The Definitive Top 5 Hollywood Mustangs of All Time
The Ford Mustang is easily one of the most recognizable vehicles in American motoring history and Hollywood has been quick to reflect the car’s excellence – featuring the Mustang in a variety of movies and television shows since being introduced in April of 1964. The Mustang has made an appearance in a huge collection of productions on the silver screen and the small screen but a smaller collection of Ford Mustangs have served as the leading role in movies and TV – affording them to obtain pop culture status even among those not into the performance car scene. Today, we will take a look at the top five Hollywood Mustangs of all time.
#5. 2008 Shelby GT500 from the modern Knight Rider series – While Knight Rider’s star car KITT gained notoriety as a Pontiac Firebird, the absence of the Firebird when the new Knight Rider series was introduced in 2008 forced producers to look elsewhere for a proper car to play KITT. They chose the mighty 2008 Shelby GT500 finished in black with black stripes and only minor external modifications were made to KITT in street form. The GT500 did get a set of scoops across the front end with the ‘racing’ lights similar to those found on the original KITT and when needed, the modern KITT could turn into a radically modified “attack mode” that was ready for any sort of battle. The show might have sucked but the GT500 serving as KITT did not.
#4. The Saleen S281 “Barricade” from Transformers – Transformers has turned into a popular series, with the third installation set to hit theaters later this summer but when the first modern Transformers movie hit the big screen, it featured a police-trim Saleen S281 that went by the name Barricade. While this wasn’t a leading role for the Mustang, the Saleen made for a great looking cop car and an even better movie bad guy.
#3. Goldfinger’s 1964 Mustang convertible – This was the Mustang that began it all when it comes to Mustangs of the silver screen. The 1964 introduction of the James Bond movie Goldfinger featured a 1964.5 Ford Mustang Convertible driven by heroin Tilly Masterson. While this car played second fiddle to Bond’s Aston Martin, this was the first Mustang ever featured in a major motion picture.
#2. Bullitt Mustang GT390 Fastback – This is a car so well known and so well respected for the incredible chase scenes in the movie Bullitt that Ford issued a special edition package in its honor. In the movie, the Mustang GT390 was driven by Steve McQueen as Detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt and the most well known portions of the movie depict the Mustang GT390 soaring through the air as it bounces down streets in San Francisco and going head to head with a 1968 Dodge Charger. In 2008, Ford offered the 40th anniversary edition Bullitt Mustang, which was a Mustang GT with a tuned engine, cold air intake, performance exhaust, suspension upgrades and a distinct Highland Green paint scheme. The package was finished off by Bullitt logos inside and out.
#1. “Eleanor” 1967 gt500 from Gone in 60 seconds – The movie Gone in 60 Seconds feature Nick Cage as a professional car thief and at the end of the movie, Cage’s character Memphis Raines has to steal the uniquely modified 1967 Ford Mustang GT500 known as Eleanor. The incredible chase scene at the end of the movie shows off just how awesome Eleanor is and since that movie hit the silver screen, people have been building replicas of the movie car with both 1967 and modern Ford Mustangs.
(Warning: there’s some foul language in the following clip.)