Guess you'd better slow your Mustang down

Ride around, Sally

Mustang Sally... a great old song by a great artist, Wilson Pickett (RIP 2006). Listen

That's a pretty good rendition of the original tune. I suspect that even ol' Wilson would approve if he were still here. It may be a new rendition, but it's still the same old song. I'm not so sure as much can be said about the newer Mustangs, though...


Yeah, it LOOKS pretty neat, but I wonder if it would measure up to the Mustangs of a bygone era, the REAL Mustangs from which these new copies were patterned. With a price tag of over $25,000 and all the extra doo-dads that aren't really needed, I seriously doubt that these new cars would meet with Steve McQueen's approval. After all, power windows, air conditioning, and all that extra SMOG plumbing cluttering up the under-hood space which should be reserved for old-school HORSEPOWER is hardly in keeping with the spirit of the original pony car.

Now THIS is more like it:













Yup, that's right... that is Detective Frank Bullitt at the wheel of his Highland Green Metallic 1968 Mustang 390GT. For those who don't know (shame on you), that is Steve McQueen's character from the excellent 1968 film, "Bullitt." Who hasn't watched that classic chase scene, over and over again?


Remember when the bad guys' black '68 Charger explodes in the gas station at the end of the chase scene? A good friend of mine had a '68 Charger just like that back in the day. Thankfully, his never exploded.

The thought that the new "retro" Mustangs are mere copies of what is OLD reinforces the idea that "New things are no good."

There is even talk of a new 2008 Bullitt commemorative car in the works, image courtesy of the German ponysite.de:











Is nothing sacred??

BTW, if you are interested in the REAL Bullitt car, further talk about the famous chase scene, and Dave Kunz's replica of the movie car, check out the latest issue of Motor Trend Classic magazine (Sept/Oct '06) for a lengthy article on this topic with tons of pictures, to boot. I won't go into any more detail here, but do yourself a favor and pick up an issue before they disappear from the stands. It's a keeper.



















Incidentally, the Kunz car was used in Cheryl Crow's music video of her song, "Steve McQueen," and the car was autographed by her.



I used to own a '68 Fastback way back when. It had a bad tranny and it needed a quarter panel, so I sold it. I can promise you that if I still had that car, it would no longer be maroon in color; it would be Highland Green Metallic. I'm in the market for another one, a solid '68 fastback body for my next big project.



Edit:
Looking back at what I wrote and looking at these pictures reminded me that my younger brother Steve had a similar car, as well. His was a '67 fastback, which he repainted in a shade of green slightly lighter than the Bullitt car. We grew up in the cold north-eastern U.S. where they have a habit of using a heavy dosage of rock salt on the roads in the winter to keep them ice-free. This had the effect not only of melting the ice, but also of rotting the sheet-metal bodywork of any and all cars subjected to it, and his Mustang was no exception.

The body on his car looked great, as it had been repaired and had received a fresh coat of paint. What Steve DIDN'T do, however, was to replace the rotted floorboards properly. His "fix" was to cut out the rusted sheet-metal floor pans, leaving a lip along the sides. He carefully cut new floorboards... LITERALLY... he made them from pine boards. They were cut to just the right length, and were laid side by side with their ends resting on the metal lips left when the metal floors were removed. He didn't even bother to fasten them in. All this was covered by a couple layers of rubber floor mats.

Pretty clever, eh? Well, he thought so; at least he did until he was riding with a friend one cold winter night and they went through a DEEP slush puddle at a fairly good speed. All that cold, slushy water came up through the floor at once, tossing the mats and boards into their laps and thoroughly soaking them in the process. Lesson learned!


Another classic Mustang I owned up until a couple years ago was a 1970 Boss 302. The Boss 302 was Ford Motor Company's answer to Chevrolet's Z-28 Camaro, which was burning up the track in the popular Trans Am road racing series. Ford created the Boss in 1969 to embrace the SCCA's strict rules, but Mark Donohue in his Penske-sponsored Z-28 easily ran away with the series, despite Ford's best efforts. Not to be outdone, Ford again sponsored a brace of Bud Moore-prepared cars in 1970, easily taking the title that year. FoMoCo had proven it's point.

Here's a peek at the Boss car that I owned:












Even now, the 1970 Mustang is a pretty sleek-looking machine. This is one of the actual factory race cars, restored to its original glory.


There is a special type of race in which so-called "vintage" cars are once again pitted against each other by rich folks who fancy themselves as a modern-day Parnelli Jones or George Folmer. At any rate, it is good to see (and hear!) these cars going at it once again. I was there the first time, and it was great. Ford's strategy WORKED: I bought one of their cars.

BUT... That STILL isn't good enough. New things are NO GOOD, or at least new IDEAS are no good. Maybe there just aren't any new ideas. There don't seem to be any new GOOD movies coming out, either; only remakes of classics and remakes of remakes. There is even reported to be a remake of Bullitt in the works, with Brad Pitt as the leading man. I don't see how someone of his caliber will be able to upstage McQueen's original Bullitt. I suppose I'll have to see it anyway, if only to critcize.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH...
If there are no new ideas, then I suppose improving or at least embracing OLD ideas is a good thing. How good? I'm not quite sure...



**SIGH** I suppose it's a tribute... I think it's FUGLY.










Here's another one, this time with a distinct rice flavor to it:














The next one is a little better... pretty cool, actually. It follows a '69 Boss 302 theme fairly closely, aside from the shaker hood and the '66 Shelby side windows. Even the wheels look right:













I like it. The BEST new/old Mustang, however, has to be the 2006 Shelby GT-500, a modified and much-improved version of the basic V-8 powered Mustang GT. I would love to get my hands on one of these cars, despite that fact that its full potential can never be reached here in CONUS... I like the latest commercial where it shows a white GT-500 being uncrated at a POE in Germany: "So, you couldn't find a car you liked in Germany?" asks a German dock worker as he unloads an American's GT-500 from a crate. "No, I couldn't find a speed limit I liked in America," replies the car's owner.














I STILL would rather have a REAL '68 repro like Dave Kunz built, Highland Green, of course. There is nothing in the world like the power, the SOUND of a big-block American V-8. Enjoy it while you still can!











What would Steve McQueen think?