Have you ever dreamed of driving your own KITT car? Well, here’s your chance to be the proud owner of the iconic automobile from the Knight Rider franchise.
David Hasselhoff, the star of the original Knight Rider TV series, is auctioning off his personal KITT car via Live Auctioneers. The auction has a top bid of $450,000 at the time of writing and is scheduled to end on January 23rd.
As stated in the description of the auction, Hasselhoff’s KITT car is fully functional. However, the set of fancy indicators on the dashboard and in the console of the vehicle are mostly just for aesthetic purposes.
While the winner of the auction will be responsible for the delivery expense of the car, which is currently in the U.K., Hasselhoff will personally deliver the vehicle to the winning bidder if the amount of the final bid ends up being 25% of the reserve price.
For those who are not familiar, there are actually two KITT cars in the Knight Rider franchise. The first one is known as the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which appeared in the original TV series starring Hasselhoff in the title role. The other one is called the Knight Industries Three Thousand, which made its debut appearance in the 2008 pilot TV film for a new Knight Rider TV series and was featured in the series itself.
In both instances, however, KITT is an artificially intelligent talking electronic computer module in the body of a highly advanced robotic automobile. The original KITT is a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, while the second KITT is a 2008–2009 Ford Shelby GT500KR. The one up for auction is a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
Hasselhoff starred as crime-fighting KITT driver Michael Knight on the original Knight Rider TV series, which aired for four seasons on NBC from 1982 to 1986. He then reprised his role in two TV movies: 1991’s Knight Rider 2000 and 2008’s Knight Rider.
Last August, it was announced that a film based on the original Knight Rider TV series is being developed by Spyglass Media Group and Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Michael Clear, with former video game writer TJ Fixman adapting the screenplay.
Plot details for the movie are being kept under wraps but Deadline reported that it will be a present-day take that will maintain the anti-establishment tone of the original.
While Hasselhoff doesn’t seem to be involved in the reboot, the actor revealed in a recent interview with Consequence of Sound that the people behind the new movie have given him the opportunity to throw his two cents on the project.
“The guy who’s writing it is a major Knight Rider fan. He sent me a picture of him in the Knight Rider car,” Hasselfoff said of Fixman. “[As for] the concept [of the reboot], I don’t really know. I threw my hat in the ring as ‘nostalgia meets Knight Rider of today,’ which is not a new Knight Rider, but a continuation of it. They want to do a script that has my approval on it. Whether I’m in it or not, or whether I approve of it, the answer is: I don’t know.”
In the same interview, Hasselhoff revealed that he was actually developing a new Knight Rider film before that reboot was announced.
“I had the rights for about 10 years to Knight Rider, and I couldn’t get a bite,” he shared. “And these guys have it now because of the timing, because of the resurgence of nostalgia, because the guy who’s doing it gets it. It’s not about a talking car. It’s about the relationship between Michael and KITT. And it’s also about the action and ‘one man can make a difference.’ And if they do that, I’ll probably support it. If they don’t do that, they’ve hassled The Hoff.”
The Knight Rider movie reboot doesn’t have a release date yet.