1966 Pontiac Gto Convertible on 2040-cars

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Burt Reynolds' personal 1977 Trans-Am from Smokey And The Bandit for sale

Smokey and the Bandit is one of those quintessential 1970s car movies with insane premises but tons of fun. After all, the basic plot of the film is about distracting the police to transport cases of Coors beer cross country. While Burt Reynolds receives top billing, the real star is definitely his black Pontiac Trans-Am. Now, there's a chance to posses one of these muscle machines actually owned by Reynolds, and it's already proving quite popular. The car is a '77 Trans-Am with the famous, gold screaming chicken proudly on the hood. However, while this is a piece of Reynolds memorabilia, it's not really part of cinematic history. According to the listing, this example was used as a promotional vehicle and then given to Reynolds with a title showing him as a previous owner for proof. Still, there's 400-cubic-inch (6.55-liter) V8 under the hood with a 4-barrel carburetor and an automatic transmission. A plaque inside the driver's door proclaims the car as a "1977 Pontiac Trans Am Owned By Burt Reynolds," and there's a Bandit logo on the door. This is just one lot of Julien Auction's sale of Reynolds memorabilia on December 11 and 12 at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV. Bidding is already running online, and the Trans-Am is up to $130,000, as of this writing. For the true Reynolds fanatic, the auction also lists the motorized stagecoach from his wedding to Loni Anderson. It rides built on an International Harvester Scout frame with an interior reportedly from Dolly Parton.

GM doing fine at retaining Pontiac owners

This isn't the first time we've reported positive news about General Motors retaining former Pontiac owners. Get a few more stories like this latest report from Edmund's Auto Observer, and it will mark an ongoing positive trend for GM. Edmunds.com crunched the numbers to see how well the General is hanging on to customers after shutting out the lights at Pontiac, and it found that nearly 40 percent of Pontiac owners stayed with a vehicle from a General Motors brand.
The numbers are a little lower than an earlier R.L. Polk & Company study, but Edmunds says General Motors is keeping more former Pontiac buyers than it has since 2007. Most are turning to vehicles from Chevrolet, especially during January and February of 2011, when GM incentivized Pontiac owners to stay under the umbrella. Those moves seem to have worked, and 28.1 percent of Pontiac owners trading up made the jump into a Bowtie.
Buyers that have gone elsewhere have largely stayed loyal to Domestic automakers, with Ford picking up the most conquests from Pontiac, with 9.4 percent switching. Toyota and Honda picked up 7.4 percent of the pool of former Pontiac drivers. The numbers are defying any predictions that Pontiac buyers would completely exit the General Motors fold, and have climbed up closer to parity with the retention figures of other GM brands from a 2009 low of only 16 percent retention.

This GTO-El Camino mashup is the muscle truck of our dreams

There were a hell of a lot of great muscle cars in the mid-1960s, from the baroque Dodges and Plymouths of the earlier part of the decade to the wild big boys like the Boss 429 and Olds 442 W30. Right in the middle of the decade, two of the most iconic of the bunch emerged — the Pontiac GTO and second-generation Chevy El Camino. And this one is a 1964 Chevy El Camino with the heart and face of its GTO cousin, and dubbed the El Chieftain GTO. It's currently for sale at RM Sotheby's Auburn auction, with no reserve status or estimate listed. This looks like a product that Pontiac could have sold at the time — its builder, Ron Lindeman, did an excellent job making it look like a factory product, right down to the taillight strakes inspired by the GTO. It's powered by a 389 — a Pontiac motor that was actually found in period GTOs, but sporting a single four-barrel instead of the sexy Tri-Power setup. It is, however, equipped with a Hurst four-speed manual and the grille badge to prove it to bystanders. Even the interior is made up to look like a GTO. We wish there was more of a description of the build in the listing, but if you love it, do us one better and buy the thing and invite us to poke around it. We are very much in love with this muscle-truck mashup. Related Video: Featured Gallery 1964 Chevrolet El Camino "El Chieftain GTO" News Source: RM Sotheby's Pontiac Auctions Car Buying Truck Performance Classics