The NEW Bandit TA
07-17-2007, 12:06 PM
#1
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The NEW Bandit TA Awesome car! I wonder what the cost for the new wheels alone is. http://www.yearone.com/yodnn/Home/tabid/54/Default.aspx
07-17-2007, 12:32 PM
#2
Originally Posted by ram-it
Awesome car! I wonder what the cost for the new wheels alone is. http://www.yearone.com/yodnn/Home/tabid/54/Default.aspx
You get the picture. It's old hat and I wish some of the diehard Trans Am people would realize that Smokey & The Bandit is about as cool in 2007 as wide lapeled silk shirts, platform shoes and bell bottom pants.
Last edited by DrEvyl; 07-17-2007 at 12:43 PM.
07-17-2007, 12:50 PM
#3
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I disagree, the Bandit is now & always has been one of the COOLEST TAs ever built. Just look at it. The fact that some company is going to build some retro units with state of the art suspension, brakes & powerplant is great IMO. And will probably sell out. Persoanly I wouldn't spend $100k for the entry unit or $200k for the no-BS LS7 unit. But lots of people will, mark my words.
And I thought it was a very well written article (read it on the jet-ride to Tampa)
And I thought it was a very well written article (read it on the jet-ride to Tampa)
07-17-2007, 01:16 PM
#4
Yeah, well.. a lot of people still go to see the Village People, but that doesn't make it cool. Personally, the "Smokey & The Bandit" car is pure cheese IMHO... and a "cool" old Trans Am would be something like a '69... a 70-1/2... or a 73-74 455 SD. After that, they kinda went downhill until the TTA came around.
07-17-2007, 03:50 PM
#6
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Damn! I guess most old cars are just that then. Slow and handle like **** compared to most cars today. So why even own one? Come to think of it the same can be said for the LS1 cars since they are not made anymore and the new stuff coming out is superior. I don't give a rats *** if some kid doesn't know what the Bandit is. Most kids today wouldn't even care about the TA if it even came back. This car was all hot rodders had coming from the factory in the late '70's. The 400's with a 4sp were pretty decent performers and actually handled pretty damn good for its day. I will always love the look of the TA's especially the Bandits. It was the car to have when I was growing up (and it did not come in purple).
07-17-2007, 04:00 PM
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I like it. That particular F-bod is the only one I can remember identifying when I was in single digits. When I see one today I can picture the very first one I ever saw. Thanks to dad that got me on the path of F-body interest. Ok off the nostalgic soap box now.
There's no point in comparing a modern T/A, Camaro to one from over 30 years ago. If someone likes it enough to own it more power to them. It's not like GM is pushing this car through advertising trying to turn on a whole new generation of buyers. That would be the 5th gen. I can see us having the same conversation in 2040. The Bumble Bee Camaro is so overplayed why would anyone want one. Today we run on electric and can opt for the hover package if you cough up the doe...
There's no point in comparing a modern T/A, Camaro to one from over 30 years ago. If someone likes it enough to own it more power to them. It's not like GM is pushing this car through advertising trying to turn on a whole new generation of buyers. That would be the 5th gen. I can see us having the same conversation in 2040. The Bumble Bee Camaro is so overplayed why would anyone want one. Today we run on electric and can opt for the hover package if you cough up the doe...
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07-17-2007, 06:40 PM
#8
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LMAO... it is about prefrence, I can tell you that the 77 TA drove WAY better then a 69 did. In fact people were probly saying why would you buy that old thing that steers like crap. There might be a few people in here like Don, Ellis, Bill S and myself that have driven the 1st gen suspension and will tell you hands down that a second gen flat kills it. Why do you think they are so popular for roundy round guys. The power wasn't bad and sway bar technology was coming around.
Now you move into a 3rd gen with torque arm suspensions and struts and you get into a different ballgame again.... The problem is when Gm did the 4th gen although it looked great they didn't do anything except add power, some brakes and a very slightly better front suspension (depending on who you ask) then the 3rd gen.
If I was going to buy something new today that was a GM car it would have to be a Caddilac V... maybe the second year of the 5th gen. rant off.......
Now you move into a 3rd gen with torque arm suspensions and struts and you get into a different ballgame again.... The problem is when Gm did the 4th gen although it looked great they didn't do anything except add power, some brakes and a very slightly better front suspension (depending on who you ask) then the 3rd gen.
If I was going to buy something new today that was a GM car it would have to be a Caddilac V... maybe the second year of the 5th gen. rant off.......
07-17-2007, 08:54 PM
#12
Originally Posted by ram-it
Damn! I guess most old cars are just that then. Slow and handle like **** compared to most cars today. So why even own one? Come to think of it the same can be said for the LS1 cars since they are not made anymore and the new stuff coming out is superior. I don't give a rats *** if some kid doesn't know what the Bandit is. Most kids today wouldn't even care about the TA if it even came back. This car was all hot rodders had coming from the factory in the late '70's. The 400's with a 4sp were pretty decent performers and actually handled pretty damn good for its day. I will always love the look of the TA's especially the Bandits.
But...
I keep seeing all these retro Bandit photoshop based on the new Camaro, and I can tell you right now that would be the most idiotic idea they could possibly come up with in bringing back a Firebird. I guess if they wanted to corner the redneck market, it might be good, but for most of the population Burt Reynolds is an old actor well past his expiration date, and you wouldn't attract anything but the die hard '78 Trans Am fans to the showrooms. Bad idea.
Personally, I do not want to relive the 70's, unlike most people my age. about the only thing I'd want back from that time frame is easy ***** without worry about HIV.
It was the car to have when I was growing up
It was real cool when I was growing up, too.. but ..newsflash... that was 30 years ago. Bell bottoms, gold chains and disco were pretty freakin popular then, too. Look where they are now. Cheese. You'd look like a real dork running around in them now.... just like a new car with that looked like a '78 Bandit car would look pretty dorky, too.
I'm the most diehard Firebird guy out there, but I'd shoot myself before I'd be caught alive in one of those retro Bandit cars. ****, just leave the damn Firebird dead instead of doing that crap.
(and it did not come in purple).
You can take the Bandit... personally, I'll take a clean 70-1/2 Trans Am 455 over that car any day of the week. It's rarer, cooler, and definitely doesn't look like something a freakin hillbilly would drive in the current time. It's timeless, where the Bandit is pretty much past it's prime and old hat. It's got "geezer" written all over it.
I'm not a redneck... most people who would buy a $35,000 car aren't either... catering a new car to that market would effectively be marketing suicide.
Last edited by DrEvyl; 07-17-2007 at 09:03 PM.
Just thinking about it makes me want to watch it again.
07-17-2007, 08:59 PM
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I was all of 8 years old when the Bandit movies came out so maybe it was just that I was young but those late 70s T/As totally did it for me. As a matter of fact the car of my dreams was a 79 WS6 in all black with a factory decal delete (yes they made a few of them).
I did actually get my 79 T/A when I was 19. It was red on tan with an olds 403, TH400 and beat to ****. I was gonna fix it up but it never happened. Eventually it went to the boneyard. I wish I could have kept it but I needed a car I could drive so I bought my first fox body, an 80 Fairmont.
Anyway if I ever came across another one cheap enough and had the room to keep it around for "someday" I would own another one. And it would get a turbo hood and a twin turbo LS1.
I did actually get my 79 T/A when I was 19. It was red on tan with an olds 403, TH400 and beat to ****. I was gonna fix it up but it never happened. Eventually it went to the boneyard. I wish I could have kept it but I needed a car I could drive so I bought my first fox body, an 80 Fairmont.
Anyway if I ever came across another one cheap enough and had the room to keep it around for "someday" I would own another one. And it would get a turbo hood and a twin turbo LS1.
07-17-2007, 10:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Racehead
I love the Smokey and the Bandit movie, the car, the era, Burt Reynolds, the 2nd gen platform, and I happen to like rednecks too. As a matter of fact I am one 
07-17-2007, 10:57 PM
#19
Personally, I do not want to relive the 70's, unlike most people my age. about the only thing I'd want back from that time frame is easy ***** without worry about HIV.
Robert