Bullitt takes pole position

Standard Reporter10 April 2012

Steve McQueen's cult classic Bullitt has topped a list of Britons' all-time favourite driving movies.

The 1968 film - which features arguably the best car chase ever seen on screen - left the competition standing, pushing the Italian Job into second place.

It would seem that they don't make car chases like they used to, with seven of the top 10 films being made before 1980.

The French Connection (1971), starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, came in third - thanks to the famous scene where Hackman speeds through New York chasing a suspect on an overhead train.

Steve McQueen was also featured at No 4 with Le Mans (1971), and modern-day streetracing flick The Fast And The Furious (2001) rounded out the top five

Other films in the top 10 were American Graffiti, Grand Prix, Speed, Thelma and Louise and Mad Max.

The survey of 500 people was commissioned by tyre firm BFGoodrich to launch a season of drive-in-movies in cities across the UK.

Marketing manager Mark Hopkins said: "The use of special effects is now one of the most important factors in a film. But these results show classic movies grip the memory for longer than modern-day blockbusters."

Colin Kennedy, acting editor of Empire film magazine, said that oldfashioned car chases still had broad appeal, adding: "The sequel to The Matrix, famed for its hi-tech wizardry, will feature a 25-minute car chase when it is released later this year."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in