From the classifieds: Don't hassle the Hoff

We’ve all seen faux Herbie beetles, and you’d run out of fingers counting how many replicas of the Mad Max Falcon Interceptor have appeared over the years.

The same applies to KITT; the almost-indestructible 1982 Pontiac Trans Am that starred in the Knight Rider TV series during the 1980s. In fact, numerous enterprises have been set up around the globe specialising in KITT replicas.

It is little wonder, because the sinister black Trans Am epitomised the ideal fantasy car: Sleek, tough, really fast – and intelligent.

KITT, in the first of two Knight Rider TV series (the second screened, for one season only, in 2008, with a Ford Shelby GT500KR as the star car) was a talking, robotised muscle car with brains and personality.  KITT was an acronym for Knight Industries Two Thousand and the car was an indispensable partner for David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight. Knight, a reinvented crime fighter, originally named Michael Long, who was taken under the wing of filthy rich industrialist Wilton Knight after barely surviving being shot in the face.

With its un car-like abilities and intelligence, KITT teamed with Michael Knight to make a formidable crime-fighting duo. The super Trans Am’s abilities included leaping 15 metres into the air, throwing smoke bombs or spewing out an oil slick to deter pursuers. With rocket boost, it was capable of accelerating to more than 400km/h. A hard act either follow, or escape from.

The popularity of KITT replicas today probably comes partly from the notoriety of the original TV series, and the fact that (unlike the Batmobile for example) the car doesn’t look all that different to a standard Trans Am. That is, until you invoke its wrath . . .

If you hanker for a Knight Rider experience, it’s unlikely you would do better than this 1982 Trans Am from Nelson Bay in NSW.

Complete with personalised KITT licence plate, the right hand drive replica has been put together painstakingly, rewarding the builders with “various” best in show awards as well as appearances on the Kerri-Anne TV show and the pages of Street Machine magazine.

The project started on a firm base as the car was bought as a regular, concourse-condition Trans Am about five years ago. It could be described as a long-term project in that the owner decided he wanted to own KITT after posing as a four year-old in a photograph with an original car that toured Australia in 1985.

In addition to a fully rebuilt 5.0-litre Chev engine and T700 transmission, the Trans Am’s body has been given the full KITT treatment with “correct” bonnet and front guards, custom-made wheels (20-inchers in this case, a slight departure from the original) and Knight Rider “scanner” at the front.

The owner says the car accurately replicates the original KITT interior. It duplicates the original’s game parlour display with aircraft-style steering and a staggering array of digital fluoro lights including a seven-inch TV screen. It has a voice, too . . .

No expense, according to the owner, has been spared bringing it up to its present state, which is about as close as anything other than an original car from the TV series is going to get (one of which was up for sale at an asking price close to US$150,000 a few years ago).

Tagged at $85,000 the local replica is not a lot more than half that price. Just don’t expect to leap tall buildings in a single bound, or have the ability to summon more power than a locomotive.