Burt Reynolds Approves of This Teenage Fantasy Turned Real

Ungodly horsepower and unbridled car lust? Check. [s]Gaudy[/s] awesome lettering and badges? Check. (Optional) Disco era moustaches? Check.

If you’re triggered by anything that isn’t subdued, then the Trans Am SE Bandit Edition is definitely not a safe space.

Trans Am Depot, the Tallahassee-based creator of custom-built Trans Ams (using 5th-generation Chevrolet Camaros as a canvas), is out to satisfy 77 lucky buyers who yearn for the heady days of the late 1970s.

And really, who among us doesn’t secretly yearn for the taste excesses of the Carter era?

A limited run of black-and-gold Trans Ams inspired by the film “Smoky and the Bandit” will come with everything that made the original 1977 model memorable: screaming eagle on the hood, T-top, gold “snowflake” wheels with white letter tires, miles of pinstriping. It’ll also add something beyond the divine: a signature by Burt Reynolds himself.

Pontiac might be dead in the cold, cold ground, but the redesigned front and rear fascias of Trans Am Depot’s offerings do their best to keep the storied brand alive.

Doing its part for America, the Bandit Edition Trans Am honors a movie that turbocharged the CD radio craze, provided Sally Field with her movie debut, made Coors beer an even hotter commodity, and gave Jackie Gleason another chance to shine.

It’ll also haul ass, because the sizable investment needed to purchase one gets you a mega-tuned and supercharged 7.4-liter V8 of undetermined horsepower. The Bandit wished he could have ditched his Malaise-era motor for this one.

A video accompanying the launch of the Bandit Edition features the third-least lucky member of the “Deliverance” canoe trip (or second, depending on your viewpoint), as well as Trans Am Depot co-founders Scott and Tod Warmack.

“It’s a love story — most guys have a love story with their cars,” says Reynolds, who, at 80, might want to avoid alluding to frisky front seats shenanigans.

Monstrous or magnificent — or maybe a little of both — the Trans Am SE Bandit Edition is your chance to be one of 77 latter-day Burt Reynoldses (Reynoldi?). Price can’t be factor, though, because these babies aren’t coming to your driveway without the handover of $115,000.

That would buy a lot of Coors.

[Image: Trans Am Depot]