The 1968 Ford (F) Mustang whose tires smoked and screamed over San Francisco hills in the cult movie Bullitt has been recovered from a Mexican junk yard.
The iconic car—driven by Steve McQueen’s titular crack-detective Frank Bullitt—was long regarded as the one that got away. Hollywood legend had long held it was junked soon after filming wrapped, Fox news reports, but multiple overlays of the ‘Stang’s iconic Highland Green paint job suggest it lived a few more lives before winding up at the yard.
Ford expert Kevin Marti, who last week traveled to Mexicali to inspect the car, confirmed the find: “I’m 100% sure it’s authentic,” he told Fox News.
The car was reportedly a shadow of its former self when it was recovered from a junk yard about a year ago in Baha California Sur. The man who purchased the wreck had planned to fix it up to resemble another classic movie Mustang: “Eleanor” from Gone in 60 Seconds.
It was only later, at the Mexicali custom car shop that was supposed to do the work, that he discovered he had something special on his hands.