Lava is extremely hot. Lava can reach temperatures of about
1,250° Celsius (2282° Fahrenheit) . The lava of the Hawaiian volcanoes reach these temperatures. Normal lava temperatures reach
750° Celsius (1382° Fahrenheit) That is still much hotter than your oven is capable of reaching.
According to Scholastic.com but that doesn't line up with the heat predictions in the world of Knight Rider.
I had to whip out my DVD box set to try and figure this out for you
In Season Four's
Knight Flight to Freedom
K.I.T.T. mentions to Michael that the lava is too spread out to turbo boost over.
K.I.T.T. drives through the lava twice in the episode without damage and also warns Michael his molecular bonded shell can't withstand the heat of the lava much longer as they drive through it.
K.I.T.T.'s digital readout displays the following info:
LAVA WIDTH - 2.5 Miles
FLOW RATE - 10 FT/Minute
LAVA TEMP - 600° F
SUBCRUST - 1900° F
Interesting enough as they drive through the lava, K.I.T.T.'s temperature gauge peaks at
605°F. I think it's important to note unlike driving through fire, this is a case of continued exposure to rising heated material (lava).
FUN FACT: According to Producer Ron Martinez, the lava used in the episode was made of thick orange paint, smoke being blown by a fan, smoldering cigarette ash, potting soil, and toasted/burnt oatmeal.
Season Two's
Ring of Fire, states K.I.T.T.'s Pyroclastic Lamination can resist heat
from fire up to
800°F
Season Three's
Knight & KNERD shows K.I.T.T. can withstand the heat from a "thermal laser" thanks to a application of a special "thermal absorption layer" for only ten seconds. Considering that K.I.T.T. required this spray on coating in addition to the Pyroclastic Lamination, then it would put K.I.T.T.'s maximum heat absorption to at least 800°F with a ten second grace period of heat absorption. Unfortunately as far as I can tell, in Knight & KNERD they don't specify how hot the thermal laser can actually get but with K.I.T.T. stating they had 1 second before he and Michael were incinerated, that's got to be pretty damned hot to melt "any known material on earth".
KITT has a "sub-zero" feature that reduces his temp to 0° internally. I have no clue what kind of arctic temperatures his MBS was made to withstand since as far as I know they never tried to freeze the Knight 2000 in the series, just melt it, shoot it, crush it, bury it, or blow it up.
=VK=