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A numbers-matching 1979 Pontiac Trans Am Special Edition, the black-and-gold Bandit car everyone remembers from the movies, just got the full walkaround treatment. Turns out the actual Smokey and the Bandit stunt cars werent real 1977 models at all, and depending on which V8 landed under this ones shaker scoop, it might not even be the strongest Trans Am Pontiac built that year.
A 1978 Pontiac Trans Am finished in the black-and-gold ‘Bandit’ style spent 34 years buried under a tarp, and nobody expected what the first wash would uncover. WD Detailing teamed up with Alex from Legit Street Cars to strip away three decades of mold, dirt, and debris from a car built to honor Smokey and the Bandit — only to find the neglect ran deeper than either crew anticipated. Watch to see what surfaces when three decades of grime finally comes off.
After sitting for twenty-five years, this 1967 Pontiac Firebird’s TH350 transmission wouldn’t move the car at all — not forward, not backward. Arrowhead Garage walks through the exact diagnostic process, from checking fluid at operating temperature to the often-overlooked torque converter drain-down that happens during long-term storage. It’s a temporary fix with a full rebuild still ahead, but it’s also a detailed lesson in exactly what stored transmissions do to themselves over time.
A black Pontiac Trans Am shared the screen with Burt Reynolds in 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit, and two years later Pontiac moved 117,108 of them in a single model year. Two decades later, the LS1-powered WS6 Trans Am was faster and better built than ever — and GM killed it anyway. Top Tier Motors traces the cancellation back to four competing forces inside and outside General Motors, none of which had anything to do with the car actually failing to sell.
Pontiac never let 1981 Trans Am buyers have real horsepower and a manual transmission in the same car — the factory forced a choice. This owner refused to accept that trade-off, dropping a 400-horsepower crate small-block and a four-speed stick into a genuine WS6 Trans Am. Recorded in POV binaural audio so you can hear exactly what the factory never let buyers experience, this build answers a forty-year-old complaint.