No, you won't be seeing a mirage or having some sort of weird flashback if you catch a glimpse of more than 60 Trans Ams cruising across metro Atlanta this weekend.

It's the home stretch of the Bandit Run 2008 road trip, the second annual tip of the cowboy hat to Trans Ams and "Smokey and the Bandit" that began Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio. About half of the cars are vintage '70s Trans Ams, of which at least a dozen are black ones, similar to the one actor Burt Reynolds drove in the car-chase comedy.

The Bandit Run culminates when the caravan arrives Saturday at the YearOne Experience, a three-day car show and racing event at Road Atlanta in Braselton. Auto-obsessed Bandit Runners are scheduled to parade around the Road Atlanta track between 9 and 10:30 a.m. and 1 and 2:30 p.m. A YearOne's Burt Reynolds Edition Trans Am, released last year at prices starting at $129,900, will lead the Bandit Run pack.

On its journey from Ohio, the YearOne's Trans Am and its followers made stops including a visit Wednesday to Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn. Bandit Runners were allowed to take a shot at the track in groups of seven. Ron Franks of Cumming removed the T-tops from his red 1979 Trans Am and jumped behind the wheel.

"This track is so short and the banking is so steep that it feels like you're in a go-cart at a go-cart track," laughed Franks over his cellphone as he took one of the track's turns.

But in the age of inflated gas prices and other obstacles, the Bandit Run isn't all guffaws and garage jokes. Historic cars take a gamble each time they hit the road. Franks' car, for instance, hit a steel-framed mud flap (debris from a tractor-trailer) on the highway, which loosened a muffler.

But the Bandit Runners keep on rolling. Gas prices "really don't bother people who are into this," says participant Greg Vassar of Burnsville, Minn. "You just deal with it. It's worth it."

One of the metro events for tour participants will be a "Smokey and the Bandit" location tour hosted by Bandit Runner Tyler Hambrick of Newnan. Beginning this morning, Hambrick will guide more than four dozen carloads on a 26-spot tour of locations used in the flick.

Hambrick, who owns a 1977 Trans Am Special Edition like the one in the movie, said the procession hasn't attracted any negative attention from police officers thus far. In fact, it's been the opposite.

"[Officers] have waved at us along the trip," he says. "On Tuesday [in Charleston, W.Va.], we had some cops watching our cars for us in the hotel parking lot. ... When you've got 50 Trans Ams out there and cops watching them all night, you sleep a lot better."

CAR SHOW

YearOne Experience

Today-Sunday. $10 per day for spectators; $50 weekend pass for car show participants, which includes a driver and a passenger. Road Atlanta, 5300 Winder Highway, Braselton. 1-800-849-7223, www.yearone.com.