IKTR x0

Prettiest Fandragon Above You x2

Dragon Above You Wish You Had x1


He's the star of Smokey and the Bandit!
Burt Reynolds? Heccckk no; he as in the Trans Am I anthropomorphize cars, remember?
The tale of the "Bandit" Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is one of the most impressive examples of branding to have ever graced the Silver Screen. It also helped Pontiac fight off the emissions-choked, low-performance image that dogged the entire American auto industry during the Malaise Era, offering a lone bright spot in a dark time for anyone who cared about speed, power or handling.
The Pontiac connection was at first little more than luck. Needham had seen images of the Trans Am in a magazine and become infatuated with the concept of convincing General Motors to let him wreck a fleet of them, on camera, with Reynolds in the driver's seat. The pitch was that a little of the fame would rub off on the brand's sportiest model and help goose sales.

Pontiac was willing to listen, of course—but they had reservations about just how successful "Smokey and the Bandit" would be, so they didn't give Needham carte blanche. Instead of the six Trans Ams he asked for, they provided him with four (along with a couple cop cars). This proved to be the bare minimum required to get the film in the can, as three of the Firebirds were destroyed during filming (with the bridge jump claiming one of the victims), and the fourth getting so beat-up that it had to be pushed around by another vehicle to finish its scenes, as the engine would no longer fire.

The cars that Pontiac delivered to the set of "Smokey and the Bandit" were mongrels, 1976 model year coupes that had been outfitted with the '77 facelift that would be on the market during movie's planned release date. This meant they had the quad headlights and revised grille that would go on to define the Trans Am in the minds of the millions of people who saw the movie, first in theaters, then on VHS and finally on its seemingly endless cable TV re-run tour.

Slightly less generous was the GM exec who had promised Burt Reynolds a Trans Am of his own if the movie did well. When Reynolds tried to collect, he discovered that the man who had made the promise had retired—and that the new management had no interest in following through on the deal.

Today, the Bandit Trans Am remains a cultural force, with continuation models and pro touring restomods built to resemble the originals that are still plying roads, car shows and drag strips. Few other cars can claim the same kind of late-'70s legacy as Pontiac's Firebird, and it all started with a love of the Banquet Beer.

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Bandit
1976 Pontiac TransAm