The Scoop Hobby News & Views

KISSIMMEE, Fla. _ Twenty-five thousand people were on their feet cheering when Sean Kiernan ceased being the owner of the only surviving 1968 Mustang fastback from Steve McQueen’s movie “Bullitt.” As the gavel met the sounding board Jan. 10, Mecum Auctions’ Matt Moravec announced that lot F150 was “Sold for $3.4 million!” and the Tennessee family suddenly had a very comfortable nest egg.

That hammer clap also marked the end of a 30-year-long journey that Kiernan and I — through a weird chain of coincidences and pure luck — had been on together. He was just 10 years old in 1989 when his father, Robert, told him the Kiernans had an old Mustang sitting in a garage in New Jersey. It had been in a famous movie chase scene, but had not been driven since 1980. Less than a week later, Robert called me at my magazine staff job in California to talk about the car. I told him that