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Burt Reynolds Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am sells for $450k

Apparently, there's still a lot of love out there for by Burt Reynolds and his famous role in Smokey and the Bandit – or at least for his car. As you might remember, Autoblog reported on the auction of the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am a few week ago. At the time, the movie star's car was already well past its $80,000 top estimate, and bidding only shot up from there for a final price of $450,000. That seems like a lot of money for a Trans Am that never actually appears in Smokey and the Bandit. According to the listing, the car was used to promote the film and was given to Reynolds afterward with his name on the title as proof of ownership. The Trans Am looks practically identical to the one in the movie with black paint, the gold firebird on the hood and Bandit name on the driver's door. This one packs a 400-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) V8 with a 4-barrel carburetor under the hood, an automatic transmission and a plaque inside the door that proclaims "1977 Pontiac Trans Am Owned By Burt Reynolds." The wedding stagecoach based on an International Harvester Scout we mentioned in the earlier story also beat its top estimate of $20,000. It went for $34,375, according to the auction house's website, and in total the sale raised about $2.5 million. Scroll down to read the full announcement from Julien's Auctions. LEGENDARY STAR BURT REYNOLDS PROVES TO BE AS ICONIC AS HIS AUCTION RESULTS "Smokey and the Bandit" Trans Am Sells for $450,000 Career Memorabilia including Awards, Personal Items and Film Worn Costumes along with Vast Art Collection from Reynolds Museum Caliber Private Collection Featured at Julien's Auctions This Week Brings in $2.5 million Las Vegas, Nevada – (December 15, 2014) – Julien's Auctions, the auction house to the stars concluded a whirlwind two-day auction of The Collection of Award Winning Actor Burt Reynolds. The exciting auction event featuring personal effects, career memorabilia, and a museum-caliber fine art collection took place at the Palms Casino Resort Thursday and Friday with bidders from around the world bidding high and bidding often. Burt Reynolds, best known as a leading film star, has had a storied career both on the big and small screen. Aside from his award winning portrayals of some of the world's most iconic characters in film and television, Reynolds is also a businessman who has owned a football team, a dinner theatre, a working ranch and even a museum.

Junkyard Gem: 2010 Pontiac Vibe

Just over a month before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009, General Motors announced that the 83-year-old Pontiac Division would be "phased out" by the end of 2010. Only three Pontiac vehicles were sold as 2010 models in the United States: the Solstice, Vibe and G6 (new G3s were sold here during 2010 but they were all 2009 models, while the G5 was available as a 2010 model only in Canada and Mexico). Today's bit of junkyard automotive history is one of the very last Vibes ever built, found in a yard near Denver, Colorado. This car is significant not just as one of the final vehicles to bear Pontiac badges but also as one of the last cars built by the New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated GM-Toyota joint venture in California, better known as NUMMI. The NUMMI factory began life as GM's Fremont Assembly, which built its first vehicle (a C-Series pickup) in 1963 and closed in 1982 after building its final vehicle (an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera). Rebooted as NUMMI, the first 1985 Chevrolet Nova (an Americanized AE82 Toyota Corolla Sprinter) rolled off the line in December of 1984. A quarter-century and better than eight million vehicles hence, NUMMI shut down production after its last Corolla was finished on April 1, 2010. While there was some noise about the Oakland Athletics building a new stadium on the site at the time, Tesla ended up buying most of the site soon after that. Tesla now builds more vehicles per year there than NUMMI ever did. The Vibe was co-developed with Toyota and based on the same platform as the ninth-generation Corolla. The Toyota Matrix was mechanically identical and was built in Canada, while the Japanese-market version (known as the Toyota Voltz) was built on the same NUMMI line as the Vibe and shipped across the Pacific. The Vibe/Matrix/Voltz got a redesign for the 2009 model year, but few noticed due to all the turmoil in the GM world at the time. The final Vibe was built in August 2009. This car was built in July of 2009, just before the end. It was living in West Texas just prior to coming to Colorado. El Paso is about a ten-hour drive from this car's current location. Once in the Centennial State, it got parked somewhere it shouldn't have been and ended up being auctioned to Pick Your Part. An occupant of this Vibe had time to sample some of the local agricultural products before that happened.

This massive 'Knight Rider' KITT model costs over $1,400

A new model of the famed Pontiac Firebird from the 1980s TV show Knight Rider is here, and it's massive. The shadowy flight into the dangerous world of this subscription-based kit by DeAgostini will result in a car that measures nearly two feet long, cost more than $1,400, and take you over two years to complete. For years, subscription-based model kits have been a tradition for hobbyists in Europe and Asia. Should you sign on, each week you'll receive a package in the mail that includes a few parts for the model and some literature on the subject. Usually there are additional collectibles and accessories, like a display case. The DeAgostini KITT kit, for example, begins with the hood for the first issue. The asymmetric bulged and scooped body panel comes with a several smaller body pieces and a small screwdriver. Issue two comes with the front fascia, KITT's red scanner light, and three of the six driving lights. Issue three gives you a tire, wheel and brake components for one of the four corners. And so it goes. When all is said and done, you'll receive 110 such packages over a span of so many weeks. In other words it'll take two years and one-and-a-half months to complete the black, 1:8 scale Pontiac. There are some discounted prices for the first few issues to get you hooked, but once you get settled in the regular price for each issue is ˆ10.99 ($13.36 USD). Here's a preview the 16-page pamphlet that accompanies the first issue. By the end, you should have a pretty comprehensive compendium of the Knight Rider series as well. The issues are available on newsstands, but subscribers get additional gifts — two 1:43 scale models, one of KITT and one of his nemesis KARR. And for an additional ˆ1.00 per issue, you'll receive an acrylic display case. As for the Knight Industries Two Thousand itself, the car appears to be incredibly detailed. As depicted on the DeAgostini website, the hood, doors, trunk and T-top roof panels all open. The red scanner lights up, the rear license plate rotates for three options, and there even seems to be a watch that commands the model to speak some of KITT's catch phrases. Knight Rider — or Supercar as it was called in Italy — told the episodic story of a former police officer, Michael Knight, who fought crime with his A.I.-powered car. As such, the TV car and the the model have a heavily computerized (by 1980s standards) dashboard and yoke steering wheel.