Mustang from Bullitt found rusting in a junkyard in Mexico

The car chase from Steve McQueen’s seminal 60s cop thriller ‘Bullitt’ is widely regarded as one of the finest in all of movie history.

So you’d think the vehicle in question would be in a museum or Jamiroquai’s garage, but not so.

Almost 50 years after the 1968 Ford Mustang GT was last seen, it’s been unearthed in a junkyard in Mexico, according to Fox News.

Car enthusiast Hugo Sanchez found the car – originally painted in Highland Green, but at that point with a layer of white paint on its panels – rusting in a lot in Baja California Sur last year.

He was planning to turn the dilapidated muscle car into a replica of another movie motor – that of ‘Eleanor’ from the Nicolas Cage movie ‘Gone In 60 Seconds’.

However, when he sent off its identification numbers to the renowned Marti Auto Works – which has the production database for every Ford built between 1967 and 2012 – just to check out its history and ensure it was a genuine Mustang, his plans rather changed.

It turned out that it was one of two Mustangs purchased by Warner Bros for the Peter Yates-directed movie, one for the so-called ‘dirty work’ of the chase scene, while the other was there to look the part.

The car that was left in better condition was preserved, and has been sold three times over since, but the other vehicle was lost.

McQueen even tried to buy one of the Mustangs back from Warner Bros after filming, but failed to do so.

It’s thought that it somehow made its way from the film’s production in San Francisco to the junkyard shortly after filming wrapped, and there it stayed.

“I’m 100 percent sure it’s authentic,” classic Ford expert Kevin Marti told Fox News, after travelling to Mexico to see it.

“It’s not the first time one of these old movie cars showed up in a junkyard, but it’s rare.”

Though its original drivetrain was gone, and it’s rear axle replaced at some point with a 1967 model, Sanchez had it restored by his friend Ralph Garcia, Jr, owner of a local custom car shop, and it’s now back to its original green hue.

However, it’s been claimed in the past by one stuntman who worked on the movie, Loren Janes, that there were not two but three stunt cars used – so another might still be out there.

According to Fox, Mr Garcia has already been contacted about selling the car, but has decided to keep it for now, though vehicles connected to McQueen have sold for millions in the past.

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