It ranks as one of the most awesomely iconic cinematic muscle cars of the 1970s.
The 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am piloted by Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit has been a four-wheeled lust object for decades—and last weekend an original promo car used to hype the movie was sold for $550,000 at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
It’s the highest price ever notched by a Trans Am, and could have been even higher had it actually been driven by Reynolds in the movie, instead of just being used to promote the good ol’ boy trucker classic during a 1977 publicity tour.
Reynolds was the star attraction at the auction, riding shotgun in the car as a lookalike for Sally Field (his co-star in the film) sat behind the wheel and Smokey and the Bandit‘s theme song, ‘Eastbound and Down’ by Jerry Reed, blasted over the sound system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_sB6gFenUg
Bidding quickly hit $500,000, and a ten percent buyer’s premium pushed the total price to $550,000. In 2015, Reynolds sold his personal Pontiac Trans Am “Bandit,” the last of the cars made for him.