There were only 2 mustangs used for the movie, the jump or stunt car that was wrecked during filming and was found in a junkyard in mexico and all that was left was the shell, and the hero car that was in 90% of the shots and is 99% complete and in movie condition and runs and drives. The hero car is the one being sold today at MECUM auctions in Kissimmee FL, it is scheduled to cross the block around 2 pm est.

If you have the channel it is being shown live right now on NBCsports network, channel 159 on dish network.

Some of the documentation they have is the California registration from 1968 when it was sold to a warner bros employee after the movie was completed, along with the warner bros parking sticker from 1968 also still on the windshield, a letter from Steve McQueen trying to buy it from the family that owns it in 1977, a copy of the ad from the classifieds in the back of the Oct 1974 road and track magazine where it was sold and the current owners bought it for $6,000. And reportedly Kevin Marti himself personally inspected and verified that this is the actual car.

BTW pre auction estimates expect this car to sell around the $4M mark, stay tuned.

 

Hammer price was $3,400,000

 

I heard 3.2 million but no articles have surfaced yet

 

I watched it live on TV, it was 3.4M

 

Pretty good return on that investment!
There is an ongoing argument about what engine it had. Supposedly, it had a 390 cu in engine. But I remember Steve Mcqueen on a late night talk show saying it had a specially prepared small block? Perhaps the jump car had a small block and the other a big block? Like the Dukes of Hazard cars. The jump cars had a small block and the doughnut cars had a 440.

I remember watching it back then and was a little disgusted that it didn't have a traction lock rear. But Fords in that era rarely had a traction lock rear. I think a detroit locker was an option but a rare one. Many hot rod chevys in those days came with posi-traction. I ordered my 65 300hp 327 4 speed Chevelle with one. As I remember it was a $32 option.

I have a copy of that movie so I can watch it occsionally. The chase scene filmed at actual speed was something new and set a new standard. Too bad today's movies have gone back to trickery to make it look exciting.

 

They were a mix of 318, 383, and 440.

 

Both had a 390 when they rolled off the assembly line, the jump car had a small block installed, the one that sold today still has the 390

They were talking about that today during the auction, they said that in most cities there are laws now preventing high speed chases like that anymore, for example in NYC they only allow 35 mph for filming on the actual streets. So if you want speeds higher than that you have no choice but to use CGI or green screen

 

For those who missed it while it was live on TV today, I found this on YouTube,

 

good stuff

 

Wow - only guy I know that has that kind of money is Paw......!!!

Probably drove it to the LSU game last night.....

 

Those fastback Mustangs back then had a lot of style! I bough a new 70 Mustang fastback and owned it for 11 yrs. It came with a 302 V8, C4 auto, and an 8" rear. After driving it for 7 years, I decided to up the handling and power. I bought some larger sway bars for the front and rear. It only came with a 5/8" front bar. Then I put 428 coil springs in the front. I had to cut off 3/4 of a coil to lower the front end. Then I bought a 69 Cougar with a 351 Windsor with 4 barrel carb and swapped the entire drive train from car to car. The Cougar had an FMX auto and 9" rear. I also installed the Cougar's front disc brakes on the Mustang getting rid of the front drum brakes. It handled much better and had the performance i wanted especially after I recurved the distributor advance and replaced that crappy Ford carb with a Holley. I embarrassed several 6.6L Trans Ams with that car. If it had AC, I may not have ever sold it.