Burt and his hot wheels!
What happened to the Pontiac Firebird driven by Burt Reynolds in Smokey And The Bandit? The 1977 film Smokey And The Bandit is the comic story of a bootlegging beer run from Texas to Georgia. en route, Bo ‘Bandit’ Darville (Burt Reynolds) picks up a pretty hitchhiker (Sally Field) who refuses to marry the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice, aka ‘Smokey’ (Jackie Gleason).
Despite a relatively modest budget, it was a smash hit and turned Reynolds into a superstar. It also gave a huge sales boost to Pontiac, whose 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Special edition, with the Bill Porterdesigned ‘Screaming chicken’ on the bonnet, was so prominent in the film.
All four 1977 Pontiac Trans Ams used on the production suffered brutal punishment and were ultimately written-off by the film’s stunt men.
There were, however, a couple of promotion cars used to advertise the film — one of them ended up in Burt Reynolds’s personal collection.
In 2014 Reynolds, whose financial woes had been in the news for years, unloaded his art, sports, and movie memorabilia at auction in Las Vegas. The Smokey And The Bandit memorabilia brought prices well beyond their estimates. The Firebird was ticked up at $60,000 but was eventually sold for $450,000 to a private buyer.
In 2016, a second promotional Pontiac Firebird owned by Universal Studios went up for auction at the Barrett- Jackson Auction Company in Scottsdale, Arizona. This was purchased for $550,000 by the owners of The Cars Of Dreams Museum of North Palm Beach, Florida, where it is currently on display.
Amy Reed, Wolverhampton.
In the Navy we heard a crackle when sailing through the aurora borealis. What might it have been?
AN AURORAL display in the Northern hemisphere is called the aurora borealis, or the northern lights. A similar phenomenon in the Southern hemisphere is the aurora australis. Auroras are the most visible effect of the sun’s activity on the earth’s atmosphere. Charged particles stream from the sun and auroras occur when they interact with earth’s magnetic field. The particles are funnelled toward the poles, where they slam into the atmosphere and set off glorious light shows.
The idea that the aurora somehow produces an audible crackling noise has been reported for years — yet scientists have generally dismissed the possibility.
Then, in 2012, Finnish researcher Unto K. Laine from Aalto University proved these crackling sounds were emanating from 230ft (70 metres) above earth’s surface during the aurora borealis. Laine has theorised that this is caused by an atmospheric inversion layer: ‘Temperatures generally drop the higher the altitude.
‘however, when temperatures are well below zero and, generally in clear weather conditions during the evening and night, the cold is near the surface and the air is warmer higher up.
‘This warm air does not mix, instead rising up towards a colder layer carrying negative charges from the ground.
‘The inversion layer forms a kind of lid hindering the vertical movements of the charges. The colder air above it is charged positively. Finally, a geomagnetic storm causes the accumulated charges to discharge with sparks that create measurable magnetic pulses and sounds’.
Jeremy Wallace, Malvern, Worcs.
Did Pontius Pilate really execute more than 300 ‘messiahs’ in 33 AD, as stated on a recent TV programme?
WhILe it is true that there were a number of ‘messiahs’ at that time and Pontius Pilate probably oversaw hundreds of crucifixions when governor of Judea between 26 and 36 AD (contemporary Jewish historian Philo, describes him as a violent thug, fond of executions), there is no evidence that they were all would-be messiahs. The concept of a coming mashiach (‘anointed one’) or Messiah arose in the period after Jewish territories in ancient Palestine had been conquered by a series of foreign powers. This was the political background to the idea of a Messiah — an ‘anointed one’ who God would send to liberate Israel. There were a number of claimants at the time and the contemporary historian Josephus mentions several, but makes no suggestion of 300. Anthony Chambers, Canterbury.
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