It’s difficult to find anyone who watched Smokey and the Bandit who didn’t walk away afterwards wanting a black-and-gold Pontiac Trans Am. The film company may have beaten the Pontiacs to within an angel’s breath from death to make it happen, but on screen, that icon of Seventies muscle looked spot-on as it powerslid every which way but loose. That kind of scene makes an impression on a gearhead, but when you have a race like Bathurst in your backyard, how much of an impact can it really have? According to Gregg Hamilton, plenty. Gregg grew up in New Zealand watching the races at Mount Panorama, so he was already imbibed with the muscle car fever, watching Fords and Holdens battling. He knew he wanted a V8, rear-drive, manual transmission car, and a 1979 Trans Am certainly would fit the bill.

Just one look at Hamilton’s car tells you that it’s nowhere near stock. That’s a 1977-era front clip on the car, the rear spoiler is massaged, and those fender flares are the stuff of dreams, and that’s just the start of what’s been changed. Hamilton will explain the car, but it’s his overall background of working as a bodyman, as a member of Team Toyota Europe, and now as a member of Hoonigan that really comes into play here. That’s a pretty good sweep of rally background coupled up with that love for V8 and rear wheel drive…