Three generations of fans are now buying the “Bandit” Trans Am they’ve always wanted. Now a classic, Smokey and the Bandit remains a driving force behind the popularity of these cars nearly 50 years later, making it one of the most successful product placements of all time.
Appearing just 11 minutes into the film, it immediately became the dream car of millions, giving a massive boost to Trans Am sales through the end of the generation’s run in 1981. In the action comedy, Reynolds drives a black and gold 1977 Trans Am with T-Tops.
How many trans am in smokey and the bandit movie#
The first Smokey was a huge hit, grossing more than any other movie released in 1977, besides Star Wars. But the actor most often associated with the car is, of course, Burt Reynolds.įrom 1977 to 1981, Reynolds drove Pontiac Trans Ams in three popular films: Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and Smokey and the Bandit II. Throughout the 1970s, Pontiac Trans Ams were driven on the big screen by a long list of Hollywood A-listers, including Sylvester Stallone, John Wayne, and even Steve McQueen.
Here’s everything you need to know before you buy yours. And today, after several decades of middling interest, their values are on the rise. It didn’t add up to much at first, but in 1970, Pontiac redesigned the Firebird, along with the Trans Am, and its second generation would go on to sell in huge numbers.īest known for its massive “Screaming Chicken” hood decal, the second gen Trans Am was produced for more than a decade, making it one of the most successful American muscle cars ever. Named for the Sports Car Club of America’s popular “Trans Am” racing series, the model cost Pontiac a $5.00 royalty for every Trans Am it sold. Launched in 1969, just 697 were sold that year.īut the highly stylized and high-performance version of the Pontiac Firebird would soon become the automotive icon of the following decade and a bona fide favorite of car collectors all over the world. Originally the Pontiac Trans Am was a flop. Of course, thanks to the movie, sales of Trans-Am skyrocketed, and if Pontiac kept all the Trans-Ams instead of crushing them, each of the cars could have been sold for high prices.By Scott Oldham Buyer’s Guide: Pontiac Trans Am (1970-1981) All of the Trans-Ams, including last surviving one which had no damage at all since it was only used as camera car and for photo stills, were crushed after filming was done on the orders by Pontiac because they only donated the cars to the production, and same thing happened to most if not all police cars. And couple things which were said and confirmed by everyone is how seven of the Trans-Ams got completely destroyed, not just while filming some heavy stunts like famous river jump, but also some minor stunts like car crashing through all the mail boxes. Over the years some fans managed to find and ask people who worked on the film or just watched the filming about all this, and the answer which they most often got was how there were eight 1977 special edition Trans-Ams and about the same number (although some said ten) of police cars. Before his death, Burt Reynolds said in interview how they used twelve Trans-Ams and how most of them got destroyed during filming.
Some like Hal Needham gave conflicting reports about them only using three or five 1977 Trans-Ams and few police cars. Ever since the film's release, there were so many different rumors about exact number of cars used during filming and what happened to them later, even some official sources like Wikipedia often got their info wrong.