If you’re an ‘80s kid (raises hand), you remember The Hoff and KITT from the hit TV series Knight Rider. Of course, at the time, David Hasselhoff wasn’t the shirtless red-shorts-wearing lifeguard named Mitch Buchannon with amazing pecs, but Michael Knight. Knight was a curly-headed hunk who invariably got into trouble and had to be bailed out by none other than his anthropomorphic ride, KITT, as in multi-talented Knight Industries Two Thousand.
Updated February 2022: With rumors swirling about a Knight Rider reboot with David Hasselhoff returning, the '80s show is relevant as ever. Regardless of whether the series continues or not, the Pontiac Trans Am from the original show's run is and always will remain an automotive pop culture icon. We've updated this article to reflect any new developments on the original KITT audiences fell in love with.
KITT was a gorgeous black 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with a rather annoying voice and a long-suffering, if humorous attitude. Along with Knight, the car was the hero of the show. In fact, we can still hear the theme song like a worm in our heads the moment we talk about Knight Rider, the stuff boyhood dreams are made of. It served as the perfect product placement by the General Motors-owned Pontiac at the time, and one of the coolest onscreen cars ever.
Three cars were made for the first season of the show, and the success led to a total of 15 to 20 cars used for stunting and such. Only five of the said Trans Ams survived in the end.
The question is, where are the Knight Rider Pontiac Trans Am cars? And can we get our hands on them, just to be able to ride off into the sunset with the Knight Rider theme blaring from the stereo?
How Pontiac Turned Down Knight Rider
Knight Rider premiered on NBC in 1982, and little did the show’s producers or even David Hasselhoff himself know the crazy amounts of success the show would attain and the money it would make.
One man at Pontiac knew and saw the potential when the company was first approached by NBC for a Trans Ams to be modified into the immortal KITT. He was Pontiac’s West Coast public relations manager, Eric Dahlquist.
At the time, Pontiac’s Sales Promotion Manager Jim Graham found the show’s idea to be corny and decided that it went against the kind of image Pontiac wanted for its Firebird Trans Ams, shocking Dahlquist. Graham himself had let the movie Smokey and the Bandit use a Trans Am and it was considered to be a master automotive product placement. Later Graham also made the deal to place the car in Smokey and the Bandit II as well as Hooper and took the Trans Am's image to new heights.
But Graham could not be convinced to let Knight Rider use a Trans Am and Dahlquist had to find ways to go around him. At the time, Trans Am sales were down and the all-new 1982 Firebird Trans Am was expected to make magic. Despite Graham’s resistance, Dahlquist pressed ahead, looping in design chief John Schinella and LA Zone Manager John Kitzmiller. He then enlisted the help of Pontiac’s GM, Bill Hoglund, who decided to go ahead if Dahlquist could bring around Graham.
Dahlquist went over and above the call of duty, involving many top execs at Pontiac and its dealerships, and finally got three cars out of dealer allocations. Three top-loaded black Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams were delivered to Dahlquist on April 16, 1982.
The rest is knighted history!
KITT Has Plenty Of Other Modifications
KITT’s front design with that red cycling light came from the Cylon Warrior from Glen Larson’s show, Battlestar Galactica. Larson was also the brains behind Knight Rider so this was a win-win. Pontiac’s design chief John Schinella provided detailed drawings of the modification as per Larson's specifications, which were then carried out by John Ward’s shop within six weeks.
The insane interior, none of which actually worked, was created by Michael Scheffe, and the “self-driving” capabilities were made possible by redundant controls and a stuntman lying on the floor to drive the car.
When season one became a runaway success and the show was renewed for season two, more cars were needed. But this time around, Dahlquist was hard-pressed to do more, again so soon. Luckily or unluckily for GM a train carrying Camaros and Firebirds derailed in California, rendering the cars unsaleable. One of the producers, Tim Koch, got on it. Since the cars were worthless to GM, Koch struck a deal with them and got 12 Firebirds, though not all were TransAms. This fleet was modified and used for the rest of the seasons, and as promised to GM, crushed once the show's production ended.
Where Is KITT Now?
Apparently, five KITT cars survived the show, even after being sent to various museums and theme parks. One was at Universal Studios for a long time, and another was at the NBC theme park.
According to a website called KittStillRocks, they own two of the surviving five-screen used “Knight Rider” Trans Ams. They also build KITT replicas for business.
One is owned by a private collector and was loaned to Jay Leno for his show, Jay Leno's Garage. The fourth was owned by Volo Auto Museum and auctioned off on eBay in 2018 to an undisclosed owner.
Finally, in 2020, the last of the KITTs, and one of the original three, headed off to auction at Julien's and was sold to a private collector for a whopping $192,000.
In the words of Supercar Blondie, put a chromed-out Bugatti Chiron in front of KITT and people will still have eyes only for the Trans Am.