Burt Reynolds. We'll miss him.

Well, it was bound to happen, I guess.  We lost Burt Reynolds.  I've said it here before, and I'll say it again, Smokey and the Bandit was the greatest movie ever made.  Ever.  It's a sad day for car movie lovers everywhere.

There are lots of things out there about the life and career of Burt Reynolds today, but around here we mostly care about the car movies.  I'm going to have to pop one in the DVD player tonight!

Here’s a little synopsis of some of the best (and worst) Burt Reynolds movies featuring the big three: car chases, car jumps, and car crashes.

 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ = GOLDEN MOUSTACHE RATING SYSTEM!

Star cars of the Country Music Hall of Fame

Many years ago my dad and I stopped in at the Country Music Hall of Fame (CMHOF) during one of our visits to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. I remember that it was a nice little place packed with memorabilia, and a car or two on display for good measure. Since then, they’ve built a new, 350,000-sq/ft. Hall of Fame, with more rhinestones, banjos, and vintage steel guitars than you’ll ever see in one place again. As you probably have guessed, there are also a few country music-related cars in there. That’s Alan Jackson’s ’55 Thunderbird in the picture. Of course you want to see the other cars, so here we go.

Pontiac Trubute Day brought pretty Ponchos and GMCs to Westfall

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day for the Fourth-Annual Pontiac Tribute Day at the Westfall GMC Truck Center on Saturday afternoon.  There was plenty of sunshine, it wasn’t too hot, and the parking lot was full of fine Pontiacs and GMC trucks.  In all, I’d say it was a pretty successful event for the KC Arrowheads Pontiac Club.

And the Oscar goes to ... Pontiac Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit

The Academy Awards are this weekend. I know this, because General Motors put out a press release talking about how they have provided a lot of the cars featured in big movies over the years.

Recreations of famous cars are all over the place. I always threaten my wife that I’m going to build a Fall Guy truck. Of course, the last thing I need around here is a junky old lifted ’82 GMC long bed. But still, if I had unlimited space, time, and resources, I’d be rockin’ it like the Unknown Stunt Man.

An epic event for an epic movie. The 2011 Bandit Run passes through Kansas Speedway

I have been within three feet of the guy who played Mini-Me. I have watched stock car football at the county fair. I have been to Comicon, and seen grown men dressed up like Storm Troopers. Needless to say, I have seen my share of awesome stuff.

But today, I attended an event that topped them all. I am certain that all will agree that Smokey and the Bandit is the greatest movie of all time. This fact is un-debatable. So when something like the Bandit Run passes through the Kansas City area, you can bet that I will be there to cover such an epic event.