The Knight Rider Authenticity Guide – Part 1
Welcome to the start of our multi-part series on making a screen-accurate Knight Rider replica. The term “screen accurate” gets tossed around a lot – and really, there are so many acceptable variations of “screen accurate” because the show used upwards of 20 cars throughout the four years the show was on the air, and no two of them were identical. Any given car would not necessarily be accurate episode to episode, as these cars evolved as the series went on.
Our journey into the world of accuracy begins with “Part 1 – The Front Bumper.”
Before the series was sold to NBC, a 20 minute “Pilot Presentation” was filmed, which featured a very different-looking KITT. A man named Jon Ward built this stock-looking nose. If you are creating the earliest known version of KITT, this is what you want:
From there, of course, KITT’s nose was redesigned when the series was picked up, and a young man named Michael Scheffe came in to do that work. His completely custom front nose featured grills in the front fog light openings, six fog lights (three per side), and smoked acrylic covers over the factory turn signals:
By the second season of the series, the show had problems with the acrylic covers staying on the nose and decided to re-mold Scheffe’s original nose with the covers installed. The result was a nose similar to Scheffe’s, but the acrylic covers, molded with the new nose, were now fiberglass outlines. This made it appear that KITT still had the acrylic covers but proved much more reliable for filming purposes. Additionally, throughout season 2, KITT slowly transitioned from having fog light grills to not. Finally, the number of fog lights decreased from three per side to just two. This look would continue throughout the end of season two and all of season three.
For the final season, KITT’s front nose was refreshed by famed car customizer George Barris. An entirely new piece was sculpted and featured a more angular design. This new nose did not highlight the turn signal “outlines” and was made out of rubber. This style nose was used throughout the fourth season, although not all of the cars received this updated nose – a sharp-eyed viewer will be able to spot a stunt car or two with the old, season 2/3 style nose!
So, there you go! The official history of KITT’s different front noses as depicted on the show!
Keep an eye out for Part 2 – KITT’s Lower Console – Coming Soon!
Check out “Our Build” gallery to follow us along our journey of building the worlds most accurate pilot KITT Replica.
While you are on our site, check out our thousands of HD Screenshots from the series, many of which were used to help nail down the details of our KITT Replica. These details are what make this car stand above even the best replicas out there today!
We will be talking about so much more, so stay tuned and remember one blog can make a difference! Thanks for reading, and please be sure to subscribe below for future updates and exclusive content.
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