pontiac trans am was in smokey and the bandit as firebird.
pontiac trans am was in smokey and the bandit as firebird.
pontiac trans am in smokey and the bandit?
firebird
needham saw an advertisement for the soon-to-be-released 1977 pontiac trans am and knew right away that would be the bandit's car, or, as needham referred to it, a character in the movie. he contacted pontiac and an agreement was made that four 1977 trans ams and two pontiac lemans 4-door sedans would be provided for the movie. the trans ams were actually 1976-model cars with 1977 front ends. (from 1970 to 1976, both the firebird/trans am and chevrolet camaro had two round headlights, and in 1977, the firebird/trans am was changed to four rectangular headlights, while the camaro remained unchanged.) the decals were also changed to 1977-style units, as evidenced by the engine size callouts on the hood scoop being in liters rather than cubic inches, as had been the case in 1976. the hood scoop on these cars says "6.6 litre", which in 1977 would have denoted an oldsmobile 403-equipped car or a non w-72, 180 hp version of the 400 pontiac engine. all four of the cars were badly damaged during production, one of which was all but destroyed during the jump over the dismantled bridge. the trans am used for the dismantled bridge jump was equipped with a booster rocket, the same type that was used by evel knievel during his failed snake river canyon jump. needham served as the driver for the stunt (standing in for reynolds) while lada st. edmund was in the same car (standing in for sally field during the jump). by the movie's ending, the final surviving trans am and lemans were both barely running and the other cars had become parts donors to keep them running. notably, this gives rise to various continuity errors with justice's patrol car, which during some chase sequences is shown with a black rear fender which then reverts back to the car's bronze color again in later scenes. when it is finally torn off along with the car's roof in the impact with the girder, the missing fender still reappears later on in the film. the burdettes' car is a 1974 cadillac eldorado convertible painted in "candy red" color scheme, and is seen briefly at the beginning of the movie, and in the final scene as bandit, snowman, fred, and frog use it to make their escape.
smokey and the bandit
this version of the pontiac trans sport was also sold in europe as a chevrolet, alongside the opel/vauxhall sintra; however, unlike the sintra, which was based on the pontiac trans sport, pontiac montana, chevrolet venture, oldsmobile silhouette and the previous generation buick gl8, but wore the european opel or british vauxhall badges and trim, the chevrolet trans sport (as it was known) was trimmed and badged exactly like the pontiac trans sport, the only differences being where chevrolet badges were used in place of the pontiac badges. in all cases, the european-market vans used different front, side and rear lighting equipment, different seat belts and sundry other safety items, to comply with ece regulations which differ from us safety standards. these models were discontinued between 2003 and 2005, depending on the market. despite limited sales in most of europe, the vehicle was particularly successful in sweden - where it was the best selling minivan for a while. while production ended in 2005, european stock lasted until 2007.
pontiac trans sport