Classic Burt Reynolds Vehicles On The Block At Barrett-Jackson
According to Car and Driver, three of the cars owned by the late Burt Reynolds will be hitting the auction block on Saturday, September 29, 2018, in Las Vegas. The three cars are tributes to actual vehicles driven in the Reynolds movies Smokey and the Bandit (a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am in black), Hooper (a 1978 Pontiac Trans Am in red), and The Cannonball Run (a 1987 Chevrolet R30 dually pickup.) Autoblog reports that a fourth car, a 1984 Pontiac Trans Am used to promote Reynolds’s USFL team, the Tampa Bay Bandits, will also go under the gavel. Industry leader Barrett-Jackson will handle the auction duties.
The two 1978 vehicles and the pickup, while not originally used in the movies, are expected to bring premium price tags, perhaps even higher than expected since Reynolds passed away so recently. In 2014 and 2016, Bandit-themed Trans Ams sold for $450,000 and $550,000, respectively, so the red and black models being auctioned off are expected to bring at least that much. Car & Driver notes that both 1978 Trans Ams, while being touted as replicas of the ones used in the movies, are actually one model year later than the originals and have a few powertrain upgrades, and the 1987 R30 pickup is really more of an homage than a replica, since the original Cannonball Run movie came out in 1981. It still has its own provenance, however, being a copy of a movie truck that was itself a tribute to an actual pickup driven by race driver Dennis Menesini in the final Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. Most important to the bottom line, though, is the fact that all the vehicles were registered in Reynolds’ name.
Burt Reynolds Personally Owned Cars at Auction September 29 at @MandalayBay in Las #Vegas via @VegasNews – Read more at https://t.co/PfqdBBkb9W @Barrett_Jackson #SmokeyandtheBandit #movies #cars pic.twitter.com/RXiQrGWDk8
— VegasNews.com (@VegasNews) September 19, 2018
According to Automobile Magazine, a fifth car will also be auctioned off, a 2015 Chevrolet Camaro styled to look like a modern Trans Am, complete with the Screaming Chicken logo (as it is fondly known among car enthusiasts) on the hood. Since their inception, the Pontiac Firebird and Chevrolet Camaro shared common underpinnings, both being children of the General Motors conglomerate. However, Pontiac folded in 2010, and the hope for a Bandit-themed modern Pontiac Trans Am died with it, creating space for aftermarket company Trans Am Depot to make tribute cars on the 2015 Camaro platform, according to TopSpeed. The company made only 77 vehicles in this style, a nod to the year of the original black Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am.
Reynolds had planned to be present for the sale of all these cars, and even filmed an introduction video to be shown at the auction prior to the lot of cars going on the block. The Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas event is scheduled to take place from September 27-29 at the Mandalay Bay Casino. The Burt Reynolds collection is slated to auction on the final day, and the entire auction will be broadcast live on the Discovery and Velocity cable networks.
