Since Susan Encinas Text page vanished from the Cyperspace and Anthony Bologna worked with her together on this article, we allow us to share the elaborated article with you here again. 

It was a plain text page and published in Muscle Car Review 1987:

THE GREATEST CHASE OF ALL

Picture: Courtesy Anthony Bologna for www.ponysite.de only, Car chase scene restaged with Dave Kunz and Scott Ullrich replicas in2007

An inside look at how they filmed BULLITT, the granddaddy of car pursuit 
movies. 

BY: Susan Encinas


Where were you in 1968? You might have opened up the movie section of the 
newspaper and read a review about the newly released movie BULLITT. One 
such review, by the National Observer, said, " Whatever you have heard 
about the auto chase scene in BULLITT is probably true...a terrifying, 
deafening shocker." Life magazine wrote, "... a crime flick with a taste 
of genius...an action sequence that must be compared to the best in film 
history."
With reviews like that, and sharing double billing with the hit 
BONNIE AND CLYDE, BULLITT devastated audiences with incredible scenes of 
leaping, screaming automobiles that seemed to fly off the screen. Among 
all of Hollywood's road movies, BULLITT unquestionably made film history 
with its original car chase sequences. There may have been chase scenes 
before, but nothing before or since has equalled the intensity and impact 
of BULLITT. The scenes, which were novelty then but classic now, were 
brilliantly executed. Over the years, fans have asked questions about the 
two cars used in the movie, a 1968 Dodge Charger and a 1968 Mustang GT. 
Of all the musclecars offered in the late sixties, why were these two 
cars chosen, and how were they modified to survive the torturous driving?
It's been 19 years since BULLITT was filmed, however the magic of 
this special movie has not diminished. 

We questioned some of the crew who 
participated in the filming, and asked them how the chase was coordinated 
and shot, who was involved in the chase scenes and what happened during 
the filming. Steve McQueen and director Peter Yates brought in some of 
the best names in the business in preparation for the filming of 
BULLITT's chase scenes, and we were able to track some of them down. We 
interviewed Carey Loftin, stunt coordinator for BULLITT and occasional 
driver of the BULLITT Mustang; Bud Elkins, the main stunt driver of the 
Mustang, aside from McQueen; and Loren Janes, who had doubled for McQueen 
for nearly 20 years and stunted for McQueen during the airport sequence 
at the end of the film. We also interviewed Max Balchowsky, the man 
responsible for maintaining the Mustang GT and the Charger throughout the 
filming. Finally, we spoke with Ron Riner, who acted as transportation 
coordinator for Warner Brothers on the BULLITT set.

We set out to learn what the recipe is for such a successful 
chase sequence. What we found out was that there is none; it was pretty 
much a hit and miss thing and, as Ron Riner put it, "other people have 
tried to put the same combination together to get the same results and 
haven't really done it. Before we'd shoot a scene, everyone, the location 
people, the police department, the stuntmen, the director and Steve, 
would get into discussions. We realized we didn't know what to do because 
no one had ever done this before." What hadn't been done before was a 
chase scene, done "at speed"(up to 110 miles per hour) through the city 
streets and not on a movie studio back lot. Bud Elkins said, "I think it 
was the first time they did a complete car chase at normal camera speed. 
What you saw is what really happened. It was real!"

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. You can undercrank the camera so you can 
control everything in the scene. Then when it's run, it'll look like high 
speed and the car will appear to be handling real well." McQueen refused 
to hear of it, and advised Loftin that money was no object. "Fine," 
Loftin replied. "Until you run out of money, you've got to stop me!" 
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."
BULLITT was also the first picture done with live sound (some of 
which was added later as needed). For example, additional sound was 
needed because on occasion a tire squeal was not picked up by the 
microphones. Bud Elkins remembers blowing the rear end of the Mustang at 
Willow Springs winding the gears for engine noise to be added to the 
soundtrack.

To prepare himself, his crew and the cars for the movie sequence, 
McQueen and company went to the Cotati race course near San Francisco. 
"Steve handled the Mustang real well," recalled Riner. "He flowed well 
with the car." Also on hand was the late Bill Hickman, the fantastic 
stunt driver who would handle the menacing Dodge Charger in BULLITT. 
"Bill came in with the Charger," Riner said. "And he flipped it around 
and he slid in backwards. He was excellent."

The BULLITT chase scenes were shot around Easter of 1968. When 
city officials were first approached about shooting in the streets of San 
Francisco, they balked at the proposed high speeds and the idea of filming 
part of the chase on the Golden Gate Bridge. Eventually, it was agreed to 
keep the chase within only a few city blocks. McQueen was the prime 
motivator behind the chase sequence, and then director Peter Yates and 
Carey Loftin worked out logistics behind the scenes.
McQueen hadn't planned on having a stunt driver. Relates Carey 
Loftin:"The first thing Steve said was, he was going to do his own 
driving. Well, I wasn't going to argue, so I said, 'okay, fine'."
McQueen's stint as a stunt driver didn't last long, however. "He overshot 
a turn, smoked the tires and everything. It's in the film," said Bud 
Elkins. "When Steve did that, it wasn't on purpose. He goofed up, and 
they said, 'that's it, get him out of the car'. The next morning they 
were spraying my hair down and cutting it. Consequently, it was Elkins 
who drove the car down hilly Chestnut Avenue. Also, according to the book 
entitled The Films of Steve McQueen by Casey St. Charnaz, the other 
reason for McQueen's removal from the Mustang was that McQueen's wife at 
the time found out that he wanted to do all his own driving and 
apparently SHE had some input into the decision not to have him do all 
the driving.

As director Peter Yates prepared to begin filming the chase 
scenes, there were four drivers, McQueen, Bud Elkins, Bill Hickman, and 
in a few scenes, Carey Loftin. Loren Janes tells up, "Carey Loftin was 
easily the best car man in the business. He brought in Bill Hickman to 
play a part and drive the other car." Loftin recalls: "I asked (the studio)
what kind of guy were they looking for? And they described Bill Hickman, 
who was working on the LOVE BUG at the same time. Well, I said, he's 
sitting right here. They really described Bill Hickman."
The screenplay of the movie was written by Alan Trustman, based 
on the novel, Mute Witness by Robert L. Pike. But the story, according to 
Ron Riner was not the key element to the success of the movie. Riner 
says, "I think basically the story was long and confusing, so when the 
chase came along it was so good it gave more substance to the movie. I 
think it really saved the film, because most people don't remember the 
story, they remember the chase. You couldn't really remember the complete 
story, if somebody asked you, unless you read the script, because the 
script was much better and made more sense."

As filming of the chase progressed, Loftin wanted to see the 
daily work (rushes). He was told that Mr. McQueen wouldn't like that. 
Loftin insisted, and threatened to quit unless he could view the daily 
work. "It worked out really good," Loftin said with a smile. "Because as 
we watched the rushes, you could hear a pin drop. I was sitting 3 or 4 
rows in front of him (McQueen) and when it was over, he came down, stuck 
out his hand, and said, 'Mr. Loftin, when you need me for a closeup you 
WILL let me know, won't you?"

As for the cars, 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." The two 1968, four-speed Mustang GT fastbacks were purchased 
primarily because, promotionally, they were the best deal at the time. As 
far as Bud Elkins can recall, he feels the reason they used the Mustang 
was because "they wanted it to look like a cop car. This was his personal 
car and he wasn't a rich guy, he didn't have a real nice car. And it was 
Steve's idea to put the big dent in the fender, to show that it got 
banged up and he didn't have enough money or the time to fix it."
Warner Brothers purchased two four-speed Dodge Chargers... "at a
Chrysler dealership in Glendale California," recalls Ron Riner. He also 
said the Dodge Chargers had to be purchased without promotional 
consideration, but after the success of the movie and the increase in 
Charger sales, Chrysler was more than willing to be generous with their 
vehicles to Warner Brothers for future projects. Mr. Riner posed an 
interesting premise: "did you realize that there wouldn't be an 01 car 
(the General Lee in Dukes of Hazzard) if we hadn't done BULLITT and Dodge 
hadn't sold so many Chargers?"

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. "Carey said they were gonna do a lot of jumping 
with it, and he said it had to be strong. So I was a little hesitant. I 
didn't know if they wanted to go over 50 foot cliffs. I had no idea what 
they wanted to do until I got there." To beef up the Mustang, Balchowsky 
started with the suspension, reinforcing the shock towers, adding 
crossmembers and reinforcements, exchanging the springs for replacements 
with higher deflection rates and replacing the stock shocks with Konis. 
All suspension parts were magnafluxed and replaced where nescessary. The 
engine also came in for some modifications, including milling the heads, 
adding an aftermarket high performance ignition system and reworking the 
the carburetor and adding headers.

On the Mustang, Mr. Balchowsky recalls, "everybody suggested I put 
a Holley on the Mustang, it was better than the Ford carburetor. I've 
always had good luck with Fords, and didn't want to spend money if i 
didn't have to putting a Holley on. It ran good, needed just a few little 
adjustments. I changed the distributor and all, but basically never had 
the engine apart on the Ford." Ron Riner remembers "the stock Mustang had 
undercarriage modifications, not only for the movie, but for Steve 
McQueen. Steve liked the sound of the car and he wanted mags. We hopped 
it up because Steve wanted the car hopped up. He was still a kid." 
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 Elkins 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 Elkins 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."

There was an incident which alerted the crew to take extra 
precautions while doing the car chase. "A child," Riner told us, "maybe 
five years old, came out of a building and stepped out on to the street. 
We stopped and brought in more stunt people and more cars and I think the 
theory was if anybody had a problem, they'd make a barricade out of the 
vehicles. The problem never came up again, or I never saw a problem." 
Incredible, considering there were only two policemen on the scene as 
compared to the 40 policemen utilized for the chase in MAD MAD WORLD. 
Carey Loftin says, "the extras were a big help. If there was an alley or 
any place that wasn't covered, they'd come and tell me. They were real 
good." 

Because some of the stunts were so well orchestrated, they did 
not look like stunts at all. Recalls Carey Loftin: "Several years after 
BULLITT, an extra (on another set) was talking about BULLITT, and he was 
saying how it was amazing how accidents get into films and he said that 
the best one he ever saw was the scene where Bud Elkins did the spill off 
the motorcycle. I let him go ahead and tell it. He said 'the cops were 
watching the action and weren't watching the traffic and this motorcycle 
guy slipped through, and got into the scene and ended up in the picture.' 
I said, 'you really think that's what happened?' The extra said, ' I 
know, I saw it, I was there.' And I said that's the way it's supposed to 
look, because it wasn't supposed to look like a stunt." Ron Riner 
comments on the scene, "I didn't know about the stunt and I was supposed 
to get the information!"

There were THREE cars racing wildly through the streets of San 
Francisco, making car chase history, although only two are seen in the 
movie. The third vehicle, a camera car, was driven by Pat Houstis, while 
cinematographer Bill Fraker manned the camera. Said Ron Riner, "Pat 
Houstis was excellent and he was in his prime at the time." Carey Loftin 
has nothing but praise for Mr. Houstis and an amusing recollection. "Pat 
Houstis, a terrific driver, had just built the camera car, and he showed 
it to me. He did a real good job on it. It was a Corvette chassis, and he 
had stripped all the stuff off and built a good suspension, good engine 
and everything. But it looked like hell."
His confidence in Mr. Houstis is evident as he relates another 
incident. " We had one scene where Pat was following Steve on Guadalupe 
Canyon Highway, a beautiful road. We wanted some shots of the Mustang 
really burning the corners. We did it several times. The operator of the 
first camera said, 'Steve's not getting his foot into it, he's a better 
driver than that.' I went to Steve and said, 'you know Pat Houstis is a 
terrific driver.' Steve said 'yeah, yeah he is.' I said, 'he knows 
responsibility too. You know what that man would do if I was driving the 
car in front of him and anything would happen? He'd run into a parked car 
or hit a tree just to miss me. Now think what he'd do for the star? Now 
get into that car and get your foot into it!' We got the shot on the next 
take."

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."

The gentleman in the car, playing Bill Hickman's partner in 
crime, was actor Paul Genge. According to Ron Riner, Mr. Genge, who 
played a very realistic tough guy, "seemed like he had hardly ever seen a 
gun before. They scared the hell out of him. In the scenes in the Charger 
with Hickman, he was scared to death. After two or three time we almost 
had to bodily put tranqiulizers in him, and put him in the car. Mr. 
Hickman was one of the coolest drivers I've ever met." Max Balchowsky 
tells us, "there was a scene where the Charger passed a truck, and they 
only wanted to leave so much room on one side, and Hickman did it 
perfectly when he came by and took the bumper off the truck. That was a 
super shot. Throughout the chase sequences, some of them were accidents 
but, they looked fantastic- Hickman was terrific."

To achieve the stunning conclusion to the chase in which the 
Charger loses control, leaps an Armco fence and plows into a gasoline 
station, Loftin rigged up a tow and release set up hidden from the 
camera's view between the Mustang and the Charger. Dressed to double 
McQueen, Loftin laterally towed the Charger at 90 mph with its two dummy 
passengers and at the right moment released the Charger into the 
nitro-loaded gas station. Unfortunately, the Charger missed the station, 
but the charges were set off and the explosion, thanks to some deft film 
editing, had the desired effect and was added to the movie.
There seemed to be a general atmosphere of professionalism and 
mutual admiration on the set. Loren Janes tells us, " I loved to see a 
lot of the little things in Steve's films. The best teeny things came up 
in it, the best stuff was Steve's ideas. Like when they're (Hickman and 
Genge) going up the hill and they're after Steve and all of a sudden he 
disappears and they can't see him and the guy (Hickman) looks up and 
Steve appears in his rear view mirror. In other words, he changed it, now 
he's chasing them. Well that was a great turn of events. It was 
fantastic. It was WILD reckless driving, but it was planned and 
coordinated. There was class to the BULLITT chase, there was a reason for 
it, and that's one of the key things people forget: the greatest stunt 
in the world is worthless if there isn't a reason or story to it and 
BULLITT had a story point all the way through and a reason.
The enduring scenes of the forboding Charger and the powerful 
Mustang have etched themselves in film making history. The sequences were 
the brain child of Steve McQueen; He knew what he wanted and how he 
wanted it to appear on film. No one has duplicated the electricity or the 
savage ferocity that manifested itself in BULLITT chase scenes, and it's 
doubtful any one ever will.