1969 Pontiac Bonneville Base 6.6l on 2040-cars

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Baseball team to dress like Trans Am, complete with screaming chicken

Come to think of it, the Screaming Chicken actually sounds like the name of a minor league baseball team. Well, it isn't, but the famous logo of the same name that graced the hood of the 1970s Pontiac Trans Am will at least be making it to a baseball uniform this summer. The Lansing Lugnuts, a Single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, will be rocking these special uniforms to honor the late Burt Reynolds and his film Smokey and the Bandit. By default, it will also be honoring the car the movie made famous: the 1977 Trans Am painted black with gold trim and, of course, the screaming chicken on the hood. This is a pretty good history of the emblem. So why the Lugnuts and Burt Reynolds? Although he claimed to be born in Georgia for much of his career, he admitted in a 2015 autobiography that he was in fact born in Lansing, Mich. After a few years, his family settled in Florida. Not exactly hometown hero stuff, but minor league baseball promotions have been made of more tenuous connections. The Burt Reynolds tribute night will be July 20, and if you want to get a screaming chicken jersey for yourself (I mean, wouldn't they be perfect for a cars and coffee?), the game-used jerseys will be auctioned off for charity after the game.

Celebrate the summer solstice by building the Pontiac Solstice shooting brake GM never did

Happy summer solstice, everyone! To celebrate, we have a particularly unusual eBay find connected to the Pontiac Solstice sports car. A seller has leftover inventory of fiberglass hardtops designed to turn the Pontiac Solstice roadster into a shooting brake. The seller says they came from a since-closed Indiana company, and they're clearly inspired by another aftermarket part and even a GM concept that never saw the light of day. We'll start from the beginning: the stillborn Chevy Nomad concept. It was a concept that came out about the same time as the original Solstice concept, and it was clearly based on the same platform, featuring a small two-door body and a long nose. It also had unashamedly retro Nomad wagon design cues and cues from the original Corvette. The car never saw production, but clearly people were interested in having a wagon-like sports car. That brings us to the next bit of history with an aftermarket hardtop developed by German company EDAG. We saw a prototype in person, and the overall shape seemed to fit the car — and the wraparound window design certainly seemed Nomadic. Besides the unique look, the hardtop and its functional hatch made the Solstice roadster's miniscule cargo space far more usable. It doesn't appear many of the tops were sold, though. These tops on eBay look very similar to the EDAG tops, though it's not clear if they're a direct replica or something similar. Being that the parts are leftover inventory, the seller notes that some of the tops may be missing pieces for installation, so only those who are handy with bodywork and fasteners, or who are able to lean on someone who is, need apply. Even with some extra work, if you really want a Solstice shooting brake, this is likely easier and cheaper than commissioning a shop to custom-build a roof for your. If you're interested, check out the link. They're $499.99 apiece, and the seller will also provide a set of seals and gaskets for the top for an extra $125.

Check out the official 2013 Trans Am Hurst Edition commercial

The Poncho is dead. Long live the Poncho. Like certain other reoccurring personal maladies, the aftermarket community simply can't let the Trans Am go without another flare up. The guys at Trans Am Depot have worked up a quick commercial for their newest creation: The 2013 Trans Am Hurst Edition, and it watches pretty much like you'd expect it to. The footage is comprised of just about every TA male fantasy you can conceive of, from Daisy Dukes and white tank tops to tramp stamps, bikinis and ice cream cones. There simply aren't words for what you'll see below.
Of course, we like our T-Tops as much as the next guy. If you like what you see in the videos, you can pick up your very own TA by heading over to the Trans Am Depot site. The guys even have Chevrolet Camaro-based versions of the Pontiac GTO if the '77 TA treatment is too much for your tastes. Enjoy, but don't say we didn't warn you.