- #Did the trans am in smokey and the bandit have t tops movie
- #Did the trans am in smokey and the bandit have t tops code
(engine code XA ) Pontiac motor produced a mere 180 horsepower 3,600 rpm, and was mostly a carry-over from ’76, with 325 lb-ft of torque at 1600 rpm for 1977, a 15 lb-ft improvement The T/A 6.6 Litre option cost $50 and produced 200 horse by replacing the 400’s heads with the heads from the Pontiac 350 with smaller combustion chambers, boosting compression ratio to 8.1 from 7.6:1. The standard (RPO L78) 6.6 Litre, 400 cu. This helped in the filming of burnouts, because the 1977 models had been “down-powered” to the 400 cu.
cars and added the new front clip and the 6.6 litre decal on the “Shaker” hood scoop.
#Did the trans am in smokey and the bandit have t tops movie
The movie would come out in 1977, and not wanting to wait for production 1977 cars, they got 1976 455 cu. It turned out the car shown in the photo was a 1976 model with the front bodywork planned for the 1977 models applied, and the 6.6 litre decal on the shaker hood. Needham and Reynolds saw promotional photos for the black–and-gold special edition 1977 car, and requested them for the movie. It was $62 in 1977 for the optional decal, code WW7. On the early Trans Ams, it was tastefully used in modest sizes, but Schinella urged it being plastered all over the hoods in 1973. Of course the “Screaming Chicken” decal on the hood was very unlike the Lotus and had originally been created by Bill Porter and Norm Inouye. It drew heavily from the black-and-gold paint scheme of the John Player Special Lotus Formula One cars. Pontiac was celebrating its 50th year anniversary in 1976, and had designer John Schinella develop option code “Y82” that was for a Black car with lots of Gold striping. V8, so if you wanted the big bad mill (albeit, not a big block), Trans-Ams were the only way to go. Trans-Am bounced back from the dismal beginning sales with only 1,286 units selling in 1972! Sales in 19 might have increased because the Corvette now only had a 350 cu. The early Trans-Ams did not have an easy time of it, as most other manufacturers were dropping their Muscle and Pony cars for better gas mileage. Sales did increase for 1977 but with only a few months left to get 1977 models, the 1978 model sales is what really took off, and the 1976 sales of 46,701 were more than doubled by 1978 with 93,341 Trans-Ams sold. Filming started in August of 1976 and it was released in May of 1977. Burt Reynolds was one of the highest paid stars at that time, and was to be paid $1 million, so that left Needham $3.4 million to shoot the movie. The original budget financed by Universal Studios was $5.4 million, but right before shooting was to begin, it was slashed by $1 million. after the main movies in drive-in theatres, to be a feature film that was second only to Star Wars in 1977.
Reynolds read it, and said he would do the movie, and Reed became the truck-driving “Snowman.” This bumped the project up from a B movie destined to play at 1:00 a.m. He wrote the original movie, with a $1 million budget, for another pal, Gerry Reed to play the Bandit. Needham made it work, partly because this was his first stab at directing and writing a movie, so he was highly motivated to make it a success! The movie’s director, Hal Needham had guts! The former stuntman and good friend of Burt Reynolds asked Pontiac for six Trans-Ams, but got only four Trans-Ams and two sedans for Sheriff Buford T Justice to abuse. The era of Muscle Cars was over and this was one last kick at the can for a big powerful American car to rule the day! Burt Reynolds driving the Trans-Am in the movie certainly contributed to a sales jump for Pontiac! Product placement was certainly not new the use of James Bond’s Aston Martins and the Bullitt Mustang certainly helped sales of those cars….but those cars were driven by the “Good Guys.” Asking Pontiac to pony up six brand-new Trans-Ams for an outlaw, that takes some guts. As films go, 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit may not have been as epic as Ben Hur, but it certainly firmly planted the 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am into every teenage boy’s dreams.
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