Classic Recollections: 1978 Pontiac Trans Am
Watching four-wheeled machines tear across the big screen at our local cinemas has a magical way of leaving lasting memories — and fueling automotive desires.
In 1977, the must-see car movie was none other than “Smoky and the Bandit.” One excited and impressionable fan on the edge of his seat was a boy named Danny Fiermuga.
“I was 6 years old when the film came out and ever since I saw it, I knew I had to have one,” the Addison resident says of that film's true star, the Starlight Black 1977 Pontiac Trans Am.
Of course, the movie also starred Burt Reynolds, the too-hot-to-handle wheelman who pilots around the back roads of the South, transporting a bootleg shipment of booze while escaping the watchful eye, and roadblocks, of badge-toting lawmen.
Naturally, young Fiermuga did what most children do after getting their heart set on a new toy. He asked Santa Claus to deliver his muscle car. “Every year, I always put a Trans Am on my Christmas list and went to bed dreaming I'd wake up, and it would be parked out front. But every year it never happened.”
Christmases came and went until an 18-year old Fiermuga took matters into his own hands and found one for sale in Franklin Park.
“It was just awesome to drive but with an eight-cylinder engine, and with me having to pay my own insurance, there was just no way it was going to be feasible.”
So Fiermuga waited for his insurance rates to drop, his savings to accumulate and the procurement of a proper place to store a V-8-powered treasure before recommencing the hunt three years ago. “It was a pipe dream, but I knew it was time to get serious about finding the perfect car,” he said.
After looking at a several of dead-end examples, Fiermuga found his Trans Am in Bardwell, Ken., in October of 2011. It was a model year off from the famous movie car, but it suited Fiermuga just fine as the differences between the two are minimal. Fiermuga had determined he would take “whichever one I could get my hands on.”
In true Bandit-theme fashion, the 1978 Pontiac Fiermuga bought had also been “Eastbound and Down,” with the previous owner driving it from California back to Kentucky. Fearing “Sheriff Justice” might catch up, the owner had swapped out the factory 403-cubic-inch V-8 for a more robust Oldsmobile 455 c.i. powerplant, opting to leave it mated to the stock automatic transmission. Flowmaster exhausts were installed along with new carpeting and a repaint of the engine bay.
So how does this dream-come-true cruiser compare to those childhood daydreams?
“Just like I thought it would! Its simply awesome to drive with the T-tops off and listening to the engine; it's just pure American muscle.”
With cruise season approaching, expect to see Fiermuga parked at the Thursday night cruise at the Culver's in Addison, satisfying those Diablo sandwich and Dr Pepper munchies.
“I get thumbs-up wherever I go. Even after all this time, everybody still recognizes the car and immediately thinks of ‘Smokey and the Bandit.' ”