Car, film enthusiasts enjoy Bandit Run
Cars head for Georgia today
While “Eastbound and Down” may have been the “Smokey and the Bandit” film’s signature song, many of the movie’s signature Pontiac Trans-Ams came from all directions to be in Texarkana on Saturday.
Forty years after the popular motion picture’s 1977 release, 200 to 250 Trans Ams and their owners made their way to the Twin Cities, to the delight of hundreds of classic-car enthusiasts and movie fans—all wanting to be at the starting point of the Bandit’s run.
This year’s Bandit Run was the third such
event hosted by Tex-Ark Antique Auto Museum, with the others being held in 2007 and 2012.
“We had about 400 visitors come out in 2012,” said Jim Christian, one of the museum’s board members. “Today (Saturday) we might have 800, and we prepared ourselves to feed about 1,000. Our museum will get some funds from the concessions we sell. Back in 2012, I think we had about 100 trans ams show up.”
To celebrate the 40th anniversary, this year’s event started in Texarkana and will wind up later this week in Atlanta, Ga., just as depicted in the flick.
Oddly enough, the idea for the Bandit Run was started in the north, by a Lincoln, Neb.based private organization known as Restore a Muscle Car.
The rich collection of vintage Trans Ams journeyed to Texarkana from as near as San Antonio to as far away as Arizona and even from further points across the country—one from as far away as Canada, Christian said.
“It takes a lot of planning, people and effort to put all this together and make it work,” he said. “I like seeing people come out, because that makes it all worth while.”
General Motors produced Pontiac Trans Ams for about 40 years—about 1969 to perhaps 2009, when Pontiac dissolved.
While many Trans Am owners saturated the gathering with their late 1970s black models similar the one actor Burt Reynolds drove in the movie, many brought varying colors of the same model, including red, blue, gold, silver, brown and white.
Some had other models, such as Arizona resident Todd Schoenberger’s 1981 Trans Am.
“I’ve had this one for about two years now,” Schoenberger said. “When I saw the movie (Smokey and the Bandit), I was about 7 years old when it first came out, and that did it for me as far as liking Trans Ams was concerned. I’ve like them ever since. I think the part I liked most about the black Trans Am was the sound it made in the movie. That was the first time I heard a car roar. I also liked the (bird) on the engine’s hood.”
Christy DeMarcos of Keller, Texas, who also owns a 1981 Trans Am, said her husband, Drew, is a big “Smokey and the Bandit” fan.
“He has always liked Pontiac cars,” she said. “As for me, I like the car’s sleek body style and design, as well as the T-tops (convertible roof). It’s also a nice car to cruise in.”
Andy and Sally Viverman of San Antonio said the movie also played a major part in their love of Trans Ams.
“I first had a Trans Am when I was 20 years old,” said Andy Viverman, now 53. “I had it for about a year, and it was a charcoal gray color. We’ve also had a gold 1978-model Trans Am for 28 years. Other times, we’ve had silver, brown, red and blue Trans Ams.”
The 2017 Bandit Run continues today with the Bandit runners and their Trans Ams hitting U.S. Highway 82 bound for Atlanta, Ga.