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How many KITT cars were used throughout the entire series?

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:13 am
by rulloa81
not counting the SPM or the convertable cars, does anyone happen to know how many trans-ams were used and what exactly were they used for?

How many were recked?

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:12 am
by HungarianKnight
I heard somewhere that seventeen cars were completely demolished throughout the four seasons. As for the other cars:

"Normal" Kitt: The one The Hoff drives with dummy dashboard buttons and gauges.

"Star Car" Kitt: High-polished with every detail functioning, real LEDs and buttons, only for close-up shots.

"Auto Cruise" Kitt: With the stunt driver behind the pilot seat.

"Battle" Kitt: With a second layer of "armour", which can crash through (balsa wood) walls.

"Bullet-proof" Kitt: The car had little holes in its "armour" where small pieces of explosives were put to imitate the "ricochet" effect.

"Driving" Kitt: It was a cannibalised TA body with the Kitt dash and interior, without wheels, mounted on a trailer. It was used for close-up driving shots. This "car" was towed by another vehicle.


As for the moment, I can only remember these cars from my own memory. If you want it, I can check them out on the Web.

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 6:13 am
by Knight Rocker
I remember when I was about 7 years old, I saw a segment about the different KITTS on Enertainment Tonight and it crushed me. LOL

I wanted to believe that there was 1 and only 1.

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:55 pm
by Knight Racer
HungarianKnight,don't forget the 4 spm mode kitts.I know 1 was for driving around the roads and 1 was for extending body part sequences.I don't rememebr what the other 2 were described as.There was also 1 convertible kitt

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:19 am
by Altimus Prime
Knight Rocker wrote:I remember when I was about 7 years old, I saw a segment about the different KITTS on Enertainment Tonight and it crushed me. LOL

I wanted to believe that there was 1 and only 1.
I remember when I saw "KITT" at a hod rod car show in Pittsburgh and tried very, very hard to forget the fact that I noticed the car was plugged in like a toaster.

I got a picture of me sitting in that car. Actually, when I went to get my picture taken, I sat in the driver seat... then they told me I couldn't sit there and had to move down to the door edge. :wink:

Maybe this counts as another "car," the one used for car shows and promotions. Not sure how many of these there would have been. Would be interested in learning more about it/them. From the two pictures I have, it looks like the scanner light is a solid red, and there are grid lines on the lower front bumper where the fog lights would be. Also, it has the two screen dash.

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:07 am
by HungarianKnight
Knight Racer wrote:HungarianKnight,don't forget the 4 spm mode kitts.I know 1 was for driving around the roads and 1 was for extending body part sequences.I don't rememebr what the other 2 were described as.There was also 1 convertible kitt
Actually, there were two convertible Kitts. One had the hydraulics for the top to slide down, the onther was solid welded. It was like in the case of the SPM cars.

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:09 am
by Gold Coast Knight
Does anyone know what the bar is under the front of the car in some of the shots? For some reason I remember seeing it alot in season 2. It runs along from side to side and it seems to have 2 prong looking peices at the ends. You can see KITT driving along, and then he may turn a corner or do something different and all of a sudden there is this bar there. I have never been able to work it out.

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:29 pm
by Keon2005
That may have been used to tow KITT where seens called for dialougue between Michael and KITT or Michael and his passenger. Also I thought that there were 4 Trans Ams turned into KITT.

1. The original 2-TV Dash Kitt that was used in the pilot and throughout the first Season

2. The second 2-TV dash car that had the hexagonal shaped monitors.

3. The first one-TV dash used in season 3.

4. There was also a second 1-TV dash KITT used in season 4 (not SPM or Convertible)This was the car with the remodified nose to get rid of the need for the front turn signal black-outs.

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:58 pm
by Major Ursa
I'm sure that they also had one that they would take for publisity tours, parades, and auto shows.

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:13 am
by Juggernaut30
I`ve read about it that universal had access to 200 T/A,but they had to shared it with an another tv-show,the fall guy,also a production of universal.


Markus

under kitts front bumber

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 10:30 am
by Aussie Knight Rider
Gold Coast Knight wrote:Does anyone know what the bar is under the front of the car in some of the shots? For some reason I remember seeing it alot in season 2. It runs along from side to side and it seems to have 2 prong looking peices at the ends. You can see KITT driving along, and then he may turn a corner or do something different and all of a sudden there is this bar there. I have never been able to work it out.
It was mentioned on the season 1 dvd that the bar under the front bumper
was part of an iron skelliton built by Jack Gill and other stunt men, used for stunts to help protect the most vital parts of the car when turbo boosting, Im not sure about towing mabe it was used for that too.
Aussie Knight Rider 8)

Re: under kitts front bumber

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 11:55 am
by Juggernaut30
This bar was for the camera truck,as you can see on the photos.Many other film cars had such bars under the front bumper.(Simon&Simon,Airwolf ....) :lol: :lol:


ImageImage


Markus

Re: under kitts front bumber

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:03 pm
by Aussie Knight Rider
Juggernaut30 wrote:This bar was for the camera truck,as you can see on the photos.Many other film cars had such bars under the front bumper.(Simon&Simon,Airwolf ....) :lol: :lol:


ImageImage


Markus
That's not the right picture I think Gold Cost Knight means this version taken from s2 this is a shot of the iron skelleton that was used to protect the vital parts of the car as
you can tell this is a different shape from your shot no offence this is a strait bar kinda like a spoiler made out of solid iron which is the part you can see most of the time untill you are lucky enough to see under the hole car like in this shot, the shot you have is of two seperate bars coming up the sides of the car weather as my shot is of a solid bar going right across the front bumper. click link to see picture.
Aussie Knight Rider
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4167 ... er18jj.jpg

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:07 pm
by black knight2000
i heard 3 one standed and hotted up and one for smaing

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 5:07 am
by rulloa81
Did they use one car exclusively for the tinted windows effect?

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:28 am
by GTiGirl
I broke my heart when I see the part of the "Knight Of The Juggernaut" when KITT is almost destroyed by a terrible machine :? and I think to myself... what a waste, that one must have been used only for that scene, I think...

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:03 am
by Joe Huth
Besides the Universal Studios Tour car, I've identified 5 other KITT cars that were part of tours in the 80's. While I'm not going to post pictures of all 5, you can tell based on different features of the cars (one car had all tan vinyl door panels, one had manual window cranks, one had a black interior), you can certainly tell they are all different.

Altimus Prime - is the picture below of the tour car you are talking about? It has a solid red scanner and the grid lines on the fog light openings. I took this picture in Butler PA in 1984:

Image

As far as the bar underneath the front bumper: that was used for towing. For the jumps, they used a "skid plate" to protect the underside of the engine and front steering components. Here's a great pic of the skid plate:

Image

The tow bar may have been used to protect the front bumper during wild driving sequences but not for jumps. In fact, I can't recall off the top of my head seeing any jump car that had that tow bar attached to it.

Joe

P.S. Is it just me, or does it look like they gave that KITT car (the Ski Mode pic) true dual exhaust? Stock T/As never came with true dual exhaust.

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 1:24 pm
by LadyV2000
Hey Joe, just out of curiousity, was that KITT at the Clairview mall? If it is, I've been there many times. I'm about 20 mintues away at Slippery Rock University. :)

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 1:48 pm
by Joe Huth
LadyV-

That was actually at the old Butler Mall (where Walmart and Target are now). I actually live 10 minutes south of SRU....small world!

Joe