The policeman versus lovable ne'er-do-well is perhaps one of the most classic car chase match-ups in
Hollywood—and we aren't usually cheering for the long arm of the law. In Smokey and the Bandit, Burt
Reynolds puts on a mighty good show of being the bee in the Sheriff's proverbial bonnet. So when David
Holmes, president of the Calgary Firebird Club, takes his '77 Pon ac Firebird Trans Am to the annual Smokey
and the Bandit run, you'd expect the hackles of the local police force to rise in some kind of ins nctual
response to such an iconic (and infamous) car.
"There were three of us on our way to Texarkana," David says of one of his run-ins, "and I got pulled over by
a state trooper down there." Preparing for the worst, David rolled down his window. "He gets out, and he's
the stereotypical state trooper with the mirrored lenses, and a big belly on him, and he leans in and says,
'I just want y'all to know you never done nothin' wrong, I just want some pictures,'" David says in southern
drawl and grins. "He was really funny, a really nice guy, so we cha ed for about 15 minutes, and he took a
couple pictures." Even with Bandit's 'total disrespect for the law,' it seems the law sure has a lot of respect
for David's flashy beast.
BURT WOULD
APPROVE!
4 8
G A R A G E | S H O T S
THIS FEATURE ORIGINALLY
APPEARED IN ISSUE 4 OF
GARAGE|SHOTS MAGAZINE
