Used KITT for Sale

Tue., Jul. 27, 2004 12:40 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

When David Hasselhoff gets his driving record in order, there's a set of hot wheels for sale that just might interest him.

The Knight Industry Two Thousand. Or KITT, for short.

The "highly modified" 1983 Pontiac Trans Am, which costarred with the suitably buff Hasselhoff on NBC's Knight Rider from 1982 to '86, is among the nearly 500 Hollywood trinkets, treasures and Ten Commandments tablets going up on the auction block Friday.

Joseph M. Maddalena of the Beverly Hills-based memorabilia dealer Profiles in History said he expects bidding on KITT to open at $35,000.

"Nineteen-Eighties television is just huge," Maddalena says. "That's all people want. It's just the ultimate pop culture icon, and that's what the KITT car is."

As far as Maddalena knows, this is the first time a KITT car--yes, there was more than one--has been offered for public sale. The roadster being put on the auction block by Maddalena's company was featured in the tire-squealing action-drama's second season.

Maddalena won't reveal the identity of the KITT owner (and seller), but he confirmed it's not Hasselhoff, who's due in a Los Angeles court Oct. 28 to be arraigned on a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge.

The mysterious KITT man--he works "in the Industry," Maddalena allows--bought the black beauty (complete with its custom "KNIGHT" license plate and studio-issued key ring) from Universal Studios as Hasselhoff's prime-time stint as leather-clad crime-fighter Michael Knight was ending. Maddalena doesn't know the exact purchase price, but he guesses "a few thousand bucks, probably nothing--it was of no value."

Back then anyway.

Once cut loose from the Universal back lot, KITT was put to work by its new boss on the car-show circuit.

In 2001, the owner decided the teenaged KITT was in need of an extreme makeover. The owner huddled with a custom-car designer and KITT got its mojo back--for the first time really.

Dashboard gauges that looked cool, but never actually worked, now worked. (Although Williams Daniels' voice wasn't part of the kit package.) The trademark scanner light lit up anew (and got a boost in the cool department from external speakers that enabled the outside world to know when KITT was doing its work). The braking system that helped stunt drivers skid away from bad guys was repaired.

In the end, about the only thing the new-and-improved KITT wasn't was street legal.

The car, then as now, runs on airplane fuel, Maddalena explains. And as baseball demi-great Jose Canseco once learned when he tried the "I wasn't speeding--I was testing my tank of rocket fuel" excuse several years back, authorities tend to frown on juiced-up autos on public roadways.

According to Maddalena, the fact that KITT can't be driven to the mall likely will be of little concern to the prospective KITT buyer.

"For a fan, this is like the Holy Grail," Maddalena says.

Friday's auction, to be held live and in person at Maddalena's Beverly Hills shop, and around the world in virtual locations such as eBay, features a lot of Holy Grail-type items, including quite literally the tablets toted by Charlton Heston's Moses in The Ten Commandments. (He expects bidding on that bit of iconography to open at $40,000-$60,000.)

KITT isn't even the only car for sale. The 1979 Ferrari 308 GTS that made Tom Selleck's Thomas Magnum quite the chick magnet on the first season of Magnum, P.I. also is up for bid. Maddalena says that vehicle could go for as much as $80,000. (After all, he says, it is a Ferrari--and a driveable one at that.)

Still, despite all the starry competition, Maddalena admits it's trusty ol' KITT he's been asked about most this week.

Says Maddalena: "It could go for anything."