It’s Ford time

On the original Knight Rider TV series, which ran from 1982 to 1986, David Hasselhoff was catapulted to stardom. But the real star was a talking car named KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), a Pontiac Trans Am that, in a stretch of reality, was modified to reach a salt-flats-defying 300 miles per hour with the help of a ‘Turbo Boost’ mode. The original KITT could drive itself, conduct surveillance, become airborne for short distances, and jump over obstacles.

But now with a new Knight Rider show almost ready for release, a Ford is set to take its place. The automaker has announced that the star of the show - the new KITT (the Knight Industries Three Thousand) - will be a 2008 Mustang Shelby GT500KR. That the “KR” moniker is being brought back for 2008, at the same time as the show, is just a happy coincidence, according to Ford.

The original KR, which came out in 1968, was termed the “King of the Road.” Todays retro-styled Mustang isn’t nearly as futuristic-looking as the Pontiac Trans Am was at the time of the original show, but Hollywood car experts have been working hard to give the new car a new but equally captivating personality. The new car’s look is conceived by Galpin Auto Sports, a Van Nuys-based maker of one-offs for the So-Cal market.

Then it was sent on to the Picture Car Warehouse, where 25 specialists created six variations, some for stunt purposes. On the show, which will debut in February with a two-hour movie pilot, the new KITT will have three modes - Hero, Attack, and Camouflage. Hero is equivalent to the standard 540-horsepower Shelby GT500KR fitted with an automatic transmission, but the attack car will be a further bolstered and visually enhanced version.