Famous Cars

KITT - Knight Rider 2008

In 2008, a made for TV movie was produced under the title Knight Rider, being a pilot episode for a possible TV series. The movie itself was not that well received, but it managed to allow the series to be recommissioned. It featured a cameo for David Hasslehoff as the original Michael Knight, and in the Movie his son takes on the mantle of becoming the next Michael Knight with an all new K.I.T.T.

The original KITT stood for ‘Knight Industries Two Thousand’, and in this movie the name stays but stands for ‘Knight Industries Three Thousand’. The car itself is a Black 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, fitted with a host of upgrades, most obviously is the red light scanner fitted in the front. The car has the ability to transform both into a more aggressive attack mode, featuring a grappling hook, a laser that emits from his front scanner, double mini guns, missiles, a dart gun, a sonic inhibitor, and an EMP weapon.

The car also has the ability to turn into other vehicles (all supplied for the TV series by the Ford motor group) such as a Ford F150 FX4 pickup in off road mode, a Ford E-150 van, a Ford Flex, a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, and a 1969 Mach 1 Mustang.

Team Knight Rider Cars

Team Knight Rider was a spin-off series from the original Knight Rider TV series that ran in 1997 and 1998. It differed from the original instead of using just the one car as a replacement for KITT, it used 5 main vehicles all with artificial intelligence. They were:

Dante – a modified Ford Expedition SUV vehicle that functioned like a mobile command centre, Domino – a modified Ford Mustang Convertible, Attack Beast – a modified Ford F150 pick up truck, Kat – a customer high tech motorcycle that can combine with Plato – another motorcycle to form a high speed pursuit vehicle.

In the series KITT was originally replaced with a car called KRO that was based on a black Ferrari 355, that becomes unstable, and effectively turns into one of the TV series bad guys.

Knight Rider 2000 Poster

Knight Rider 2000 is a made-for-television movie that was meant to serve as a pilot for a follow up TV series to the original Knight Rider, but the following TV series was never commissioned.

The Film saw the original K.I.T.T. car being broken up for parts, and his Artificial Intelligence unit fitted into a new car – the Knight 4000. The new car has most of the original cars gadgets such as voice activated controls, and the ability to talk, but also featured a virtual reality head up display that could project into the inside of the windscreen, a microwave stunner that could incapacitate criminals, a thermal expander, again microwave based that could heat up targets and cause them to explode, a fax machine, and amphibious mode allowing the car to float on water and manoeuvre like a boat.

Knight 4000 Car

The car design was based on the Pontiac Banshee IV concept car, but the actual concept car could not be obtained from Pontiac for use in the film, so the producers used a Dodge stealth and customised it to look like the Banshee.

Knight Rider 1982 KITT

The original Knight Rider TV series ran from 1982 – 1986, featuring David Hasslehoff as Michael Knight, and K.I.T.T. a Pontiac Trans-Am with artificial intelligence that was capable of talking.

The car was fitted with several fantasy upgrades such as a turbo boost function that was introduced whenever the car was required to do a stunt, allowing KITT to jump unfeasible distances and heights.

Kitt was also fitted with a bullet-proof body and glass, and most famously a series of red front lights fitted into the front bumper that served as a scanner allowing the car to ‘see’, and became the trademark of both the car and the series.

Knight Rider 1982 K.I.T.T.