Burt Reynolds’ former 1978 ‘Smokey’ Pontiac Trans Am in big auction by feds

A 1978 Pontiac Trans Am once owned by Burt Reynolds as a memento of the car he drove in the film “Smokey and the Bandit” will be among nearly 150 muscle cars and luxury vehicles seized from the alleged perpetrators of an $800 million investment scheme that will hit the auction block this weekend in California.

It’s said to be the largest single-owner car collection ever auctioned by the U.S. Marshals, seized late last year from Jeff and Paulette Carpoff, the founders of the now-defunct mobile solar generators company DC Solar. The 149 vehicles on auction include 1990s Humvees, 1960s-era Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros from several decades, plus older cars including a 1939 Buick Roadmaster, a 1951 Chevy Thriftmaster 3100 pickup truck and a 1941 Plymouth Special Delux with wooden doors and trim.

“It is rare for the U.S. Marshals to hold an auction of such a stunning collection of vehicles,” Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Lasha Boyden in Sacramento said in a statement.

Reynolds’ former Trans Am is a hardtop memento of the version he drove in the 1977 action comedy. It bears Bandit Run logos in the rear window and upper windshield and appears to have modified suspension components and bucket seats. It comes with a Florida registration with Reynolds’ name on it, and an autograph on the glove box that reads, “Be Safe! Burt Reynolds.” Other than that, we’re told the engine starts and the odometer reads a scant 3,394 miles. It had already garnered 59 bids topping out at $55,025.

Re-creations and replicas of the “Smokey” Trans Am have been popular fixtures on the auction circuit in the wake of Reynolds’ death in 2018. The U.S. Marshals auction will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26, at Apple Towing in Woodland, California, with pre-bidding currently under way.