.....; 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.”....