Deiters confirmed that it was in fact the same car from the brochure. Reynolds saw the car at the festival and signed a 1977 brochure but did not know the significance of the car at the time.Īfter the festival, Reynolds had his agent reach out to the Deiters to inquire if there was any connection to the car and the photo in the brochure. Realizing what they had bought, they contacted Rick Deiters of Trans Am Specialties in Miami to house the car and perform some restoration work, including a repaint and re-installation of a 1977 front-end.Īfter the restoration work was completed, the shop received a call from the Burt Reynolds Institute asking if they could display the car for a film festival in Key West. The car bounced around GM’s warehouses until early 1977, when it was sold to a California Pontiac dealer for around $7400 ($31,895 adjusted for inflation). Callies and his team got to work and, presto change-o, a “1977” Trans Am LE appeared.Īccording to the Pontiac historical society, the 1977 front end was removed following the photo shoot and the 1976 pieces were reinstalled. Pontiac sent a 1977 hood, bumper, headlights, wheels, decals and other trimmings to special projects engineer John Callies at the Van Nuys plant in California. Pontiac executives decided that their best option was to go double or nothing and graft the 1977 nose onto this 1976 model. The company was in a pickle: production of the 1977 LE’s wasn’t scheduled to start for months, but they needed to get a photo of an LE in the brochure. It enjoyed a typical press car life until Pontiac needed an LE Trans Am for a photo spread in the 1977 sales brochure. It was optioned with the 455 V8 and 4-speed manual, as well as T-tops (one of only 110 LE Trans Ams built in this configuration). It began life as a 1976 model that was assigned to GM's west-coast press fleet. This brochure beauty's backstory is a bizarre odyssey. Pontiac declined lending them that specific car, but instead built five other examples for them to use.Īdios, Bandit: Burt Reynolds makes the final jump After seeing the car in the brochure, the Needham and Reynolds reached out to Pontiac and asked if they could have the car for the movie. It was this Pontiac Trans Am LE-or more specifically, a photo of it-that convinced Reynolds and director Hal Needham that this would be a good buddy for Bandit. It would be hard to fathom the Bandit behind the wheel of anything other than a black and gold Pontiac, but had it not been for a photograph in a brochure, the late Burt Reynolds may have been east bound and down in a Chevrolet Corvette or a Dodge Charger. The car, a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am LE, was such an integral part of the plot that the film’s director considered it a character.

The portrayal of a smooth-talking southern trucker blasting across Dixieland on an escapade to deliver illegal booze is essential viewing for any connoisseur of car culture.

Over 40 years after its release, Smokey and the Bandit is still a spectacular fable of automotive fantasy.

Burt reynolds smokey and the bandit