Knight Rider: A Wasted Opportunity

This entry was posted on Feb 14 2008

So, a 21st Century spin on the classic 1980s “Knight Rider” TV show is about to air. Right out of my youth, the Knight 2000 was the invincible black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and KITT the intelligent super computer brain snapping one-liners at the “The Hoff” and saving his butt every episode. Back to the present, we have a rebirth of sorts … except the Knight 3000 and KITT have been bastardized into a 2008 Ford Mustang!

If you ask me, this was a completely wasted opportunity by GM, here they are making the car show rounds introducing and showing off the soon to be released Chevy Camaro. Which, when both were in production at the same time, the Firebird and Camaro were cousins, off the same platform. That being said, why the hell couldn’t the Knight 3000 be a 2009 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am? Other than the fact that GM/Pontiac have shot down there being any new Firebirds rolling off the lines anytime soon … it would’ve been perfect! The car show could have shown off the Camaro and Firebird side-by-side, people would have been all over it, and then the Knight Rider movie could have given it an even bigger boost. Beyond all that and the real reason for this rant … KITT is NOT a freakin Mustang! Are you kidding me!?!? KITT will always be Trans Am, and I don’t give a good god damn what anybody says. This has nothing to do with not liking the Mustang, I love the car, the newest generation does a great job of bringing back alot of the classic Mustang styling. About the only thing going for the new TV movie, is Val Kilmer will be playing the voice of KITT. While he’s not William Daniels (Original KITT voice) he’s definitely a good choice.