Justice chasing an army of black Trans Ams last week, no you were not imagining things. The Bandit Run came through DeKalb County last week, with a few 70s muscle cars and even a Texas patrol car in hot pursuit.
The Bandit Run is a yearly event started by Dave Hall of Restore a Muscle Car, and David Hershey in 2007. The first year was a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the movie Smokey and the Bandit with that year’s run re-enacted the drive from Texarkana to Atlanta.
If you’re not familiar with the movie Smokey and the Bandit we have to ask, “What rock have you been living under?” The 1977 action comedy starred Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams and Mike Henry, and featured the now iconic black and gold Trans Am on a bootlegger run from Texas to Georgia.
The film was the directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham, and follows Bo "Bandit" Darville (Reynolds) and Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Reed), attempting to illegally transport 400 cases of Coors beer. Snowman drives the 1974 Kenworth 18-wheeler carrying the beer, while Bandit drives a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am to distract law enforcement. Throughout the film, they are pursued by Texas Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Gleason) in a Pontiac Lemans squad car.
Smokey and the Bandit was the second-highest-grossing domestic film of 1977 in the United States, behind only Star Wars, and led to several sequels, but the original film is today a classic.
Today, the Bandit Run memorializes the film and its iconic vehicles. The mission of the Bandit Run is to get classic cars out of the garage and onto the road. All participants are welcome and not just owners of Trans Am’s or muscle cars. Restore a Muscle Car works with the Bandit Run group to put a new route together each year that will help get other people/cars involved and get to see different parts of the country as well.
The 2023 Bandit Run was centered in Gallatin, Tennessee, doing a “Wagon Wheel” for different tours. The event took daily trips across the beautiful state of Tennessee, taking it through Smithville and around Center Hill Lake last Wednesday.
The group stopped at Twisted Oaks restaurant for lunch, displaying their vehicles, before touring around Center Hill.
