[Ronc455]

I heard a rumor about Pontiac making some Trans Ams for the movie for extras. They were supposed to be 350 powered. In August of 1984 I went to Car Craft Magazines Street Machine Natioals. In the motel parking lot I finally seen one of the 350 powered Trans Ams. The VIN started 2W87P8. I never got to talk with the owner.

[Rocky Rotella]

Originally Posted by 77 Canamman

The car in this scene also was a 4 speed.

Is that a roll bar visible through the back glass?

[Chief of the 60's]

Appears to be

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by Rocky Rotella

Is that a roll bar visible through the back glass?

Another question for Mike's Dad!!!

[77 Canamman]

Also note on the car above, no fuel tank or rear stabilizer bar present. Also, the ride height is far higher than stock.

[TAKerry]

Originally Posted by 77 Canamman

Does it also have the 8K tach?

It does not.

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by 77 Canamman

Also note on the car above, no fuel tank or rear stabilizer bar present. Also, the ride height is far higher than stock.

Hmmm, maybe the jump car???

[Mike Davis]

I asked about the roll bar years ago. He told me Rastar productions had their own guys that did the final additions/mods to the cars as needed after they took possession. Since Hal Needham could not get as many cars as they wanted the movie crew mechanics would have to keep altering them for each scene. At the end they were all mismatched and cobbled together. He did say Pontiac had to send many boxes of front spoilers.

Years ago there was a guy in Decatur Ga that had a Black T/A setting behind his house that was supposed to be one of the movie cars. The front end was off and the roof was buckled between the T-tops pretty bad. Car was a 76 and had holes with nutserts in the passenger door skin. I tried to buy it for about 5 years. Went by there last week and the house is gone and apartments are there.

Look at the ride height at the 30 second mark here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBrf7wq37tI

[John V.]

You guys got me beat in the eagle eye department. But I also thought the added roll bar, no rear sway bar, no gas tank, and higher ride ht. all point to that being the jump car. So if that car is a 4 spd car, then the jump car must have been a 4 spd.

So I watched the jump from the film. Looks to me it also lacks a gas tank.

Only other thing I've noticed, no rear license plate in various scenes though I can't tell if the same car is always missing the plate or if the car lacking the rear plate changes depending on the scene.

In the on street pic, if that is the jump car, it has the BAN ONE plate in place. Maybe they only had one BAN ONE plate and swapped it around as needed?

Not positive, but for the jump, I don't think there is a rear plate in place.

I'm buying the 4 spd but what about the engine.

Chief seems to say it was a 455 with nitrous. But I don't get the number plate (10?) on the dash. What would that mean if there were only 4 TAs in use?

Are the VINs known?

Wouldn't one of them be the camera car throughout the filming?

Another would be the jump car that appeared in many of the driving scenes, correct? It has always been described as "totally destroyed" in the jump so presumably other stunt scenes for which it was used had to be filmed before the jump.

And it appears to me that a 3rd TA was used in other driving scenes that is not altered in ride ht.

Anybody have a handle on the 4th TA? 2nd stunt car? Or might this be the TA I mentioned previously that may or may not have appeared at theaters for promotion of the film, given to Needham after filming (and probably a true '77)?

Jerry H. mentions seeing 5-6 wrecked TAs go by on a car carrier after filming.

Once again, more TAs than PMD supplied.

Needham often mentioned that he got 4 TAs from PMD. I've never read that he ever said that they had to go out and buy additional TAs cause PMD only gave him 4.

Many stories say Needham asked for 6 TAs and 4 Lemans' but PMD gave him 4 TAs and 2 Lemans'.

But a 2007 interview with Hot Rod, Needham says he went to PMD and asked for "some" TAs and 3 Lemans' in exchange for product placement. He then says they gave him 3 TAs (not 4).

So the story told by Needham over the years wasn't always consistent about how many TAs were used. He did often say that they were in such bad shape at the end of filming, in the final scene, they had to use another car to push the TA so it could coast to a stop and Reynold's and Field's got out. But even that seems suspect. If this is supposed to be the scene in question, doesn't look to me that it was filmed with a non-running TA, with the possible exception of the actual moment when they get out. But in that frame, the TA is shown stationary, not rolling to a stop (see at the 2:13 mark). But in the seconds before, it is rolling alongside the semi. Maybe that was all done with a push car. But maybe Needham was confusing it with other films.

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

After the success of SATB, Needham had gotten to know PMD execs. He was able to obtain 10 '80 TAs and 50 Bonnevilles for the filming of SATB II in '80 according to him.

[se428bandit]

Their were also scenes filmed in California, i wonder what happened to that TA? The first 20 seconds of this video was filmed in California. Notice neither Burt or Sally are in the car coming out of the gas station. https://youtu.be/S-pHuT2666s

[242177P]

Originally Posted by John V.

Chief seems to say it was a 455 with nitrous. But I don't get the number plate (10?) on the dash.

I simply dismissed his input. TEN years after the movie came out? A lot of Bandit cars were built by Pontiac. And many lesser cars were upgraded. Ten years is plenty of time to update a car with accessories, and even an engine swap. And plenty of time for an owner's tall tale to grow. I don't doubt the car he saw was as described, but the time frame... And dash plaques were a really common novelty by the late 80s.

Originally Posted by Chief of the 60's

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.

[ErikW]

This is awesome! So I am doing a "proper" tribute car by using a 76! Lol.
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=838189

[77 TRASHCAN]

To add to this unsolved mysteries thread..........In the scene where the 3 youngsters are about their business to strip Sally's abandoned wedding car....one of them looks like a young Nicolas Cage. He would have only been 13 at the time. I've searched for younger pictures of him, and he didn't look like the guy in the movie......but just wondering...If your Dad is a big time movie maker, your chances of getting to be an extra in a low budget car movie are pretty good!!!

[Mike Davis]

Originally Posted by 77 TRASHCAN

To add to this unsolved mysteries thread..........In the scene where the 3 youngsters are about their business to strip Sally's abandoned wedding car....one of them looks like a young Nicolas Cage. He would have only been 13 at the time. I've searched for younger pictures of him, and he didn't look like the guy in the movie......but just wondering...If your Dad is a big time movie maker, your chances of getting to be an extra in a low budget car movie are pretty good!!!

One of the guys in that scene lives a few miles from me. He is a realtor named Mark Myers.
He is the one that got kicked in the azz by Jackie Gleason.

[77 Canamman]

https://patch.com/georgia/loganville...the-big-screen

[Jay S]

Wow! This thread filled in a lot of blanks. Several of us went and watched the movie on the big scene in Omaha for Burt’s tribute. Then several of us went 2 more times without the family . First time we went with our wives and families, and my folks. Must have been 20 of us. None of us noticed much new, we had all veiwed it more times than any of us could remember. My folks even took me and my brother to see it back when it came out. I was about 6 Lol.

2nd and 3rd time we noticed a lot of differences on the movie vehicles The roll bars, camera’s and mounts for camera, the 4 speed T/A with the rear end jack up appear to be used in a couple earlier scenes then on the big chase scene on the interstate. Three different Kenworths, 2 different trailers, one KW was older and had a 318 Detroit engine, another was a Cummins, you could hear the noisey air compressor that Cummins ran on their engines. Always thought they would be Cat engineS to match Jerry’s hat. The 76 T/A with the honey combs was always obvious, but we all missed that all the T/As were 76s with 77 noses and stickers. That explains the 6.6 liter badged hood scoops which would be ultra rare on a SE car.

[Hesster1977]

Was surfing the threads on the Smokey and the Bandit Movie, and found this one. As a somewhat obsessed Bandit Car Owner, I found some interesting stuff in this thread, as well as some of the other threads in the Forum. I must have seen the movie many times but never knew or noticed some of this stuff, like using '76's, honeycomb wheels, etc. So I found a couple of threads related to the movie, and the Hal Needham interview is excellent, as well as the IMDB thread. BUT - some may be fact, some maybe not. Great reads....

The Hal Needham interview with Hot Rod. Burt did not make the interview due to poor health.
https://www.motortrend.com/features/...dit-interview/

The IMDB Movie Trivia - fact or fiction?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076729/trivia

[Firedup6975]

Originally Posted by 77 TRASHCAN

If so, did they have 455 engines??? Never heard this discussed, engine wise anyhoo. Have heard they were 75 cars with 77 body upgrades...

I read somewhere the engine in the bridge jump car was a Corvette LS.

[Mike Davis]

Originally Posted by Firedup6975

I read somewhere the engine in the bridge jump car was a Corvette LS.

No LS engines were around in 1976-77.
There was mention of one of Hal's NASCAR engines and trans put in the car for the jump scene.

[Hesster1977]

Another cool link.
https://bamfstyle.com/2020/07/04/smokey-and-the-bandit/

Some good pics of the cars, the Stetson hat (and impossible to find Silver band other than Tim Phillips making one for you for a small mortgage), and the MR276 Antenna (which I finally did clone, updated post pending). Notice the antenna is not on all of the car shots. I also had a chance to go through the "Julien’s Live catalog" from a 2019 auction of items from the actor’s estate, kinda sad selling off his stuff. And get this: "It's been reported that Reynolds “intentionally” left Quinton Reynolds out of his will and instead named his niece, Nancy Lee Brown Hess, as the trustee of his estate."
https://www.juliensauctions.com/auct...Flipping_Book/

"The four Trans Ams that Pontiac provided for the production were a mix of new 1977 cars and 1976 cars converted to resemble the newer ’77 by swapping out the front with its dual round headlights for four square headlights and replacing the cubic inch measurement on the hood scoop with “6.6 LITRE” decals. We also know that both manual and automatic transmission cars were used, with some driving scenes indicating that Reynolds was controlling a manual gearbox while interior shots clearly display the three-speed Hydramatic automatic transmission and no clutch pedal. Since at least one ’77 Trans Am was used for the production, and Bandit is clearly meant to be driving a ’77, we’ll focus on that as the official BAN-ONE Pontiac, powered by with the Pontiac 400 T/A 6.6 V8 which was only mated to the four-speed manual transmission; the Hydramatic Trans Ams were powered by the somewhat more anemic Oldsmobile 403 V8 rated at 185 horsepower."