[StealthBird]

The seller is trying to cash in on the current "Banditmania" that occurred when Burt Reynolds sold his 1977 Trans Am Special Edition at auction for $450K (estimates were around $50K-$80K). What sent this car over the top was that it was Burt's personal car. It wasn't used in the movie "Smokey And The Bandit", but the allure was that Burt kept the car all these years, and he (and the car) have become a part of 1970's pop culture. If it wasn't for the "star" aspect, it was a $15,000 Trans Am with the wrong hood bird.

Pontiac cashed in on the "Bandit" theme when the 1980 movie sequel "Smokey And The Bandit II" came out, but these black/gold cars were called "Special Edition" cars (there was also a limited run of gold Special Edition cars in 1978). Because of the popularity of the original movie, the general public called these cars "Bandits", but Pontiac didn't use that name in any advertising until 1981, and by then Trans Am sales had sunk to less than 1/3 of what they were in 1979.