Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mustang is a factory homage to the car driven by the “King of Cool,” Steve McQueen in the 1968 thrill-a-thon, Bullitt. Let’s see if its amazing condition will make it just as memorable.
For kids in high school, it’s important to always wear the right clothes and have the right accessories. With its straight-six engine and five-speed stick, yesterday’s 1989 Jeep Cherokee Sport would have been one of the cool kids in class. Its $8,399 price, however, would have likely ensured that it did not graduate with honors. At least that’s what its 75 percent No Dice loss implied.
Have you ever put on a long disused coat only to find some forgotten money — maybe a twenty — in one of its pockets? That’s a pretty good feeling, right? Now imagine that twenty-dollar bill is not only a pleasant surprise, but is also crisp and clean and still has that freshly-minted smell.
That’s sort of the case with this 2001 Ford Mustang Bullitt, only it’s a car for sale and not payment for a couple of slices and a beer.
The Bullitt model name, of course, comes from the 1968 movie of the same name starring screen legend Steve McQueen. The most memorable part of the movie Bullitt is the second act car chase in which McQueen drove a Highland Green fastback Mustang GT 390 around San Francisco’s Marina District.
Three decades later, Ford decided to pay tribute to the movie and the Mustang by offering a special limited-edition Bullitt package on the already potent GT. In addition to certain visual cues, the tribute Bullitt offered a number of mechanical enhancements over the standard GT, making it more than just an appearance package.
Those changes included a slightly lowered suspension, an aluminum intake with 57 mm throttle bodies, and a more free-flowing exhaust. That all bumped the 4.6-liter SOHC V8’s power to 265 horses. In comparison, McQueen’s movie Mustang had a 6.4-liter (390 CID) V8 with a factory-rated 330 horses. Now, that rating was gross so the actual output of both old and new cars is probably about the same. Other mechanical updates on the Bullitt include Brembo brakes and torque-thrust wheels with graphite-painted spokes.
Aesthetically, the Bullitt-specific features included the return of the Highland Green paint, although both black and blue were also available as options, as well as a brushed silver fuel door. Bullitt badging, and retro touches for the seats and gauges fancied up the cabin. A special cue ball knob tops the shifter on the Tremec T-45 five-speed too.
This Bullitt has all that, plus probably almost all its new-car smell. That’s because it has done only 3,019 miles and has been garaged under a cover between making most of those.
That’s pretty amazing considering the car’s age and how much fun these old live-axle Mustangs can be when you put a foot into them. The car really looks to be in as-new condition, save for some minor wear on the carpeted floor mat under the Bullitt-package pedals. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it might even be riding on its original factory-installed tires. One would hope not, though.
The car comes with a clean title and a Marti Report offering an explanation of the VIN and noting that out of the 5,582 Bullitt Mustangs built in 2001, this was one of 3,041 to wear the Highland Green paint. You have to wonder what kind of anarchists bought the homage Bullitt cars new in either of the black or blue colors that Ford inexplicably offered.
This one is, of course, the proper green, and it asks for a whole lot more green in the form of 43,000 dollar bills. That may be a lot of cash, but think about the condition of this car. This is like something you’d see crossing the podium at an auction where crazy prices are the norm, and you have to pay the house a stipend for the honor. Here on Craigslist, this Bullitt can be had without any of that monkey business. But is it worth its asking?
What do you say? Is this seemingly factory-fresh Bullitt worth that $43,000 asking as it sits? Or, at that much, is the seller just chasing a dream?
You decide!
North New Jersey Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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