The wide fame of the Smokey and Bandit films starring Burt Reynolds was the peak of the 1977-78 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. Naturally, most people prefer black cars to emulate Reynolds’ ride, but the most coveted are the limited-edition Y81 and Y82 SE cars, complete with all the goodies of gold styling.
You’ll need to hand over a bucket of gold, or possibly the proceeds of a massive interstate smuggling campaign, to bring this Y82 home from Mecum’s Harrisburg auction at the end of the month, though. Why? Because it’s only 14.8 miles (24 km) from the new one.
The Y81 and Y82 cars sold in 1977 were painted black, but the dash was finished with a gold engine, the interior of the 15-inch snow wheel was painted in gold, the grille inserts were gold and pinstripes of gold paint were used to distinguish them from the normal Trans Ams ordered black paint. The main difference between the two is that the Y81 car comes with a traditional coupe roof, while the Y82 comes with a sexy Hearst removable glass T-top.
The launch of the Mecum doesn’t explain the history behind the car and its extremely low mileage, but pictures show it looks as good as the day it rolled out of the Pontiac factory. What they didn’t show is a build sheet, so we don’t know exactly what options are installed, although Mecum lists air conditioning, tinted glass, and cruise control as part of the equipment list.
Pictures and listings also confirm that this Y82 comes with a three-speed automatic instead of the available four-speed manual, which is a shame. It looks like the original owner was happy to stick with the standard 180-horsepower (183-horsepower) L78 6.6-liter engine, rather than paying an extra $50 for the W72 kit that bumped output to 200 hp (203 hp). But hey, what’s an extra 20 horsepower for when you’re never going to drive it, right?
According to production figures on tran-zam.com, this car was one of 6,030 Y82 automatic transmissions produced that year with the base engine, and a total of 68,744 Trans Ams were produced, meaning it may not have Not as rare as you might think. But in this case, there won’t be many, if any, other ’77 SE cars, and so little time. What do you think it will sell? Leave a comment and give us your best guess.
