Does Super Pursuit Mode KITT Still Exist? Uncovering the History of the Knight Rider Transformer!

[Music] in the fall of 1985 knight rider returned for what would be its final season and viewers were surprised to see an all-new version of kit one where kit's body transformed with protruded vents extended spoilers and more up until the premiere night of the juggernaut fans of the show really hadn't had a good look at kitt's altered appearance a teaser promo ran in the weeks before the premiere but even that left the car shrouded in mystery when you live your life on the edge of evil and danger like i do you need all the help you can get this new kit may be a whole lot more than i bargained for but it's what i need and everybody needs a friend when you're running in the night coming in one week the two-hour premiere knight of the juggernaut premiered on september 20th 1985. while the episode itself was excellent in our opinion at least the changes to kit were met with mixed reactions some enjoyed kit's transformation as it added to the fantasy of all the tricks he could do while others criticized it as a ripoff of the then wildly popular transformers cartoon either way super pursuit mode was here to stay used frequently throughout the fourth and final season in april of 1985 universal studios contracted with famed car customizer george barris whose credits are vast and include among many other projects the original 1960s batmobile as well as the munster coach to build four new vehicles to be used as kit two of them were related to the convertible kit that we also see debuted in knight of the juggernaut and the other two were super pursuit mode cars we're gonna hold off on the convertible kit for now and delve deep into those cars in a future episode today it's all about the spm cars george only had a few months to deliver these two new super pursuit mode variants of kit to the production one was a static spm car where the extendable bits were permanently welded in place this one was called the pursuit drive vehicle while the other car an engine-less shell filled with hydraulics that was used for close-ups during kit's transformation was called the pursuit mock-up vehicle the drive car was due to the studio mere days before filming was to commence on night of the juggernaut in chicago while the mock-up vehicle wasn't due until a month later in july those transformation scenes were filmed and added separately from the first unit filming the episode these two cars were nearly identical when the mock-up vehicle was in full super pursuit mode except for some minor differences in the top pillar ram air scoops the mock-up vehicle had horizontal dividers in the scoops while the drive vehicle had angle dividers so before we break down the history of these two cars used for super pursuit mode did you know that each part of the spm car has an official name these names came directly from the design documents created by george barris himself looking at the right side of the super pursuit mode car we have the air wing mounted on the nose extension the hood turbo impression left and right diaplanes that extend from the front fenders left and right fender air reliefs that rotate out also from the front fenders left and right top pillar ram air scoops that extend from the c pillars and left and right rear fender air scoops that rotate out from the rear quarters looking at the back of the spm car we have the rear top section that lifts up with a large rear whale's tail that extends up even further try saying that three times fast 16 rocket tubes are revealed when the rear top section ascends along with a center louver a rear air valance drops from underneath the vehicle supposedly to provide downward force on the car at high speeds finally the emergency braking system when activated extends three air brakes two on the sides and one on the top to slow kit down within seconds well you've been patient enough now let's dig into each of these cars where did they come from and where are they now car number one the pursuit drive vehicle this car started out life as a 1983 firebird se or trans am most likely a trans am with automatic transmission power windows t-tops a split rear seat air conditioning no power mirrors no cruise control this is one of the train derailment cars not familiar with the train derailment incident we've talked about it a number of times on this channel but for the best overview of what happened check out our video on the final verdict to learn more we do a special segment all about the train derailment and how that affected knight rider we'll link it in the description so before this car became the pursuit drive vehicle it was the dedicated insert car for season three the insert car is the one primarily used for interior shots while in motion it's towed by a camera truck most of the time so the actors can focus on acting and not driving this is the only night rider car to ever have a working auto roof as well as i said normally this car is being towed so we don't see the outside of it but we do see it a few times from the outside in season three notably in knights of the fast lane when michael and ken are catching footballs and in knight in disgrace when kitt ejects chuck out of the car because of these exterior scenes in season 3 we're also able to see a design flaw in this car that will allow us to trace it to the pursuit drive vehicle in season four while the driver's side has the trans-am style rear stone guard in place the passenger side does not remember this detail it'll be important later moving to the inside in this screenshot from 10 wheel treble we can see that this same insert car has a hole drilled in the passenger side rear trim panel this is the location where they would commonly install a pull handle to open the trunk but for this car that pull handle is absent leaving only a hole this detail as well will be important in a minute finally utilizing the production call sheets and reports that we have we're also able to make an educated guess at the internal inventory number that universal studios applied to this car now let's jump ahead to season four we know in season four that the production used a different insert car for that season so what happened to the original season 3 insert car before we answer that let's take a look at screenshots of the pursuit drive vehicle in this shot from knight of the juggernaut we can see the trans am style stone guards on the driver's side but look at this shot from the wrong crowd where we get a good look at the passenger side hmm no passenger side stone guard now where have we seen this before let's also take a look at the inside it was extremely rare that they filmed the inside of the pursuit drive vehicle but they did in night of the juggernaut we can even see a funky square overhead console that this car had and what's that yep it's a hole in the trim panel just like we saw in 10 wheel trouble in the insert car so these details coupled with our analysis of some fourth season episode call sheets that list the same inventory number that we saw in the season 3 call sheets make this one a slam dunk the third season insert car became the fourth season pursuit drive vehicle they even welded up the t-tops from this car to make the spm car a hard top to allow for the roof mounted emergency braking system flap as you can see in this build photo so where is this car now unfortunately it was crushed when the show ended as mandated by pontiac it was a train derailment car and all of those were ordered to be destroyed so let's move on to the other car car number two the mock-up drive vehicle this was also a 1983 trans am silver exterior with a charcoal interior cruise control trunk release rear defrost t-tops powered windows and locks even an engine block heater it was also one of the very few perhaps the only manual transmission car that the show had this car was destined for the canadian market when it too was involved in the train derailment as you may have guessed from the details we're able to provide we have the vin of this car and the invoice from pontiac detailing out all of its options our first confirmed appearance of the car that would become the engineless hydraulic-powered mock-up super pursuit car was back in a night in shining armor this car enters the nightrider world with a bang performing the series only reverse turbo boost it then reappears again in speed demons where it is one of two vehicles outfitted with the high traction drop down feature a set of hydraulic rams that raise and lower the car incidentally we own the other high traction drop down car it makes a few other appearances throughout early season 3 before it's given its most high profile role yet the car that got dumped into the acid pit in junkyard dog before submerging this car they removed the engine and gutted the interior when the car is pulled out you can see how the rear wheel wells are touching the rear tires indicative of the hydraulics from the high traction drop downs being disconnected and i might add a problem that currently faces one of our original kits which also had the high traction drop downs as a side note the front bumper seen on this car in junkyard dog when it's being pulled out of the acid pit survives to this day and is actually mounted on our original car but more on that another time we get a great look at the interior of this gutted kit which actually reveals a wealth of information on the car itself besides things related to the studio such as their unique key chains and the brake line lock foot switch we can also see more about how this car was outfitted from pontiac and these details helped us to uncover the vin a power door lock relay and wiring tells us this car had power locks a power window motor is present and we can also see the cruise control switch and the non-power side mirrors we see evidence of buttons for remote hatch release rear defrost and a rear wiper we see the floor pan had the cut out for a manual transmission we see hook style t-top receivers indicating either a 1982 or 1983 model and of course we see that there's no engine in the car one might think that after this appearance this car would have been destined for the scrap heap but not yet years ago we stumbled upon a post on a fishing message board of all places that provided the next pivotal clue here we see the acid pit car parked outside of george barris's shop note the folding chair in place where the driver's seat would be this photo was taken sometime in may or june of 1985. note how the paint imperfections match up with shots from junkyard dog you can even match up the paint runs near the passenger side door handle also it appears the rear bumper is partially melted most likely from the insert shot of kit on fire both the fire and the burn marks are on the driver's side even though the scene where kit backfires his after kit has been reprimed the insert shot is clearly from before his body was fixed and here's the money shot check out this in-progress build photo showing the spm cars rear air valence mechanism being constructed now check out that rear bumper clearly still wearing the acid pit paint job so the manual transmission stunt car that became one of the high traction drop down cars and speed demons that then became the engineless acid pit car in junkyard dog went on to become the pursuit mock-up drive vehicle so where is this one today yep unfortunately it was crushed too it was a train wreck car and all of those had to be destroyed unfortunately there are no screen used examples of the super pursued mode kit that have survived but wait you say i saw a super pursuit mode car recently you don't know what you're talking about you fool well first ouch that hurts real deep down too and second the spm car you may have seen is actually a replica built by famed car customizer jay orberg who was involved in the original build this replica was built about 15 years ago and uses a 1988 firebird as its donor a car that clearly could not have been used in the series due to its production year it's a beautiful tribute to the original but it does deviate in certain places all right guys that's all i've got for you today did you enjoy this dissection of the spm cars their origins and their fates do you want us to dissect other original cars like this drop us a line in the comments below and give us your thoughts thanks for watching catch you next time and now while we listen to joe's selection of night rider music that we receive directly from don peak himself we'd like to thank these patreon supporters look at you guys scrolling up the screen to my right wait a minute how can you tell which side is my right since you can't see me because i'm not on camera oh well you know what i mean we are featuring these fine supporters at our knight rider prop restorer level thank you very much for your support and for those of you at the knight rider history hunter level we're recognizing you right now in the description now if you enjoyed seeing this golden nugget of knight rider history being rescued from obscurity then please consider supporting us on patreon your support would empower us to bring you even more of these historical nuggets we are the night rider historians till next time take care everybody bye

Channel: Knight Rider Historians Official

Views: 309,756

Rating: 4.9046483 out of 5

Keywords: night rider, knight rider, super pursuit mode, spm, george barris, kitt, nbc, david hasselhoff, jay ohrberg

Id: u8Yx7dg0rLk

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021