Ford Mustang Bullitt revives a star of the screen for the street

A 50th anniversary edition of the Bullitt Mustang was Ford’s surprise reveal at its conference last night.

The brand kicked off the North American International Auto Show with the car designed to honour its predecessor, made famous by Steve McQueen in the film of the same name, with its characteristic Highland Green paint.

McQueen’s granddaughter Molly – also an actress – introduced the new Mustang Bullitt to the crowds. This was met by an even bigger surprise, as the original, and one of only two Bullit Mustangs from 1968, joined her on stage too.

To meet the performance credentials expected of a big screen star, the new car is equipped with a retuned version of the standard car’s 5.0-litre V8 engine that will deliver at least 468bhp and 650Nm of torque. This makes it even more powerful than the latest Mustang GT by 14bhp, while its top speed is 8mph higher, too.

It features a manual transmission with a white cue ball shift knob as a nod to the original. It’s as raucous as a modern Mustang can be thanks to an active valve performance exhaust system, modified to give the car a signature sound.

A nod to other design features of the film car have also been included, but with some modern luxuries such as a heated leather steering wheel and a 12-inch all-digital LCD instrument cluster. The latter matches the one introduced on the 2018 Mustang, but with a unique Bullitt welcome screen that starts in green with an image of the car rather than the pony logo.

Most noticeably the front end has been debadged, removing the identifying silver Mustang.

Darrell Behmer, Mustang chief designer, said: “This new Bullitt is, as Steve McQueen was, effortlessly cool. As a designer, it’s my favourite Mustang – devoid of stripes, spoilers and badges. It doesn’t need to scream about anything – it’s just cool.”

It’s unknown if any Mustang Bullitts will be allocated to the UK or how many of this special edition car will be produced.

By Becca Chaplin