New KITT - OFFICIAL PHOTOS

The Knight Rider TV movie was not good. The updated, Shelby Mustang-based KITT looked undeniably cool (when not in Ugly... er... Attack Mode, at least), but the acting was wooden and the writing was a horror show. Still, the ending completely set up a potential ongoing story. Today comes word that the ratings were apparently good enough for the suits to give a thumbs-up for a new weekly series starting this Fall. Early reports suggest a Friday night timeslot is in the works, but that's subject to change; all will be known on Wednesday when NBC presents its early upfronts.

We'll assume that at the very least, stars Justin Breuning (Mike Traceur) and Deanna Russo (Mike Traceur's Girlfriend) will return to fill our flatscreens with emotionless line reading. And since voicing KITT should be a relatively easy payday for Val Kilmer, we'd expect him to reprise his role, as well. As for the Hoff, who walked on for a brief cameo at the end of the pilot, who knows? The big winner here is Ford, which now gets an hour-long weekly showcase for the Shelby GT500KR KITT. Based on the stupendously lousy pilot, however, we're going to put on our prognostication hats and set the over/under for this Knight Rider reboot at 10 episodes. Unless NBC ups the quality in a big, big way, the under is a lock.

© Source: autoblog
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KITTstang Knight Rider Returns as Ford

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.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. The now-requisite post-production rendering will also be part of the package.

The stock Shelby GT500KR that KITT is today based on makes 540 horsepower. In 1982, the Trans Am's 5.7-liter V-8 made 165 horsepower in it most desirable trim. ord said that KITT's artificial intelligence "makes it the ideal good cop partner: logical, precise and possessing infinite knowledge." Wait 'til Google catches wind of the latter.The car in that movie closely resembled the Pontiac Banshee, a concept that prefaced the last-generation Trans Am.

© Source: thecarconnection
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