REQUIRED VIEWING “BULLITT” THE GRANDDADDY OF CAR CHASE SCENES

selvedgeyard ^ | September 26, 2009 by JP

[virgil283]

"McQueen was determined to have “the best car chase ever done,” recalls Carey Loftin. “I told Steve I knew a lot about camera angles and speeds to make it look fast....“The Charger ran rings around the Mustang"... In an interview with Motor Trend magazine, Steve McQueen related his desire to bring a high speed chase to the screen. “I always felt a motor racing sequence in the street, a chase in the street, could be very exciting because you have the reality objects to work with, like bouncing off a parked car. An audience digs sitting there watching somebody do something that I’m sure almost all of them would like to do.”...{hat tip FRer : amazed }

[virgil283]

.....;

Max Balchowsky tells us, “I suggested they get a 390 GT. I had suggested using a Mustang, and a Dodge Charger, or else there would be too may Fords in the picture. I thought we’d mix up the cars.” ....

"Before the filming could be done, the Charger and the Mustang required preparation. One of the best wrenchmen in the movie business, Max Balchowsky, recalls the Mustang in particular needed considerable modifications so it could hold up during the relentless beatings it would take during the filming. ...Balchowsky remembers “I hardly had to anything to the Dodge’s engine, but what I was worried about was the strength of the front end.” To shore up the front, Balchowsky revised the torsion bars, beefed up the control arms and added heavy duty shocks.

As with the Mustang, all parts were ‘fluxed. For the rear end, Balchowsky told us, “I got some special rear springs, what you call a high spring rate, a flat without any arch in it, and using that spring the car would stay low. It’s similar to the same springs they use in police cars, which makes a good combination. When the police specify a package, they have more spring here, a little bigger brake there, a little bit more happening in the shocks, and it makes a good car. But the director of BULLITT wanted a brand new car instead of an ex-police car, so I got the springs from a friend at Chrysler. We had to weld reinforcements under the arms and stuff on the Dodge. We did lose a lot of hubcaps on the Charger. We’d put the hubcaps back on, but I suppose it probably would have been better if we had lest them off.”...

“I’ll tell you this,” said Max Balchowsky, “I was really impressed with the Mustang after I got done with it. I didn’t think it’d make that much difference beefing it up. Later, we took both cars out and went playing around with them over by Griffith Park (near Los Angeles). The Dodge, which was practically stock, just left the Mustang like you wouldn’t believe.” Ron Riner has similar recollections. “The Charger ran rings around the Mustang. We trimmed the tires down (on the Charger), we practically made them down to bicycle tires to try and handicap Hickman, and Bill just run them.” Carey Loftin also recalls,” we test ran the car at Griffith Park near the Observatory, up a long hill. and if you can run a car real hard up and down that hill it’s working pretty good.”

“The day before the chase scenes were to be filmed, we went up to Santa Rosa and rented the track,”said Balchowsky. “Steve wanted to test the car. A production manager would have cut your throat if you wanted to do something like that. An accident would have ruined the cars, and we were slated for Monday morning, 6:00 a.m. to start shooting. Hickman and Steve were buzzing around the tracks, and it was pretty even. McQueen and Hickman were both tickled with the cars. So, fortunately everything worked out.”

Generally everyone seemed to agree that the chase went smoothly, although filming went a “little bit slow,” Bud Ekins recalls. “Yates and Steve were particular. You would rehearse it once- it’s got to be choreographed- then you would rehearse it again, and if it looked good, they shot it. You rehearsed at about 1/4 speed or 1/2 speed, then you went in to film it at full speed.”

For the in-car scenes, two camers were mounted in the cars and painted black. The jarring landings after the cars were airborne are the result of the cameras being tightly secured and not cushion mounted. The effect was more than McQueen had bargained for. “It’s a funny thing,” he told Motor Trend. “That was what shocked me and I didn’t expect it, because we were using a 185 frame which is a very small frame. We weren’t even using a big super Panavision or anything. Even on the 185, they (the audience) jumped out of their seats. I didn’t do the shots going down the hill, they pulled me out of the car. Bud Ekins did that.”

In the Motor Trend interview, McQueen recalled there were some close calls and incidents that looked good on film but weren’t exactly planned to happen, some of which occured in the memorable downhill sequences. “Remember that banging going down? That was about 100 mph. I was bangin’ into Bill. My car was disintegrating. Like, the door handles came off, both the shocks in the front broke, the steering armature on the right front side broke and my slack was about a foot and a half. The Mustang was really just starting to fall apart.”...

One particular scene that impressed Max Balchowsky was the gunman in the Dodge firing a shotgun blast at the pursuing Mustang that shatters the right front of the windshield. “The guy who did special effects devised the chain balls that bust the Mustang windshield. I thought it was terrific when the guy whips the shotgun out and the way the special effects fellow devised how those pebbles cracked the windshield and it made it so realistic like he really shot the windshield. It sure made Ford glass look good.”....

[Enten]

It appears really that the fastest car in the clip was that Volkswagen beetle that was in several scenes, always parked at the curb but always ahead of both cars.

[Para-Ord.45]

Watching it, I could feel it in the pit of my stomach as the cars chased each other up and down the hilly streets of S.F.

They nailed the chase scenes so well everyone I know gets queasy.

[Jeff Chandler]

THIS is The Best Car Chase EVER.

[Farmer Dean]

I ued to own a 440 powered Road Runner.No Mustang ever gave me a decent race,ever.

[smokingfrog]

Steve wanted to test the car.

I bet he did...

[HereInTheHeartland]

Put that sucker on a big screen. Then get your brain in the place where you are looking out on the street like you are in the car.
Guaranteed you will be bracing yourself as you crest the hills and corners.
Lot’s of fun to drive some of the hills in Pacific Heights with an unsuspecting passenger, and get a little reduction in g force as you pop over a hill!!

[cripplecreek]

Raising Arizona had several awesome chase scenes but the best was the Huggies scene.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82432008

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: The Charger ran rings around the Mustang ::

But...it started to rain and we couldn’t get the ignition on the MoPar engine to engage.

[dainbramaged]

The chase scene in “Bullitt” is a great one - “Ronin” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” have excellent chases, too.

[njslim]

Car chase scene in the SEVEN UPS

Note: The scene where car smashes into the rear of the truck was real

Also car cahse in FRENCH CONNECTION......

[quadrant]

Simply the best.

[Jeff Chandler]

That is as accurate a depiction of Arizona’s gun culture as I have seen.

[Steely Tom]

Car chase scene in the SEVEN UPS

Note: The scene where car smashes into the rear of the truck was real

Also car chase in FRENCH CONNECTION......

Seven Ups: 1973.
French Connection: 1971.
Bullitt: 1968.

Also as far as coolness factor: McQueen by a mile.

Hackman's not bad, but comes in second.

Roy Scheider? Nah.

[ETL]

Some Saturday morning “eye candy” for classic American hot rod and custom car lovers:
(WARNING: OVER 200 PICS)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3108252/posts

[Jack Hydrazine]

Best car chase scene from the movie, “Short Time”(1990) with Dabney Coleman. Filmed in Seattle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE2i08S3YeY

[Impala64ssa]

The Seven Ups, worthy of honorable mention here. The Pontiac Ventura smashes into the back end of the semi at the Millwood exit on the Taconic Pkwy, one inaccuracy, trucks are not allowed on the parkways around NYC. I had a 68 Charger, for a mostly stock 318 it would haul a$$.

[taildragger]

Max Balchowsky

Does that name ring a bell? He is brains behind the home-made sports-car "Ole' Yeller" that was a quasi-skunk-works for Buick performance stuff and won many a race and was loved for it's underdog status.

Also I hear 2 Mustangs were tricked out for the movie, one was such toast afterwards they sent it to the crusher. The other survived and was bought by a studio guy who sold it to someone in KY or TN and only a few Mustang reporter types know exactly where it is, as they are sworn to secrecy. The owner is supposedly restoring it with his teen-age kid and the auto world re-awaits it emerging from obscurity... someday...

[Steely Tom]

Oh yeah, also Bullitt had Jackie Bisset, as beautiful as a mirage.

What did T7U or TFC have? Zip.

[Impala64ssa]

But...it started to rain and we couldn’t get the ignition on the MoPar engine to engage.
Had a Charger and a Dodge van, same thing. The ballast resistor on the firewall would crap out from time to time. Had to carry a spare in the glovebox. Common problem with old Chryslers.