When talking about classic cars in the movies, the automobile that most often shows up in the movies is the Ford Mustang. The movie "Bullitt" with Steve McQueen, undeniably the best car chase scene ever filmed for a Hollywood movie, featured the Mustang and the Dodge Charger. Both of these venerable muscle cars have sleek, animalistic lines and rich, throaty powerful engines. The Ford Mustang, as driven by our hero, Steve McQueen, was a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback 390 GT, one of the most sought after classic cars today for restorers. The Dodge Charger, driven by the hit men, was a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum. A rare and beautiful car when all suped-up.
All that is missing in "Bullitt" would be the 1956 Chevrolet Corvette for the three top sought after classic cars to be in one movie scene. As an homage to the movie "Bullitt", the Ford Motor Company designed and produced the 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt, and it was sold out before it ever started production. People buying cars that are designed on earlier, classic cars before they even hit the showroom floors is a sure sign that the Ford Mustang is one of the most sought ater classic cars of our times.
Heck, even Al Bundy had a 1965 Ford Mustang Convertible on "Married With Children", the hit parody show about an affable women's shoe salesman and his bon-bon eating, Oprah-watching wife and two under-achieving children. America was shown that muscle cars could be had by low-wage earners, and the car sold out almost every production run. Chargers, when modified, could leave Mustangs in the dust, but the beauty and the raw animalistic power that the Mustang reflects gives it the honours of being the all-time favourite car chase scene car, and therefore, the most sought after classic car in the movies.
The movie "Gone is Sixty Seconds", with Nicholas Cage, showcases the 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, arguably one of the best Mustangs to hit the streets burning rubber. The original of this remake, the "Gone in 60 Seconds" movie from 1974 (notice the change from "Sixty" to "60"), featured the 1971 Ford Mustang Fastback. If the Mustang were around at the time, Billy the Kid would have been driving one every time he robbed a bank or a train. Oh, wait, he was riding a Mustang, wasn't he? Just a few horsepower shy of the Ford variety.
"The Dukes of Hazzard", the 2005 feature film, used the 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback in many sceenes. "The Fast and The Furious, Tokyo Drift" used the 1967 Ford Mustang. "The Omega Man", Charlton Heston's classic car chase movie scene, featured the 1970 Ford Mustang Convertible. James Bond rings in with a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 for a frenetic car chase scene along windy sea-side cliffs in 1971's "Diamonds are Forever". If you are not aware how car manufacturers date their cars (a 1965 car would have been built in 1964), then seeing that a 1965 Ford Mustang was in James Bonds' "Goldfinger", filmed in 1964, may confuse you a little.
The Hollywood gurus knew, even before the car was a success on the showroom floors and car sales lots of America, that the Ford Mustang was to be the feature car of Hollywood films. A great majority of classic movies that feature muscle cars have the Ford Mustang featured. The Ford Mustang is the American Muscle Car of choice for mechanically inclined people who keep their garages cleaner than their kitchens.
From movies to television series, and even rock videos, the Ford Mustang is front and center. Bryan Adams uses a 1965 Mustang in a few of his videos, Avril Lavigne uses one, as do many, many other rock bands and pop singers, from Aerosmith to the Ramones in the cult movie "Rock and Roll High School", to Kelly Clarkson of American Idol fame. The Ford Mustang was designed and built to be an instant classic, to be driven fast and to take the corners while accelerating through them. When outfitted properly, the Ford Mustang is, undeniably, the most sought after classic car ever built.
There are lots of classic cars in movies, television shows and videos, but the Ford Mustang is the one that causes everyone's jaw to drop when it first shows up on the screen, and the memories come back of the day that they were a common sight on the roads and highways of North America. Classic movies are built around classic shoot-outs, which involve really cool and big guns, or classic car chase scenes, which invariably include the Ford Mustang, in one of it's many variations.