Heiko Kraatz

Hello, I am Heiko ,from Germany, and I am an absolute "Smokey and the Bandit" enthusiast and have been for a long time. I was born in 1969 on the east side of Germany, unfortunately. I live in Potsdam, a little town close to Berlin with my wife Jana and my son Joe. I work at the Berlin Airport as a Rampagent for the Lufthansa company. When I saw the movie S&B for the first time on TV, I believe it was in the beginning of the 80's, I knew that the Black & Gold T/A SE was the car I wanted, but, of course, in East Germany I would never have the chance to see such a car for real! Fortunately, in 1989 the wall fell and we could take trips to anywhere in the world, anytime we wanted. Of course, my first trip with the "new freedom" took me to the United States. It was so great to see all the cars I always loved from TV in real life! I started to collect things from the 2nd generation T/A's like books, ads, models etc., but I had no Bandit Trans Am of my own, so I began to save up money for the big deal. After years of saving, I had enough money to start searching for the T/A of my dreams, but I had no luck in Germany. One day, I saw an ad on the internet from a guy in Switzerland who had an SE for sale! I drove immediately to him, (830 kilometers away), and as he opened his garage, I thought Christmas and my birthday came on the same day! He was the second owner and had the car for 18 years, and he had always maintained it at a GM garage. So, I bought this car with 108,000 kilometers on the odometer in April, 2000, and after all these years, I'm always still excited when I go to my garage and take her out for a ride! This will always be my T/A and I can’t imagine ever selling this car so long as I live. In 2001, I started my own homepage: www.bandit-trans-am.de I have a lot of pictures in the photo gallery so please check them out and be sure to visit my homepage to see more!