Driving a KITT Replica to Knight Rider Filming Locations!

[Music] this is Knight industries two thousand K ITT for easy reference or kit if you prefer this 1989 Pontiac Firebird is a kit replica you know that car that was featured in all of those episodes of Knight Rider I don't need to tell you what this is you you already know no I did not go out and buy a kit replica I rented this car on Turo just click the link in the description below and you can get $25 off your first tour rental alright let's take a quick look around kit so the most notable difference between kit and a regular Firebird is this fiberglass front end and of course this amazing thing right here the scanner light and down here you've got these fog lights and apparently on some kits there's only four but on this particular one they're six and then you've got these black wheel covers which is another characteristic feature of kit and of course t-tops wouldn't be kit without t-tops apparently some kits that they used they actually just put decals on to make it look like they were t-tops and it didn't actually have t-tops but the hero car that David Hasselhoff drove definitely had t-tops and then we've got this lovely smoked taillight cover right here I think it looks awesome all Trans Am is in all Firebirds should have come with this stock it looks great and really that's it the exterior differences are not that drastic to a regular Firebird apparently they had just under a month to design and put this car together I mean they wanted to try to come up with elements that were easily replaceable and easily fixable since filming is really really tough on cars [Music] so here we are sitting inside the knight industries 2000 or ki TT now even if you only know a little bit about the show you'll probably remember this crazy steering yoke looking thing instead of a steering wheel Michael Knight had to drive the car with this which as we'll get to in a little bit is not really the best method to steer a vehicle but it looks pretty cool doesn't it now we shouldn't really talk a whole lot more about this car without turning it on so the ignition is sort of hidden under all of this fake - stuff so as you can see there's a lot of stuff going on here some of these gauges are actually functional like the tachometer and the speedometer but most everything else here is for show and a lot of the stuff you might remember from the show including these different modes right here currently we're in normal mode but if we go over to this panel here we can we can toggle into auto mode normal mode pursuit mode now when you turn on the stereo in this car it immediately plays Knight Rider sounds and music it's pretty cool [Music] let me just take this steering wheel off for a second and you can see underneath here the tons of wires and huge amount of electrical work that had to go into making this car possible weird ever here behind the turn signal stock is the switch that allows you to turn on those front lights but besides all of this stuff right here in front of me this is kind of just a standard-issue Pontiac Firebird we're here just outside of Los Angeles and they filmed tons of episodes right around in this area so I figured why don't we drive on some back roads and see if we can find a few Nightrider filming locations let's go [Music] the knight industries 2000 here we are we're driving this car with this ridiculous steering yoke kind of thing when you're going straight driving with this thing is not terrible it's actually not as bad as I thought it'd be go I'm honking the horn but let's see let's see if I can turn this around alright I think that's the problem the main problem is it like it jabs you in the leg which is out that's not great okay let me go ahead and take this off the owner pretty much told me this was gonna happen you're gonna try to drive with this thing and it's gonna be awful so plus this was signed by the voice of KITT William Daniels and I don't want to ruin this piece of television history so I'm gonna swap this out with an actual steering wheel all right much better actually not much better it's just a little bit better the steering wheel is pushed really far forward because you have all of this extra dash stuff that kind of sits over the original dash so everything is moved forward it's not the ideal driving position but it'll have to do alright let's go [Music] for the most part it feels and drives just kind of like a regular f-body Pontiac Firebird from this generation the steering's a little bit vague is a little wander II but overall kind of still sort of a fun aggressive muscley car to drive [Music] there are a bunch of people that make kit replicas and many of them go to great lengths to ensure they're exactly identical to what was seen on the television show if I remember correctly most if not all of the cars that were used in the show or 1982 Firebirds this car is actually a 1989 that was back dated in some ways to make it look like in 1982 the rear bumper for instance is from a 1982 you'll also notice that this car does not have the overhead console that's seen in many of the other kit replicas so it's missing a few of those controls there as well now this vehicle much like the DeLorean I rented a few weeks ago draws attention just about everywhere you go it's got that crazy flashing red light in the front it's got that really aggressive front end with those fog lights people are gonna stare at you no matter what and I'm not generally the type of person that likes to be stared at while I'm driving but this vehicle is an exception when you drive a kit replica you get tons of people giving you smiles and waves as you're driving by and it's pretty cool because it takes people back to their childhood and the first time they saw this car on that show this is the vehicle that inspired a lot of people's automotive imagination back in the day to see this car just jumping over stuff to hit that turbo boost button yes they people are into this car everybody loves it it's great [Music] the Greater Los Angeles area is filled with locations that Knight Rider was filmed at so I figured why don't we pick just one episode and focus on that today I'm choosing season 4 episode 13 of Knight Rider titled killer KITT I'm gonna see if we pick a few these locations and see how different they are 36 years later in this episode some evildoers install a harmful circuit board within KITT allowing them to subvert the vehicle and make it do their evil bidding this episode starts off right here on the road adjacent to Zuma Beach and Zuma Beach has been used as a filming location for tons of films commercials and TV shows the episode starts off with Michael Knight backing KITT out of the Fla G truck in a dramatic fashion as he usually does and speeds off down the road and then of course some bad guys immediately shoot and with a rocket launcher a chase ensues further up this same Road [Music] the chase continues all the way to Malibu pier which actually looks very similar to how it did back in the day and right here at this intersection kit has an interaction with a crossing guard played by the late actress and Ramsey better known for her work in for a mama from the Train the corner of Hazeltine and hustin is where Michael Knight was sighted in attack mode was engaged right here's where kid does donuts with Michael Knight stuck on top of the car [Music] and then they drive through this parking lot with Michaels still on the hood and right about here is where KITT crashes into the snack shack Michael is thrown violently from the car and presumed dead at the corner of Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue is where Michael and RC intercept the bus [Music] and right here off a Whitley Avenue of fight ensues [Music] so after driving this vehicle I will say that I don't think I want to own a kit replica that's obviously something that should be reserved for true diehard fans of the show but I will say this after driving this vehicle I definitely definitely want a Pontiac Firebird this cars a ton of fun I mean it's not super fast but there's just something about this vehicle that I didn't appreciate when I was younger that I totally get now it's aggressive rear-wheel drive it's tail-happy it's got a good exhaust note handles just good enough to be fun yeah the car doesn't really feel like it's button together that well but that's kind of part of its charm it's rough around the edges it's ragged it's not precise I can totally see why they use the Firebird as a basis for KITT and Knight Rider I got to imagine it was probably pretty fun for David Hasselhoff to be driving this car week in and week out I totally want a Firebird this is definitely going to be my next car [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Hello Road

Views: 518,216

Keywords: kitt replica, knight rider kitt, knight rider, knight rider car, knight rider show, david hasselhoff, knight rider tv show, knight rider filming locations, 1980s tv shows, knight rider episodes, pontiac firebird kitt, pontiac trans am kitt, pontiac firebird, pontiac trans am, 1982 pontiac trans am, 1982 pontiac firebird, michael knight, knight industries, knight rider david hasselhoff, kitt replica build, kitt replica for rent, rent kitt replica, turo rental, hello road

Id: 6hqoo47IPus

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 11 2019