Yahoo Autos Florida and the Bandit: Burt Reynolds legacy lives on at car restoration shop
At 9 years old, Gene Kennedy went with his father to catch the new 1977 hit film Star Wars at the Century Mall Theater in St. Petersburg, but the line was too long, and they saw Smokey and the Bandit instead.
His life would forever change when he first laid eyes on the famed black and gold Pontiac Trans Am and the man who would eventually become a dear friend, actor Burt Reynolds.
Kennedy and Reynolds met nearly 35 years later, and their friendship led to Bandit Movie Cars in Palmetto. Kennedy buys and restores Hollywood movie cars that have been on screen, or recreates them from like models, often for auction or independent clients.
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It's also the place where Kennedy keeps the last car Reynolds ever owned, an autographed 1977 Pontiac Trans Am identical to the one he drove in Smokey and the Bandit. Complete with a 6.6-liter engine, Hurst T-tops, black leather horse collar seats, and the iconic phoenix that decorates the hood, it is in showroom condition.
There is no evidence the car appeared in the film, a fire at Universal Pictures destroyed many of the records, but it was purchased in Georgia just a few miles from where the movie was filmed, and Kennedy said Reynolds liked to believe it was.
In 2014, Kennedy and the Bandit did track down the car that was used by Universal Pictures to promote the film, and in January 2016, they auctioned it off for a record-breaking $550,000 at the Barrett Jackson Scottsdale Auction.
“It looked like Woodstock,” Kennedy said. “He absolutely got an injection of energy, I had never seen him quite like that after that moment. That really started quite a few more things for us. I'm proud that we got to do that.”
That was the sale that sparked Bandit Movie Cars.
Kennedy now has at least a dozen cars under his care that have been on-screen, owned by famous personalities, or are somewhere in the process of recreation. He has sold or auctioned many more.
Just beside the Trans Am in the car workshop filled with parts and tools sits one of the iconic General Lee cars from Dukes of Hazard, an orange 1969 Dodge Charger.
To the left, the last car Elvis Presley ever purchased, a white 1977 Lincoln Continental. Kennedy also has the Blues Brothers 1974 Dodge Monaco, and recently finished a rebuild of Cousin Eddie's RV from Christmas Vacation.
“These movie cars get lost in history,” Kennedy said. “When Hollywood generally gets done with a movie, they will dispose of the cars for liability reasons ... so more often than not, Hollywood would destroy the car. It's unfortunate because some of those would be really iconic to be in a museum. Some of these cars have a lot of value.”
Meeting Burt Reynolds
Westerns once dominated the box office with tough-guy heroes and horseback action, but the rise of car films in the 1970s brought moviegoers new heroes to idolize.
