Bullitt Synchronicity

On October 17, 1968 the movie Bullitt was released starring Steve McQueen, just four days before my eighth birthday. In the movie was a car chase seen between a 1968 Mustang Fastback and a 1968 Dodge Charger. I believe at some point I watched the movie in the back seat of a beat up station wagon at a drive in movie theatre. My parents in the front seat and all of us kids in the back. Fast forward to 1976.

I'm standing at a car lot with my dad looking at a blue 1967 Mustang Fastback.

Almost identical to the one Steve McQueen drove in the movie. I wanted it. My dad who was an ace auto mechanic asked the salesman to start it up. My dad new immediately the engine was modified. He shook his head and said, "No way." I was deeply disappointed. I needed him to cosign a loan for me. The asking price was $1700.00 and I only had around $500.00. I started a new search for a muscle car immediately. I found a 1968 GTO. This one had a stock motor and ran like a dream. My dad loved this car. He had an old jalopy truck that he wanted to get rid of and threw it in as part of a trade in. I think they gave him $200.00 for it. Here is my first car.

A beautiful muscle car. I had so many fun adventures in this car. Sadly I don't have many pictures--just this one. We didn't carry cameras around back in 1976.

Recently I saw on Mecum car auction that the Mustang driven in the movie was sold for $3.74 million. The owners paid $6500.00 for it. 

However, and here's the fun part of this story. In the movie there was a 1968 GTO shown repeatedly. 

Shown here as the Dodge Charger goes around it. 

And here as the Mustang goes around it. 

Also shown are the two cars passing numerous Volkswagen Beatles primarily a green one that they used repeatedly. When I sold my GTO the next car I bought was a 1967 Volkswagen Bug. There's some weird synchronicity going on there.

There's my linked connection to the movie Bullitt. I didn't get the Mustang, but I did get a car that was in the movie.