Knight Rider 2007

After mentioning the hotly anticipated return of The Saint television series, it's worth thinking about another favourite making a comeback - Knight Rider.

I used to love that show when I was a kid - and was incredibly excited in 2003 when I bought myself a bright red, KITT-style Pontiac Trans-Am. I absolutely adored that car - it looked great, drove beautifully and was reliable and practical.

To me, Knight Rider will always be about the eighties-vintage Firebird / Trans Am.


However, much discussion has been undertaken regarding the new 'KITT' in the upcoming television remake of Knight Rider. Internet pundits have even made their own attempts at guessing what the next-generation Knight Industries Two Thousand will look like.













But the KITT's out of the bag now. Knight Rider will return behind the wheel of a fearsome Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang.

Which is absolutely stupid, as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, don't get me wrong. The Shelby Mustang is a beautiful bit of automobile. It hits all my buttons in terms of that retro look and muscular, aggressive stance. But it's not Knight Rider.

When Glen Larson, the inventor of Knight Rider, was looking to make his 'Lone Ranger with a car' TV series, he chose the 1982 Pontaic Trans Am because it was a breathtakingly exciting new car. Sleek and powerful, it represented the future. The car itself was designed by computer, with breathtaking aerodynamics proven up to a whopping 300mph.

Triumph TR7's and Datsuns aside, there was nothing like the third generation Pontiac Firebird on the roads and it captured the heart of a generation of television viewers in the guise of KITT.

Unlike the Firebird, however, the Shelby Mustang isn't looking to the future. It's looking firmly back at Mustang's epic legacy. The design and execution of this beautiful car takes it's nods from the original Shelby Mustangs of the late 1960's.

It's a retro-styled tribute to days gone by. Knight Rider, by it's very definition, should be automobile's future on today's roads. In ignoring that essential concept, the makers of this new TV show have made an enormous mistake in the car they chose.

Which is a pity, since the car's the co-star of the whole series. Falling at this first hurdle is like trying to remake The Dukes of Hazzard with anything but a '69 Dodge Charger.

Although in their defence, there isn't really a car on the roads today that's comparable to the '82 Pontiac Trans Am. Everything Detroit churns out these days seems to be a 'tribute' - like the watered down Dodge Charger, good looking but unexciting Chrylser 300 or Cheverolet's overpriced re imagining of the first generation Camaro.

American motor manufacturers used to be on the leading edge, driving the industry forward. Now they're constantly trying to recapture their glory days.

Which might explain why the motor industry is swishing around the plughole, loosing a greater and greater market share to foreign motor innovators.