2000 Pontiac Trans Am - Westbound And Down

Chances are, if you're holding this magazine in your hands, you have seen the original Smokey and the Bandit cinema classic--you've probably also seen the two sequels. To those who didn't grow up in the late '70s, it's hard to describe just how influential this film was to car enthusiasts of the era.

Rather than spend money on traditional print and TV ads, Pontiac shrewdly invested in product placement in a movie to get the word out about Trans Ams in a way that television couldn't. There was no way executives at General Motors would have advocated such wanton displays of horsepower and irresponsible driving in a TV spot.Yet placed in the context of a movie outside of GM's control, it was fine, as they were out of reach of any accountability. Pontiac could reap all the benefits without any of the liability. Even if critics weren't exactly enthralled with the plot or thesingle-dimensioned characters, the stunts were first-rate and made the black '77 SE Trans Am the true star of the motion picture.

The response was insane. This author personally remembers people exiting the theater, yelling, acting crazy, getting into their cars and performing burnouts in the parking lot. If you saw the movie during its original release, you probably experienced something similar. The visceral reaction to it was really on the same level as Star Wars, also released that summer, yet Smokey and the Bandit was more applicable to the audience, as anyone with a halfway decent credit rating could go out and get a new Special Edition Trans Am. A Millenium Falcon or X-Wing fighter? Not so obtainable.

Even today, with nearly 30 years since the initial release of Smokey and the Bandit, the allure of the Special Edition Trans Ams is still strong. All one needs to do is to attend a Trans Am Nationals to see just how durable the Bandit mystique is.

Todd Witzigreuter of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is someone who was bitten by the Trans Am bug early on. He had a '77 Trans Am in high school and later a '76 Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Trans Am-the production model that originally ushered in the black and gold treatment. Unfortunately, Todd had to sell the '76 when it came time to purchase a home.

The story certainly didn't end there, but there is a bit of a twist. Rather than go out and try to find something similar to what he had before, Todd decided to update the theme a bit. "I really like the LS1-powered, Fourth-Generation Trans Am," he says, "especially the WS6 version. But the '02 Collector's Edition car didn't do it for me. I just didn't like the yellow. People remember the black and gold Special Edition cars, and that is what it should have been."

Todd decided he would go ahead and do what Pontiac should have done in the first place. So he built a scale model of his vision, using a 11/418-scale die-cast, painting the model black and adding the gold striping.

He then searched for just the right car, landing on a black '00 Trans Am convertible with a six-speed and black leather interior. It had only 9,000 miles and was in perfect shape. With the Trans Am in his possession, Todd set out to give it the visual package he had loved so much in his earlier years. He replicated the Fourth-Gen Special Edition striping in vinyl, which was cut and laid out by hand. He also firmed up the look with reproduction '76 Limited Edition Trans Am callouts, which were in the German Gothic style. The look was completed with an RKSport rollbar, accented with Firebird badges from Ames Performance Engineering and a set of 18x8-inch Boyd Coddington forged three-piece wheels-gold-toned of course-shod with P245/40ZR18 BFGoodrich G-Force T/A tires up front and BFG P275/30R18 Drag Radials out back.

Initially, the Trans Am's hood treatment was similar to those used on the Hurst Firebirds-a pair of stripes. After driving on the Hot Rod Power Tour, an admirer suggested that he add a hood bird to complete the look. He thought it was a great idea and purchased a reproduction hood bird to install.