|
It was the highest price ever paid for a Ford
Mustang at auction, according to David Morton, marketing manager
for the auction house in Kissimmee, near Orlando. The buyer has
not been publicly identified.
"The hammer dropped at $3.4 million, but with buyers' fees, the
total cost is $3.74 million," he said, adding it shattered the
auction house's previous record set last year of $2.2 million.
The unrestored muscle car, its "highland green" paint looking
rusty and black upholstery splitting apart, starred in a
10-minute sequence in the 1968 film, getting airborne a few
times as it sped through the hilly streets of San Francisco.
The car was auctioned without a reserve, or minimum sale price,
a risky decision that could have forced the owners to sell low.
McQueen filmed with the window down so viewers could see he was
behind the wheel. Although credited as the driver, McQueen
actually shared the wheel with Hollywood stunt driver Bud Ekins,
according to the movie database IMDB.
Many movie buffs view the chase as ground-breaking for its
duration and white-knuckle drama. The sequence forgoes a score
in favor of roaring engines and screeching tires. McQueen,
playing the no-nonsense police Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, was
chasing bad guys who drove a black 1968 Dodge Charger.
After filming, the Mustang was sold to a Warner Brothers
employee, and later to a New Jersey police detective. He in turn
sold it for $6,000 in 1974 to Robert Kiernan of Madison, New
Jersey, who held onto the car until he died in 2014.
Kiernan rejected multiple offers for the car, including one from
McQueen himself, according to the New York Times. He left it to
his son, Sean.
"I would like to appeal to you to get back my '68 Mustang,"
McQueen wrote to Kiernan in 1977, according to the Times. "I
would like very much to keep it in the family, in its original
condition as it was used in the film, rather than have it
restored; which is simply personal with me."
McQueen died in 1980 at age 50. Robert Kiernan never responded
to McQueen's letter, which Sean Kiernan still has, the Times
said.
Sean Kiernan told Mecum in a promotional video that his mother
drove the car until the clutch failed in 1980. It went nearly 40
years without being driven until recently, with 65,000 miles on
the odometer, Kiernan said.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta, additional reporting by Rich McKay;
Editing by David Gregorio)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
