Burt Reynolds’ Bandit Edition Trans Am Can Now Be Yours, So Get Excited

Only one of the four Trans Ams built for Smokey and the Bandit survived filming intact, yet the movie still helped turn a slow-selling Pontiac into a sales phenomenon. Discover what really happened on set, how the film rescued the Trans Am’s reputation, and why Burt Reynolds’ personal cars still draw huge money at auction.

Get excited, people: Burt Reynolds is selling his personal 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am Smokey and the Bandit replica at the upcoming Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. A similar car sold last year for $550,000, so don’t plan on getting it for cheap.

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Three of the four Pontiac Trans Ams built for one of the biggest car movies of the 1970s never survived filming — smashed, jumped, and wrecked on camera until only one battered survivor remained. Decades later, that same movie turned Burt Reynolds into the face of a car most people had never considered buying, and turned Pontiac’s slow-selling coupe into a genuine sales phenomenon. One of Reynolds’ own Trans Ams later headed to the auction block, carrying a story that goes well beyond the movie poster. What actually happened behind the scenes says as much about the car’s legend as anything that made it onto film.

The Stunt That Nearly Wiped Out the Fleet

Director Hal Needham, a former stuntman and Reynolds’ real-life roommate, had asked Pontiac for six Trans Ams to destroy on camera for Smokey and the Bandit. GM gave him four instead — and three of them didn’t survive the shoot, including the car sacrificed for the film’s signature bridge jump. The fourth was left so battered by the end of production that crew had to push it into position for its remaining scenes. It was a rough way to treat a brand-new car, but it produced exactly the outlaw mystique Needham was chasing.

From Screen Flop Risk to Sales Phenomenon

Released January 1, 1977, Smokey and the Bandit went on to gross roughly $300 million, and Pontiac reaped the benefit almost immediately. Trans Am sales jumped from 68,745 units in 1977 to 93,341 the following year, a surge directly credited to Reynolds sliding behind the wheel on screen. Reynolds himself kept more than one Trans Am after filming wrapped, including a turbocharged version for the sequel, and decades later his personal cars have continued to command serious money at auction — proof that the Bandit’s legend never really faded.

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