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  #21  
Old 07-06-2020, 03:37 PM
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Originally Posted by 77 Canamman View Post
The door pull straps, the sheen of the seat material, and seat belt escutcheons on the seats are other clues to support the use of 1976 T/A's in this film.

I have replicated all of these details on my car, plus the correct CB antenna mounted to the roof.
I give, on the fact that the movie cars were all automatics.......If GM went to all the trouble to put 77 front clips on 76 cars (and shakers)...76 455 T/A's with automatics wouldn't have been anything difficult to pull off, although 76 455's likely didn't run any better than the choked down 455's of that year. (Yes, I have read on this thread of witnesses to the 76's be 400's...kinda for sure...)

My only street racing experience was against a 76 black TA, 455. He had about 30,000 miles on his car, mine about 4,000 miles....It was a dead heat!

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  #22  
Old 07-06-2020, 07:53 PM
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Most of the 'twisty' road scenes were shot in White County, GA where I was born and raised. I hung out at a local service station back then and I remember a car carrier headed south with a load ( 5 or 6) of the wrecked TA's from the movie. I don't remember what condition they were actually in, just that they were wrecked pretty bad. Wonder where those went? Any idea Mike Davis?

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Old 07-06-2020, 10:51 PM
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From an HPP interview with Hal Needham:

HPP: How were the Pontiacs that you had gotten for the first movie modified to do the stunts?
HN: They weren't modified, except the one for the bridge jump. We were using a dirt road and the stuntman only had a short distance to get up to speed. We tried running the car stock with an automatic and it wouldn't get it done; it wouldn't go fast enough. Well, I had a NASCAR race team, so I just called my shop and said, "Send me up a 750 hp engine and a stick trans." Those are the only modifications we did, aside from safety equipment.

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Old 07-06-2020, 10:57 PM
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The only problem with this 2007 claim, according to NASCAR records, Needham’s race team formed in 1981 long after the movie was made.

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Old 07-06-2020, 11:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry H. View Post
Most of the 'twisty' road scenes were shot in White County, GA where I was born and raised. I hung out at a local service station back then and I remember a car carrier headed south with a load ( 5 or 6) of the wrecked TA's from the movie. I don't remember what condition they were actually in, just that they were wrecked pretty bad. Wonder where those went? Any idea Mike Davis?
Not sure where they went. I will ask. I know the cars were delivered to Plaza Pontiac on LaVista Rd. near Northlake Mall. I think when they were finished with them they went back there for a while.

I talked to my dad today and he said after thinking about it the car used where he picks up Sally Fields was a 4 speed. So I did a little digging and looks like he was right.
Seen here at about 22 seconds when he takes off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQarn6FLahM

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Old 07-08-2020, 07:26 AM
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This one was sloppy..A honeycomb on the front, and the license plate was upside down.

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Old 07-08-2020, 07:35 AM
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Stunt man Alan Gibbs with one of the T/A's.. All Honeycombs on it.


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  #28  
Old 07-08-2020, 07:38 AM
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Just steel wheels..


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  #29  
Old 07-08-2020, 07:57 AM
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These are great behind the scenes pics

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Old 07-08-2020, 08:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 77 Canamman View Post
The door pull straps, the sheen of the seat material, and seat belt escutcheons on the seats are other clues to support the use of 1976 T/A's in this film.

I have replicated all of these details on my car, plus the correct CB antenna mounted to the roof.
My 77 trans am was built the 3rd week of sept. 1976. It came with a 76 interior, door panels, seats, window switch.

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Old 07-08-2020, 08:10 AM
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I have no reason, given most of the evidence that at the least, some 1976 cars were used. My question is why? If the 77 nose was available for swap why not just use a 77 car? Could PMD, knowing that the cars would in all likely hood be destroyed cut their losses and send them leftovers?

  #32  
Old 07-08-2020, 09:10 AM
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My 77 trans am was built the 3rd week of sept. 1976. It came with a 76 interior, door panels, seats, window switch.
Does it also have the 8K tach?

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  #33  
Old 07-08-2020, 09:17 AM
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The body’s are the same. Lol

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  #34  
Old 07-08-2020, 09:17 AM
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Originally Posted by TAKerry View Post
I have no reason, given most of the evidence that at the least, some 1976 cars were used. My question is why? If the 77 nose was available for swap why not just use a 77 car? Could PMD, knowing that the cars would in all likely hood be destroyed cut their losses and send them leftovers?
What is needed is the timeframe when 1977 Trans Ams were going into production. Back then, it was typically in early August. The movie began production in early August, 1976, and ended in late September, 1976. This photo was from one of the last scenes shot. There might have not been adequate time to get normal production 1977 Trans Ams built, then shipped out to the area of the movie production, hence why it was easier to have the new for 1977 exterior parts shipped out, and installed on the 1976 cars.


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  #35  
Old 07-08-2020, 10:00 AM
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My understanding was that the '77 simply wasn't in production yet. The components were already in production. Not sure where the cars were converted or by who. But reportedly Needham had seen the ad for the not yet produced '77 and decided that would be the Bandit's car. The ad he saw was supposedly a '76 455 TA. PMD shipped the needed components and decals to their special projects engineer, John Callies, in California and his team converted it to the '77 appearance for the advertisement. It was reconverted to a '76 and PMD eventually sold it to a dealer. That car exists in the hands of a collector who discovered its history and connection to the movie and restored to look like the '77 as it did in the advertisement. I don't know if Callies had anything to do with converting the TAs given to Needham.

Mike Davis, if you are referring to the sound track sounding like a 4 spd car being shifted, the sounds of the cars in movies were often not the actual car seen on film. In the case of SATB, reportedly the sounds on the sound track were recorded from the famous '55 American Graffiti Chevy (also the Two Lane Blacktop).

Another story goes that the Bandit TA used a rocket booster to propel it over the creek. At least a couple websites repeat that claim.

Needham had done a promotional film for GM and used a hydrogen peroxide rocket to launch a pick-up truck over a 140 ft. wide canal for that dramatic jump.

I do not know when that was done or whether it was the first time Needham had done it.

Evel Knievel had used a steam rocket for his Snake Canyon jump around '74. So Needham surely had an idea about how it could be done.

Needham did put a rocket booster in a TA for the movie Hooper done a year after SATB. That car made a record setting movie jump but that TA was launched without a driver as I understand it (see quote to follow).

The Mulberry Creek jump was far shorter. I don't see any evidence that a rocket nozzle extends from the rear of the car. And the car only flies about 100 ft.

With all his experience, I'm sure Needham and the stunt driver Alan Gibbs would have easily figured how fast the car needed to go to make that jump.

Doubtful he needed a rocker booster to make it happen. Whether he needed a more powerful engine than the 400 in the TA coupled to the TH400, I sure don't know but personally I think it is unlikely.

Gibbs died in '88 so he isn't around to ask.

But this article in Variety magazine from '93 provides another Needham quote.

Stunt meister Hal Needham directed both films. “The big one (jump) that I did in ‘Hooper’ flew about 430 feet… We put that car across there with a 25,000 -horsepower rocket engine. But we didn’t have anybody in the car. It was empty.

“The one in ‘Smokey’ — the one Alan Gibbs did — he jumped about 60, 70 feet. But that was done with a souped-up engine, just with the power and speed of the car.”


I have no idea what distance they had available to get the TA up to speed before it hit the ramp. I just can't imagine that a 4 spd 455 would have been any better at achieving the speed than the auto trans 400. Souped-up? The TA engine was "souped-up" relative to most any other '76 factory engine. Is that what Needham meant? Was Needham able to acquire a NASCAR engine? Was the jump impossible without such an engine?

Interesting discussion.

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Old 07-08-2020, 10:12 AM
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It’s harder to get parts for a car that is t out yet.

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  #37  
Old 07-08-2020, 10:35 AM
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Quote:
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I have no idea what distance they had available to get the TA up to speed before it hit the ramp. I just can't imagine that a 4 spd 455 would have been any better at achieving the speed than the auto trans 400. Souped-up? The TA engine was "souped-up" relative to most any other '76 factory engine. Is that what Needham meant? Was Needham able to acquire a NASCAR engine? Was the jump impossible without such an engine?

Interesting discussion.
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Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's View Post
Around the late 80's, maybe '88, a wholesaler offered us a T/A that was one of the back-up movie cars. Now, because it was so long ago I don't remember a lot about the car but I do remember a few things about it that were strange back then but now, reading this thread, make a little sense. The car was your typical Bandit T/A. It had a CB, a CB antenna, a small plaque on the dash denoting the number of the car (I think it was #10), and a 455 with nitrous. Now I don't recall exactly what year the car was but I knew that year didn't come with a 455. So between the condition (a bit rough) the 455 and the $6500.00 wholesale price (ridiculous money at the time) I passed.

A few years ago I was thinking, I wish I had another shot at it.

  #38  
Old 07-08-2020, 11:13 AM
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Mike Davis, if you are referring to the sound track sounding like a 4 spd car being shifted, the sounds of the cars in movies were often not the actual car seen on film. In the case of SATB, reportedly the sounds on the sound track were recorded from the famous '55 American Graffiti Chevy (also the Two Lane Blacktop).


I am referring to what I was told from my father that actually help set these cars up when they were delivered. He worked for Pontiac and did allot of work on cars used for magazine articles and road test at the time.
If you look a the video link I posted you can see it is truly a 4 speed car with the suspension movements and the 2nd gear black marks.
I had heard the info about the sound track from 2 lane black top.

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Old 07-08-2020, 12:17 PM
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Quote:
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I am referring to what I was told from my father that actually help set these cars up when they were delivered. He worked for Pontiac and did allot of work on cars used for magazine articles and road test at the time.
If you look a the video link I posted you can see it is truly a 4 speed car with the suspension movements and the 2nd gear black marks.
I had heard the info about the sound track from 2 lane black top.
The car in this scene also was a 4 speed.


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Old 07-08-2020, 01:33 PM
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Here are 2 pictures from 1976 of Plaza Pontiac Dealership where the cars where delivered. At the time this was a state of the art dealership with a huge service center, separate body and paint dept and large parts area.
I called my Mother this morning and she is trying to find the picture she took of the car carrier with the T/A's on it sitting at the dealership as well as others she took. She was also a stand in at the filming. Said she only went to see Jerry Reed because Burt Reynolds wasn't as well known to her.
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