Iconic
The real Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am Story and photos by John Gunnell, photos courtesy Tim Dye, Pontiac-Oakland Automotive Museum, Pontiac, IL. and Pontiac Transportation Museum, Pontiac, MI
B
urt Reynolds’ 1977 cult film “Smokey and the Bandit” had given national exposure to a Pontiac Turbo Trans Am, and the automaker tried to capitalize on its popularity by featuring the actor, dressed in his cowboy-like “Bandit” attire, in the centrefold of the 1981 Pontiac sales catalog. “Smokey and the Bandit” marked Hollywood stuntman Hal Needham’s initial try at directing a motion picture. The now-legendary film starred Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed and Jackie Gleason. The Bandit character (played by Reynolds) acted as a decoy who tried to get the Sheriff (Jackie Gleason) to chase his speeding car so a bootlegger (Jerry Reed) could sneak by with a semi-truck full of contraband beer. Needham and Reynolds were searching for shooting locations in Georgia when they got invited to a Pontiac dealer meeting at the Road Atlanta race course, where the ’77 Trans Am was being introduced and displayed. The two movie men took a few laps in the Trans Am and decided they had their star car. Six 400-cid-powered Trans Ams were ordered and used in the film. As we all know, “Smokey and the Bandit” was little more than a glorified car chase that lasted an hour-and-a-half. “Smokey and the Bandit” did not do much to help the Firebird’s sagging model-year sales however. That year
40 MUSCLE CAR PLUS MAGAZINE JUNE/JULY 2020
