The $3.4M Mustang…

Well, it’s over…the auction for the Mustang used in the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt, the very car used in what is unquestionably the greatest chase scene ever filmed.  It set a new record for American muscle car sales.  I saw both Mustangs used in Bullitt at a Warner Brothers event celebrating the life of Bud Ekins (that story is here), and they were undeniably cool.

My good buddy and friend-since-grade-school Ralph predicted the Bullitt Mustang would go for over three million dollars, and he was right.  Surprisingly, that’s not the highest price ever paid at auction for an American car.  A Duesenberg sold for something around $22 million a while back.  That’s a bit more than what Gresh and I make on the ExNotes blog.  Quite a bit more, actually.

I saw Bullitt when it first played back in the day (it was released in 1968), and I’ve probably watched it a dozen times since.   My good buddy Richie and I drove into New Brunswick to see it at the RKO State movie theatre and it was electrifying.  The closest thing I’d ever seen to a chase scene that dramatic was the motorcycle chase in The Great Escape, and what do you know, Bud Ekins and Steve McQueen did the honors in that one, too.