Here is his report about the 4th most important day in his life, but the best in his Mustang life...
Remark: Why 2nd Bullitt Movie Mustang?
Because the 1st one is known to exist for a much longer time and resides in
Tennessee.
My day with the
1968 Mustang Fastback “Baja Bullitt”
It
was about 3 months ago, I was attending a good friend and customer at my
bussines when Ralph Garcia Jr, Don Luis and 1 or 2 more co-workers walked in the
door. Just to be clear I did not say
it was the most important day of my life because I have 3 days that have that
place already: 1.-The day
I met my now wife Quinora 2.-The day my daughter Hawa was born 3.-The day my son Carlo was born
I had met Ralph , as I have met many
people over the counter or by referals , I sell fasteners for a living and I've
been involved in Mustangs since I was 17 years old.
My dad bought me a 64 ˝ coupe so we could work on it
together, he of course giving the technical guidance and paying the bills and me
wrenching on it. I still own that coupe today, its currently being transformed
in to a fastback in order to fulfill
my long life dream of owning one, it will be passed on
to my daughter.
Ralph walked in that day with Don Luis ,
looking and asking for specialty
fasteners, he told me a good friend refered him, he told me he just opened a
shop here locally and was doing Eleanor conversions,
we talked about an hour then afterwards he invited me to go look at his
work at his shop.
Sure enough, I drove over, very
modest shop, and he has a handfull of
fastbacks, convertibles, coupes , all in various stages of modifications, most
getting the Eleanor treatment.
That day out of the blue, Ralph hits me
with what I would never expect to hear in person at my store:
"Do you know the
Bullitt
Mustang?"
I surely answered that yes, as I often lurk the internet
and read almost all ponysite.de and all its stories.
Then he continues I
have one of them……. I truly could not belivee him and
thought he was bullshitting me."I've
found one of the Bullitt Mustangs"
he says again, I've never
seen him so nervous, I'd tought he faint right there
on the spot.
He takes out his cell phone and proceeds
to show me the pictures of the Vin, Title
in both the owners names and Kevin Marti’s
report and emails.
I was
blown away by all these, more than often I wondered how many “truly” collector
cars made it in to Mexico, as at one point or another
they were just used cars, salvage or junk. And we here
in Mexico have a long story of buying used cars from
the US. I had often asked the old guys around here
about vintage Shelbys with no positive answer.
Of course I asked immediately to see it,
but told Ralph to let me know when it would be a good time, I'd
figured it was not going to be nice on my part to bug and nag him, so I said, I
will wait till he calls me or lets me know and not bother him.
He comes back a couple of times to the
store, we talk about the car, and my visit, without a negative but not a set
date, I wait patiently, until he
politely tells me "Bring
everybody that you want to see it and take pictures.
He starts telling me that he wants to
have people come look at it from the states, but wants to show it to the world,
I graciously offered to set him up with one of my friends that have reputable
fab shops to see if they will host the showing , but we left
it at that.
On his next visit he says that yes,
he wants to unveil the car to the world and was trying to get
the dealership just crossing the border to host it.
I told him I have 2 good friends that know the owners of the local Ford
dealer...if he'd
like I would try to get him an introduction, to which
he agreed.
I make some calls, and finally am
able to get in touch with Rafael E. the
manager of the local Ford dealership.
I explain to him what has been discovered, and he promptly set an appointment
for us with the PR lady at the dealership.
I let Ralph know, but request he bring
all the documentation that he has so he can sell his case to the dealership.
When we arrive at the dealer Ms. Marcela C. graciously received us and to my
surprise they already did there due diligence on the car.
And
to say that they were excited was understatement. They agreed to host the
unveiling on march 3rd. and they take care of everything on there
side, Ralph just needed to bring the car.
Ralph tells me that he's
going to ask the dealer to let me put some advertising of my bussines for my
time and help, I thank him for the good gesture, but tell him, its
his day… I'd
just be happy to take him on the offer to see the car before the unveiling,
privately with nobody .
So I am
patiently awaiting my time to go see the car, weeks have been busy at work, I
invite a good friend to come with me, Mustang
fan also, Edgardo C. He texts me everyday, Bullitt,
Bullitt, Bullitt,
hahahaha, I reply I'm busy ...let
me clear a full day and we will go have breakfast and see the car, without any
pressure.
That day finally comes on Feb 28th.
We drive over to Ralphs shop, he's not in, but his
workers are, they let us see the car.
To say im bedasseld, mesmerized, and
numb just to see it is ...is an understatement, the
car is on jackstands, no front suspension, 9” rear end installed, it looks like
it has been recently repainted, and they are slapping
parts on it… still I start looking , staring and touching it…. To think this
care tore it up in the San Francisco streets, behind the wheel the king of cool
himself, in one if not the most iconic mustang movie chase of all time, just
surpasses me, I just could not belive it was beside that same car………….
Ralph comes in, me and Edgardo C. start
chatting with everybody about the car, cars and general, and start taking pictures
of it and with it. Time stood still for almost 2 hours…. WOW and WOW.
The seats are laying on the ground and I
tell Ralph I want to sit in the same seat Steve sat in
and take a picture. He
graciously accepts, I pick up the seat and install it, proceed to sit in it and
look at the empty dash… at a worn steering wheel and
imagine the darn thing revving like crazy while going sideways or doing jumps
while chasing the Challenger.
Ralph tells me to go ahead and let the
world know of the cars existence, he gives me his
blessing to upload the pictures on the Internet, and
like they say... the rest is
history, that’s my story of me and the “Baja Bullit”.
I'd just like
to wrap up saying that day Feb 28th and the
following have been the highlight of my Mustang
hobbie, I have had the chance to make great friends with this hobbie, Ralph, Don
Luis and the workers at his
shop are some of the many people, I hope this will continue happening.
