I can’t give a good explanation as to why, but over the weekend I happened to see that the 1977 classic movie Smokey and the Bandit was on some streaming service, so I put it on. I haven’t watched this movie in, oh, decades. I remembered the Trans Am, Sally Field, lots of automotive destruction, and a general confusion about what the hell was actually going on. It’s not that it was such a complex plot, but I was confused about the general motivation, for reasons we’ll talk about in a moment. But more importantly, what I noticed was something so wildly unexpected and exciting that I knew I had to share it with you, and only you, my treasured confidants.
What I noticed was what has to be the least-expected car to appear in Smokey and the Bandit. Least expected as in if you asked me to make a list of the cars I’d expect to see just hanging out in the background of this movie, this one would be way, way at the bottom of the list.
To get a little more specific, such a list of The Cars I Least Expect To See In Smokey And The Bandit would have a few parameters, specifically they would all have to be cars that were actually sold in the US market prior to the release of the movie in 1977. So that means nothing like a ZAZ Zaporozhets 965 or a Gurgel X-10. But that list would have anything that was actually sold in the US in at least some semblance of an official capacity.
Oh, and just in case you forgot about what the ’70s were like, here’s an oddly long-seeming trailer for the movie:
The ’70s were a weird time. The nation really had a fascination with CB radios and trucking for a while there, and it seemed like that’s all we wanted to watch for our entertainment, maybe until Star Wars showed us the possibility of space trucking and holographic CBs.
Anyway, back to the least expected car I saw in the movie. It’s in the background here, behind Buford T. Justice’s head:
Dammit, Buford, put your hat back on and move your head out of the way!
There we go. See it there? Just to the left of that Chrysler Cordoba? Really, it’s between two Chryslers Cordoba and a Chevy Monte Carlo, all of which were wildly common cars in the 1970s. But not that car. It’s a Citroën SM.
A Citroën SM?! What the hell is a Citroën SM doing in some random parking lot in Georgia? The whole movie was shot in the cities of McDonough, Jonesboro and Lithonia, Georgia, none of which I’d really have pegged as big markets for Citroën’s Maserati-engined GT car, even for the two of those towns that are part of the Atlanta greater metro area. And yet there she sits, proud and comfortable between those American personal luxury coupés.
In a strange way, that SM is kind of among similar company, also being a large-ish two-door car with a relatively large engine and a plush interior.
You can tell this is an American-market SM by the lighting setup up front there; America-bound SMs (which were sold here between 1970 and 1973) had quad round sealed beams, with a glass area in between them in which the front license plate could be mounted, like an exhibit in a museum vitrine, safe under glass. Since Georgia doesn’t require a front plate, this owner has a pair of fog/driving lamps in there.
The US-market lighting setup, as you see above, was not nearly as cool as the one the rest of the world got, which featured six composite headlamps under glass, the inner pair of which turned with the steering wheel!
So much cooler. Oh, and if you were in the French home market, you’d get them in yellow!
I’m still just amazed at the odds of capturing a wild, free-roaming American-market SM on camera back then. Only 2,037 were sold in the US during the car’s life, so that’s not many at all. And while there are no records still existing, most SM clubs and people who give a damn about this kind of stuff suggest that most went to California, then New York/Northeast, then a distant third place to Florida, Midwest, and so on. So, yeah, a Georgia-based SM in 1976 or so is a rare thing to see.
Oh, before I forget, let’s get to the confusing part of the movie’s plot: it all hinges on a sort of wager made by some weird rich brothers who dress alike, where they want the Bandit to get a truckload of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia in 28 hours, and if he can pull it off he’ll get $80,000, which in modern money comes to about $450,000 or so.
Here’s the scene, if you’re curious:
Now, I never really knew what the hell the big deal was about selling Coors west of Texas or why it was considered bootlegging or why it was worth all that money to smuggle Coors eastbound. But it was a thing! The Air Force used to airlift freaking Coors to Washington, DC for Dwight Eisenhower! It was smuggled from Colorado to North Carolina on a weekly basis for a while!
The reason was that Coors was unpasteurized and would spoil if left unrefrigerated for about a week. This, plus the fact that it was really a regional product meant that it just wasn’t sold east of Texas, and while it wasn’t exactly illegal to have or drink in states east of Texas, it couldn’t legally be sold there. I’ll admit, I’m not entirely clear if transporting 400 cases of Coors without the intent to resell it was actually illegal, but the movie needed it to seem that way, so there would be a plot, thin as it was.
The point is, they needed a reason for Smokey to chase the Bandit in his Trans Am. Which, by the way, was a ’76 car specially fitted with the front end of the ’77, which switched to those quad rectangular headlights. They used four Trans Ams in the shooting, and trashed them all.
I’ve had Coors before. It’s fine? I don’t really get why one would go through such absurd efforts to get Coors when a properly cold Schlitz is not all that different, really, but I suppose maybe the pre-pasteurized version had some special sort of magic.
Who knows? I just wouldn’t want to spill one in that amazing and improbable Citroën SM.
UPDATE: Commenters have already noted that Burt Reynolds has spent time around Citroën SMs before, like driving one in this bonkers chase scene from 1974’s The Longest Yard:
Are you going to make a a Citroën‘s arrest?
I always pegged the weird rich dudes as father and son. The son, BTW, is Paul Williams, the same guy who wrote the theme for Love Boat and has a supporting role in Baby Driver, among other credits.
You left out The Phantom of the Paradise! Or did you just neglect it for the hell of it?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U6rzVVwvlLU&pp=ygUcdGhlIGhlbGwgb2YgaXQgcGF1bCB3aWxsaWFtcw%3D%3D&ra=m
I did not know about this! Thank you
Of course!
The Love Boat theme is great, unless it’s the final season version by Dionne Warwick, yech.
It’s a line in the movie: “Hey Bandit, me and my son are here”. Big and Little Enos Burdette, Sr. and Jr. respectively.
Pat McCormick played Big Enos, the tall guy, who was a writer for Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Famously, McCormick streaked across the stage during a Carson monolog during the streaking craze of 1974.
That’s great. I didn’t know that!
I’ve had Coors before. It’s fine?
False.
Wasn’t Buford chasing The Bandit because Sally Field ran away from Junior? I didn’t think the beer was the reason for the chase other than a plot device for a truck full of beer and an escort car.
Yes, Bandit stole Junior’s future wife on the day of the (shotgun) wedding. He knew nothing of the Coors, truck or Snowman. This was personal.
Bandit didn’t really steal her. She jumped into the Trans Am after she forced Beau to stop
Somebody explain to Jason what an SM club typically refers to
Y’know, maybe don’t. Things could get weird, even for this crowd.
What’s their spaghetti policy?
My uncle at that time was a big Coors fan, and visited Colorado for vacations, I think. Maybe he got inspiration? Maybe he WAS the inspiration!
And now the east coast beer is made at a plant on the Shenandoah River, south of Elkton, Va. It’s why I don’t drink it now. Of course, it’s also called MolsonCoors.
I grew up on the Delmarva peninsula, not exactly a backwater but hardly a metropolis either. I distinctly remember me and my dad pulling over on Rt 13 to look at an SM for sale sometime in the 80’s, somewhere between the DE line and Salisbury.
In the lead image, I see an MGB and Dodge Colt. Thought you were going to write about them.
But you wrote about the SM, a car I’ve loved ever since spending a weekend with one.
You gots class, Torch.
Also a “mango” Corolla coupe.
Back when those SM’s were new, Playboy gave one to the Playmate of the year. I don’t remember which Playmate, or which year, but it’s a pretty small number of years to choose from.
Will this thing move?
Oh yeah.
Unpasturized beer can have quite a long shelf life, many “real ales” still contain live brewing yeast, I’ve made loaves of bread reviving the yeast at the bottom of a bottle of beer from all over the world.
I’ve also stored beers for ageing for years that have, still, yeast within them. Fuller’s Vintage Ale is a famous example.
Did a little home brewing back in my college days, we never had an issue keeping bottles a month or more. See also kombucha.
Heck, I bottle conditioned quite a few beers for a few weeks before I would drink them for the character to build properly (for those who don’t brew: this typically means to wait for the harshness of some brews to mellow out).
Yes, we were doing hopped ales and such. Fermenting in our apt building basement. We ‘liberated’ a bunch of 5 gallon stainless steel soda syrup canisters for fermentation vessels and a 6 gallon water dispenser for bottling.
Back in the ’70s someone told me they preferred Coors because it did *not* have nitrate preservatives, like almost all the other mass marketed beers.
Can anyone confirm?
I can’t see nitrates being added in beer from my experience except to try to balance water characteristics (major breweries will, often, strip the water from all minerals, for a specific water profile to control quality/taste). All water would have some level of naturally occurring nitrates in them so they can likely get away without telling you what they’ve done to it.
Major breweries, though, are also ones to obfuscate what’s actually in their beer and can claim their water profile is a trade secret.
Imho: find a good local brewery and support them instead.
One of the breweries here in Bend OR is Crux; the brewmaster told me that the municipal water was creating problems for beer consistency, because seasonally the city obtains ‘surface water’ from Bridge creek (the remainder of the year is well water).
I remember a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park with the family in 1965. Mom took us on a guided hike and one of the things they recommended we take was a cup on a string that we put over our neck. The idea was that you could dip the cup in a flowing stream of which there were several on the hike. That water had a distinct taste that was delicious and when I became old enough (almost anyway) to drink I definitely noticed that taste in Coors beer. That taste has been long gone!!
The funny thing is that Coors was the original light beer in that it had the least beer taste for the amount of alcohol. When they came out with Coors Light I couldn’t believe it was possible to remove any more of the beer taste and still call it beer
We experienced the same when driving from Texas to New Mexico, then Arizona, then California and back with RV in 1977. Each town we stopped in was always a gamble: the water served at the restaurants would either taste fine or horrendous. We ended up buying the bottled water just for drinking only until we got home.
It’s an amazing bit of marketing, in that Coors was already a light beer by definition. The only standard in the US was that it be light in color, and yet there were fewer calories in a regular Coors than in a Michelob Light. Unfortunately, they pretty much killed their core brand when they launched Coors Light.
Drinking from streams is a great way to get giardia, not that you want it.
Ah Coors Light; like making love in a canoe..
Weird cars show up in weird places. I was driving through middle of nowhere Oklahoma yesterday, and sitting beside a dilapidated building was a sun bleached Lancia Beta Coupe.
On the other hand, we’d come across the most obscure American vehicles in Germany such as Pontiac Sunbird convertible, Dodge Aries wagon with fake wood trim on side, 1980-1982 Ford Thunderbird, and so forth. None of them were officially exported to Europe. I suspect they were originally brought to Europe by the US military personnel who dumped them for few euros, deutsche Mark, etc.
A friend in Denmark brought me over to his neighbor’s place to see an entire warehouse of old American cars. A lot of them were former government limousines and such. Just some random corner of Sjælland.
Is there some part of the movie I’ve missed all these years that says that Big Enis and Little Enis are brothers? I always thought they were father and son.
They were.
Torch, deduct ten Autopian points from your score. Tsk tsk.
and Beauford T Justice was riding with his son .. or was it son in law?
What was that characters’ name?
Junior was his name and he is Justice’s son
He was his son, remember when Buford T Justice says, “There’s no way, NO WAY, you can be from my loins. When I get home I’m gonna slap your momma in the mouth”
Bet you a dollar that its someone on the crew that drove in for filming.
I’d also bet that between filming then and now the recipe for Coors has changed and what you got back then would be different than now. Better? Who knows, but definitely different.
Semi-related tangent: The other day I heard about a Coors Medium. You take a Coors Light and a Coors Banquet and pour them into the same glass. Apparently all the cool kids are doin it.
Does it let you talk to ghosts?
Bravo!
Coors Light is an inoffensive beer. It doesn’t quite have enough of its own character to be offensive.
I don’t see the logic of a Coors Medium unless you don’t like the taste of full-fat Coors and wanted to dial it back a bit, or wanted to inject some character into your Coors Light. But, then, why not just get a different beer? Seems like effort.
Seems like a good excuse to drink two beers at once.
It took me a visit to tailgate a scorching hot Indianapolis 500 and a full day of drinking to realize that’s the point (same with Bud lite and other similar beers). You can drink Coors Light all day, and get neither drunk nor dehydrated.
Coors Light is the choice of those who hate the taste of beer but really enjoy the act of peeing.
Coors Light is a “rental” beer in that way (“One does not buy beer… they rent it.”)
The old joke about Coors Light would be something along the lines of: “What does sex in a canoe and CL have in common? They’re both freakin’ close to water….”
Forgot that one…
That’s exactly it. It’s a lawnmower beer.
“Full fat Coors?” Ha!
I’ll drink a Guinness Half (regular Draught and 0.0 or ‘Naught’) but not this.
Used to be the cool drink was a ‘black and tan’ (dark beer and .. regular)
This mashup seems sad by comparison.
and disaster movies. The Poseidon Adventure, then The Towering Inferno, and then dozens of knockoffs.
Airport! Airport ’77! Airport ’79 – The Concorde!
Oh yeah!
CB radio was an interest of mine and my father owned and drove a Class 8 truck back then. And Jerry “East bound and down” Reed was a pretty amusing actor and musician.
Jerry Reed was a fantastic guitarist, a Certified Guitar Player.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KBhnebwE
Plus he did it with 20% fewer digits than Chet Atkins. Note his index finger on the closeup of his hand.
Our local diner used to have a CB radio behind the counter that the waitresses would talk on. One of them was “The Weeping Willow”, spoken in southern drawl.
I was watching Miami Vice (yay Tubi for bringing it back) this weekend, an episode where Crockett and Tubbs have to go into the Everglades to track down a fugitive.
City cops in the country setup, with the local town looking like an 80s tv depiction of Southeast Asia. But for some reason never explained, there are 3 Deloreans and a Maserati Biturbo in it, just casually parked near the run down bar or ramshackle barn.
Because Miami 1984, and cocaine.
Don’t ask questions you won’t live to hear the answer to, pal.
Blu-rays are your friend.
I saw that one the other day too! I think the reason for all the Maseratis and Deloreans and whatnot is that the backwater they ended up at was the hideout for the smugglers. I just kept wondering during the whole episode how they were going to get back to their Daytona which was now parked there in the middle of the smuggler’s hideaway
I first thought “ah the Columbians”, but no, they flew in on a seaplane, b/c Miami Vice.
I don’t think Crockett ever once locked or put the top up in that Daytona…
Gimme a diablo sandwich and a Dr. Pepper and make it fast, I’m in a goddamned hurry.
maybe 4-5 years ago Arby’s had a Diablo Sandwich (not like in the movie, just a spicy take on one of their own sandwiches) and in my area at least they have Dr Pepper.
I didn’t bother the people at the counter with this info, but you better believe I took a pic and sent that quote out to MANY phone contacts 🙂
Daddy! The top came off!
Mike Henry, he played a few seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers and played Tarzan in 3 movies.
Came hear to say The Longest Yard (one of my favorite movie car chases, right up there with The Seven Ups).
I like the white car behind them too
Early 70’s Corolla?
Yes it is. I had an identical one.
Speaking of Schlitz, get it while you can. Not sure why you’d want to, though.
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/schlitz-is-gone/
In the last decade, Schlitz did a pretty cool thing – it went back to the recipe from the 1960s. So it was a taste of what domestic beer was like before the light beer phenomenon of the 70s – much better than its bottom of the barrel predecessor version.
As far as the domestic beers go, Schlitz was always a better option than others imo. Nothing amazing, but better than Bud or Coors
That’s a pretty low bar to clear
The beer that made Mel Famey walk us.
Smoky and the Bandit. As teens, we’d endlessly recite that line, “There’s no way you’re a product of my loins, no way. Junior, remind me to slap your mama when we get home “. He nailed that role perfectly.
“There’s no way – no WAY – that you could come from my loins. Soon as I get home, the first thing I’m gonna do is punch yo’ mama in the mouth.”
I got a temporary ban on Facebook once recording that line, for “fostering domestic violence.” Yet I could post the actual video clip with impunity. Make it make sense.
I got a temporary ban back on that German lighting site, for quoting Clarkson’s line about truckers, changing gears, and prostitutes.
Didn’t Burt Reynolds drive a Citroen SM into a river at the start of The Longest Yard? Maybe this was Burt’s car.
Bingo.
This is what I was thinking.
The only scene where Beau Darville (the Bandit) and Justice appear together is in the truck stop diner
“…Mister Saturday Night Special…”