch-enabled Ford-equivalent of Chrysler’s Multi-Displacement System would have been nice, but now I am just pipe-dreaming.

Was it worth it? For me, absolutely. Ever since test-driving one over a year ago and hearing that wonderful exhaust note as it pulls off the starting line, I have wanted it… and I figure that if someone as flighty as me can actually want something for a year straight, without significant distractions, I might as well get it if I have the money. Doing my part to support the American economy and all that. However, for those of you looking for one of its cousins, they do still show up, you just have to keep an eye out for them. On the flip side, if you can hold on another year, you can drive off the lot with a stock 412hp 5.0-liter Mustang GT… craziness, but the return of the muscle car wars makes me smile.

The funny in all this? Better Half and I saw the movie, for the first time, two weeks after picking up the car.

And now for the requested pictures:

(Broad strokes of the inside.)

(The steering wheel is supposedly the same as the GT-500, just with different-colored stitching (same for the seats) and the “Bullitt” logo.)

(Apologies for the tilt. That fingerprint-bespeckled screen in the center of the dash column is the integrated navigation/audio system that the car came with. McQueen would probably sneer at it (and I would tend to agree with him, in this particular car), but we have found it to be vaguely useful, and it has certainly saved a few scrawny trees so far.)

(An overview of the important parts of the engine compartment and the 4.6L V8 tucked therein – apparently, I need a wide-angle lens.)

(The oh-so-important serialized plaque.)

Oh, and yes, AlGore can pucker up his lips against my dual 3.5-inch exhausts and kiss my now-substantial carbon footprint.