Steve McQueen

The hero car was never McQueen’s private Mustang

Connection

On-screen hero car · not personal ownership

When

Bullitt filming · spring 1968 · auctioned January 10, 2020

Identity

VIN 8R02S125559 · ’559 hero car · National Historic Vehicle Register no. 21 · 390 CI V8

The National Historic Vehicle Register identifies two sequential 1968 Mustang fastbacks bought for Bullitt: VIN 8R02S125558 was the jump car, while 8R02S125559 was used primarily as the hero car for beauty shots with Steve McQueen driving. The same record credits stunt performers with much of the dangerous driving. McQueen’s on-screen connection is documented; personal ownership is not.

The surviving ’559 still carries evidence of production use. Mecum records camera-mount tubes beneath the rockers, trunk alterations for camera equipment, removed GT emblems and blacked-out trim. Its S-code 390-cubic-inch V8 was rebuilt; the registry describes it as the original engine, restored rather than untouched.

After filming, the repaired and repainted hero car went to Warner Bros. employee Robert Ross, then Frank Marranca in 1970 and the Kiernan family in 1974. McQueen contacted Robert Kiernan in 1977 and followed with a letter asking to acquire it, but the family kept the Mustang. Sean Kiernan revealed it publicly in 2018, when it became the National Historic Vehicle Register’s twenty-first vehicle. Mecum recorded a $3.4 million sale on January 10, 2020; that result does not identify a present owner.