Smokey & the Bandit Trans-AM

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

Burt 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.

production of the General Motors F-car came in at 20,541 base Firebirds, 10,938 Esprits, 5,927 Formulas and 33,493 Trans Ams. One thing that drove sales down by a whopping 34 percent was probably the price tag on the black-and-gold Special Edition Trans Am. In top trim it listed for $6,649. That sounds like a bargain basement window sticker today, but it was big money in 1977 and kept the line of buyers short.

The summer 1981 release of a sequel movie called “Smokey and the Bandit II” —featuring a Turbo 4.9 Trans Am — prompted a New Jersey company called SLP (Street Legal Performance) to release a Trans Am Bandit model that had aftermarket upgrades like a special 462-cid 380-hp V8, Doug Nash five-speed manual gearbox, Recaro seats, a Blaupunkt sound system and Goodyear Eagle GT tires for $30,000.