Smokey and the Bandit episodes of the series. 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
Smokey and the Bandit reviews. American Film Institute Lists After the debut of the film the Trans Am became wildly popular with sales almost doubling in two years of the film's release, to the delight of General Motors; in fact, it outsold its Chevrolet Camaro counterpart for the first time ever. Reynolds was given the 1977 vehicle used during promotion of the film as a gift, though the car itself never actually appeared in the film. Because of the popularity of the movie and the sales success of the Trans Am, then President of Pontiac Alex Mair promised to supply Reynolds with a Trans