Ford recreates the Bullitt Mustang
2008 Bullitt Mustang
The car chase in the 1968 movie Bullitt has always been the
ultimate in my mind, and it was interesting to read that the
book “The Greatest Movie Car Chases Of All Time” awarded
Bullitt its prestigious accolade last year.
Author Jesse Crosse voted the Bullitt chase better than
other iconic movie chases including the chase through Paris
in the 1998 movie Ronin, which came second; the little known
1973 movie The Seven Ups (third) and the famous Mini Cooper
S chase in the Italian Job of 1969 (fourth). “It’s not just
the inclusion of the fabulous cars, the fabulous city and
King of Cool that makes Bullitt the best chase in the
world,” he says. “The engine soundtrack of both cars is
simply awesome. “The cinematography broke new ground and
in-car footage is raw and gritty, with plenty of opportunity
to watch (the drivers) in action.”
I agree totally. When I first saw this movie, as the cars
rumbled around San Francisco, it came to the point where the
villain clicks on his seatbelt, which reverberated around
the theatre, and then the engine noise turned into a savage
roar and the chase was on.
The reason why this chase is so good was that it was filmed
in ‘real time’, with an especially set up camera car in full
race specifications. Only by doing this can you record the
way a car ‘dances’ on the suspension at racing speeds. If
you have a copy of Bullitt, run it again and see just how
the cars move on their suspensions. Completely correct.
So here we are 40 years later and Ford showed a variant of
the growling, retro-styled Mustang at the Los Angeles Auto
Show in November. The 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt is an update
of the 1968 pony car driven by Steve McQueen in the movie.
Ford will produce just 7700 for the American market, with a
starting price of $US31,075 (about 1 million baht at the
current exchange rate - weep)!
It will be a close replica of the original 1968 Mustang. For
the movie, all the exterior badges and logos from the car
were removed. The new car features the same Dark Highland
Green paint, lack of badges, scoops and spoilers. Ford will
also offer the car in black. The word Bullitt is on a
graphic on a fake petrol cap on the boot.
The new car features a 4.6 liter, 3-valve V8 that delivers
235kW at 6000 rpm and 440 Nm of torque at 4250 rpm. Top
speed is 240km/h and it has a 5-speed manual gearbox. It
even features a polished aluminium shift ball designed
specifically for the car.
Ford is hoping the car re-ignites sales of the new Mustang,
as in the US, sales figures show Mustang sales are down 18
percent in the first 10 months of this year.
If you could buy one here for 1 million baht, I’d have one!
Proton’s saga prolonged
By John Weinthal
Proton shares shed 18 percent to a seven year low of
RM 4.02 on November 21 in the aftermath of the Malaysian
Government’s announcement that it had failed in its bid to
marry off its failed motor manufacturer.
The official line on the ending of partnership discussions
with VW and GM is that Proton, which lost ‘only’ RM 591 in
the year to March 31, is now strong enough to go it alone,
partly thanks to claimed initial sales success for its
booted Gen11 model, the Persona four door sedan.
The New Straits Times reported on November 21, “The
Government has decided not to seek foreign partners for
Proton for now, ending months of protracted talks for
possible strategic alliances with several firms … All
negotiations have been discontinued. The reason is recent
positive developments in Proton especially in domestic sales
and exports.”
For me it was always beyond comprehension that VW would ever
meet the Malaysian Government’s conditions. These no doubt
included a continuing significant shareholding and the
associated political meddling in everything this
ill-conceived and money-hungry venture ever attempted. A GM
link was even more unlikely - and barely desirable - in view
of that company’s own massive problems.
Over the past two years Proton’s home market share has
slumped from more than 40 percent to around 30 percent.
Toyota/Daihatsu family company Perodua is now undisputed
Malaysian market leader.
The official Malaysian dream machine is boasting of new
export prospects for Proton in Iran, Thailand, Indonesia and
China among others. No thought appears to be given to why
people abroad would wish to take on products which are
widely regarded in their homeland as poorly designed,
unreliable, and of depressing quality build hence bereft of
resale value.
“Proton lacks global competitiveness as it has a poor brand
image, has no real global presence to speak of and lacks the
necessary technology to compete against other carmakers,”
said the CIMB Group, Malaysia’s second largest financial
services provider.
The bad news for Malaysians is that exorbitant duties and
other charges will continue to apply to all imports as
undeclared subsidies for Proton. Malaysians will continue to
pay among Asia’s highest prices for any imported vehicle.
VW, having failed to strike a viable deal with Malaysia, may
well look elsewhere - maybe Thailand or even Indonesia or
Vietnam - if it follows through in its understandable quest
for expansion in the ASEAN region. Watch this space.
Proton Persona
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked which was the first car to be
offered with a synchromesh gearbox, and when? Clue was it
was not Britain. The correct answer was Cadillac in 1929.
The UK manufacturers did not offer synchromesh until 1932
with Vauxhall and Rolls-Royce. Incidentally, the first all
synchromesh gearbox was built by ZF in 1931, but it was not
fitted as standard equipment until 1933 on the Alvis Speed
20.
So to this week. What was the first diesel engined private
car? Not trucks or buses.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Is Ford saying Ta Ta to
Jaguar?
As reported here some time ago, the beleaguered
Ford Motor Company has been shedding its other brand
investments as it attempts to get its own financial figures
in the black. Aston Martin was the first to get the
heave-ho, and now Jaguar and Land Rover are next on the
chopping block.
Tata
styling exercise.
However, this time the oh-so-British brands do not look as
if they might have an oh-so-British knight in shining armor
coming to the rescue. It is the Indian car makers Tata and
Mahindra and Mahindra that appear to be front-runners,
though the private equity company One Equity along with
former FoMoCo top dog Jac Nasser is not out of the picture
yet.
Stumbling blocks include FoMoCo wanting to retain a share in
the companies (just in case they can get the brands to show
a profit) and also to supply the engines. Other concerns
include a potential shift of component suppliers out of the
UK, to India of course.
If you are interested, my spies tell me that Ford is looking
for around US$ 1.5 billion (or something over 40 billion
baht, but if you wait a week it will be even cheaper as the
US dollar crumbles yet further).
Swiss Heir To A1
Heights
By motoring editor at large John Weinthal
in Malaysia
A1 GP came to Asia for Round 3 of its third season
at Malaysia’s Sepang Circuit last Sunday - but Asian racers
were unable to snare any of the major spoils.
The day belonged to Neel Jani who took pole, fastest lap and
the chequered flag for both races hoisting Team Switzerland
to series leadership.
Jani won the Sprint race ahead of France’s Loic Duval and
Germany’s Michael Ammermüller, who put in a superb
performance to secure a third place in his maiden A1GP race.
In an incident-packed Feature race in scorching weather
conditions Jani was joined on the podium by Brazilian rookie
Sergio Jimenez, who started the race sixth and led for 15
laps, with Duval third.
Jimenez is a protege of double Indy 500 winner, CHAMP Cars
and 1972 F1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi who heads A1
Team Brazil.
Macau Grand Prix victor Oliver Jarvis was unable to repeat
his earlier A1 run of success taking seventh place in the
Sepang Sprint and 10th in the Feature race for Team Great
Britain.
Switzerland now leads the title challenge on 61 points ahead
of France on 53, New Zealand 46, Holland 39, South Africa
37, Britain 36, Ireland 31, Germany 24, Brazil 22 and Mexico
17.
Round 4 will be at China’s Zunghai ciruit for the first time
on December 16.
This third A1GP season resumes at Lake Taupo (New Zealand)
in January followed by Australia’s Eastern Creek (Sydney),
Durban, Mexico City and Shanghai. The final will be at
England’s Brands Hatch on May 4, 2008.
A1 GP embraces drivers from 22 nations racing identical
Lola-built open-wheelers. The 600 kg cars are powered by
identical 520 bhp, 3.4 liter, aluminium, quad cam V8s made
by Zytek, a British engineering company with a reputation
for success, pursued both on and off the track.
However, next year’s season will see the identical A1GP
racing cars powered by a V8 engine supplied by this year’s
F1 championship winners, Ferrari. At the Sepang race,
Ferrari also supplied the pace and safety cars and a
Maserati (owned by Ferrari) Quattroporte as the medical FIV.
Over the same weekend, the Formula BMW finals were held in
Valencia, and it was Austrian and German drivers who scooped
the pool. Philipp Eng (Austria) of Team Mücke Motorsport was
the winner of the third Formula BMW World Final. At
Valencia’s “Circuit de la Comunitat”, the 17 year old
celebrated a dominant start to finish victory. Marco
Wittmann (Germany) was awarded the runner-up spot. The
reward for Jens Klingmann’s (Germany) progress through the
field from 11th on the grid was a third-place finish.
The highest placed driver from the FBMW Asia group was
Thailand’s Jack Lemvard, driving a rented race car from one
of the European teams, beating the much vaunted Jazeman
Jafaar, considered to be one of the hottest prospects from
Asia.
