This is David Carradine’s own personal 1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty that was used during filming of the 1976 film Cannonball about an illegal road race from Los Angeles to New York City.
At least two 1974 Trans Ams were used during filming, with one of them being written off in a stunt. The car you see here has documentation proving its history, and proving its Carradine ownership from 1974 to 1985.
Fast Facts: A “Cannonball” Trans Am
- David Carradine’s own 1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty was featured prominently in Paul Bartel’s 1976 film Cannonball! – a gritty, semi-comedic take on the underground coast-to-coast races inspired by Brock Yates’ real Cannonball Baker events. At least two Trans Ams were used for production, one destroyed during filming, while this example remained Carradine’s personal car until 1985.
- The film emerged from New World Pictures’ success with Death Race 2000, with producer Samuel W. Gelfman developing a more grounded road-race story. Co-written by Bartel and a young Don Simpson, Cannonball! featured David Carradine as Coy “Cannonball” Buckman, alongside Veronica Hamel, Bill McKinney, Gerrit Graham, and Robert Carradine, plus cameos by Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese, and Joe Dante.
- Shot on real highways with cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, the film reimagined the trans-America race as the “Trans-America Grand Prix,” mixing dark comedy and violent crashes. Critics were divided – Roger Ebert dismissed it compared to The Gumball Rally – yet it earned around $1.5 million from a $780,000 budget and helped cement the cross-country outlaw-race genre later popularized by The Cannonball Run.
- Carradine’s Super Duty Trans Am shown here features a 455 cubic inch V8, a 4-speed manual box, and the unique red-with-blue-stripe livery used in the film, including painted “Cannonball” graphics and Carradine’s “003MEN” California plates.
History Speedrun: Cannonball
Writer ands director Paul Bartel’s Cannonball (stylized on screen as Cannonball!) came directly out of New World Pictures’ surprise box office hit Death Race 2000. Producer Samuel W. Gelfman wanted a more grounded take on America’s underground coast-to-coast “Cannonball Baker” run that journalist Brock Yates had staged to thumb his nose at the then-new 55-mph limit.
Above Film: “Cannonball” is available to watch in full on YouTube thanks to Retrospective – Classic Movies.
He set the project up at New World, with Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers soon joining the party. Bartel co-wrote the scriptwith a young Don Simpson – years before he rose to fame with Top Gun – and returned to direct the film, with David Carradine in the lead role.
Shot largely on real locations with Tak Fujimoto behind the camera, the film reframes the illegal cross-continental sprint as the “Trans-America Grand Prix,” a Los Angeles-to-New York dash where pros, hustlers, and hangers-on trade paint and worse.
Carradine headlines as Coy “Cannonball” Buckman, opposite Bill McKinney, Veronica Hamel, Gerrit Graham, and Robert Carradine – Bartel stuffed the film with industry cameos – Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese, Joe Dante, Jonathan Kaplan, Allan Arkush, and even Simpson himself.
The storyline was simple – a parole-pinched racer chases a comeback contract and a $100,000 purse while rivals cheat, sabotage, and occasionally suffer the ignominy of having their car unexpectedly explode. It’s a volatile mix – with deadpan gags next to grim multi-car pile-ups – which critics noticed and made a point of commenting on.
Roger Ebert panned the film on release, comparing it unfavorably to the same-summer competitor The Gumball Rally. Financially it did modest business – a reported $780,000 budget against roughly $1.5 million in domestic rentals, short of Death Race 2000’s reach but still a solid money spinner.
Writer ands director Paul Bartel’s Cannonball (stylized on screen as Cannonball!) grew directly out of New World Pictures’ surprise box office hit Death Race 2000. Image courtesy of New World Pictures.
Where Cannonball matters most, arguably, is lineage. It codified the modern cross-country outlaw-race template on screen, alongside The Gumball Rally, and primed audiences for the mainstreaming of the idea in The Cannonball Run (1981) and its sequel, plus Speed Zone (1989).
It also marked an early on-screen credit for Simpson, signaled the rise of several future A-list directors hanging around Corman’s shop, and gave Fujimoto one more step on a path that would later include Silence of the Lambs. The film wasn’t a mainstream cultural juggernaut, but it remains one of the icons of 1970s automotive pulp cinema.
The 1974 Trans Am From “Cannonball!” Shown Here
This 1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty belonged to David Carradine and was used for the 1976 movie “Cannonball” – sharp-eyed readers will note that the front end was changed to a 1973 Trans Am model for front end shots in the film.
It’s powered by the 455 cubic inch Super Duty V8 mated to a 4-speed manual transmission – this was the most potent drivetrain offering you could get at the time, and it has a Red exterior with a Blue center stripe that has a Yellow outline, as well as various stickers and a painted-on “Cannonball” on either door.
Inside you’ll find a white bucket seat interior with a center console, power steering, power brakes, an AM/FM radio, and 70,644 miles on the odometer – though this isn’t warranted.
This 1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty belonged to David Carradine and was used for the 1976 movie “Cannonball” – sharp-eyed readers will note that the front end was changed to a 1973 Trans Am model for front end shots in the film.
The car still has the “003MEN” Carradine three-brothers personalized California license plate, and it comes with service receipts in Carradine name. It’s not known exactly how many cars were used during the film, but at least one of them is crashed and destroyed in the film.
It’s now due to roll across the auction block with Mecum in mid-January. At the time of writing there is no price guide listed, however given the car’s celebrity ownership and cinematic history it’ll likely fetch well into the mid-to-upper six figures.
Here we see David Carradine in character as Coy “Cannonball” Buckman. Image courtesy of New World Pictures.
Images courtesy of Mecum
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
