'76 455 TA was man trans only and the movie cars were automatic, so no to the 455 question.
Filming started Aug 30, 1976. The pic with snow on the ground doesn't appear to connect with the 1st film, I'm wondering if maybe that is a later than '77 model used for a sequel.
A news report from mid Dec '76 stated that the filming had recently wrapped up in Atlanta.
It was a very, very low budget film and a surprise hit. Hal Needham the stunt driver turned director of the film reportedly had wanted more cars but PMD only obliged with 4 TAs. As the film was to be released in '77, PMD wanted them to look like '77s but supposedly had yet to produce the '77 model so they went with retrofitted '76 models.
Hobbyists with more knowledge of the TA than me have noted specific details that support the '76 vs. '77 contention.
Burt Reynolds was given a '77 TA to use for promotional work when the film was released. But it was not used in the movie.
The movie cars were all badly damaged and the one used for the bridge jump (driven by stuntman Needham) was pretty much destroyed.
I'm not familiar with the sequels.
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