Ford also wanted to keep the interior simple, the better to show the Shelby's dash. Thus, Hero KITT remains remarkably stock inside, save for the cut-out steering wheel, the in-dash computer screen, and a super computer in the back seat with the keyboard in the glovebox. "That was the creative part [of the interior]...making the rear seat portray a lid to represent a super computer," says Harald. Other elements had more prosaic concerns. The seats, for example, were designed after shopping to find out what could be bought and modified since there was no time to start from scratch.
We didn't hammer on the brakes as hard as the throttle, but stopping torque is clearly abundant. Like the ride and burnout control, the tall wheel/short sidewalls sharpen brake feel, if not stopping distance. Hero KITTs have flash-polished Shelby forged rims; Attack KITTs go with black Shelby forgings.
Another consideration is computer graphics. It's often easier and less expensive for production companies to digitize dashboard details rather than ordering harried technicians to build mock-ups, but designers like Harald still have to plan the gee-whiz biz. Time is also a huge factor. There's so much work to be done and so much time consumed by contract maneuvering that the designing and building of the cars is squeezed to the max. Harald, like nearly everyone else with their hands on the KITT cars, scrambled to squeeze in what had to be done.
"Because the timing was off, I was already on [another] movie, so I had to work a double shift. And, of course, the movie I was on, everything was flying...everything was a couple hundred years in the future." In the end, Harald had "two weeks for sketches, which the producer and writer pretty much left up to me after a discussion." Total time on the project? "Creatively for three weeks, then twice a week to The Picture Car Warehouse and talking with the modelers. Because they were working with only renderings, they had questions. So six weeks." And as a second job, we'll add.
Lest this sound like belly aching, Harald is pleased to have worked on Knight Rider. "I thought it was prestigious; everyone knows Knight Rider. It was a fun project, it's an impressive final product, and all of the people were fun."
We sense that Harald is happy with the results, too, especially the quintessential Attack KITT. Of course, designers are always willing to try again. "Personally, the rear spoiler could have taken more planning. There's no time, literally one sketch. If you want it really sculpted, it takes a lot of time to produce. That would be the only thing I would change."
Because several different Mustangs and Mustang parts were used to film the TV movie, there is no single car that can be said to be the KITT Mustang. A single prototype was built, followed by several Hero versions and one Attack KITT that were used for filming. Additionally, a Pod and Buck KITT were required.
The Pod is a car with a second driving station "pod," or cage, on the roof so that a stuntman can drive the car while the stars act inside. The Buck is an open or breakaway interior section of a car that allows the large cameras access. When the action got too hot for humans, a Remote KITT was used, which is a car rigged to be operated by radio control.
Blue Ford GT valve covers get the underhood visual award, but from behind the wheel, the Ford Racing Power Pack is what causes the smiles. Power was up 40 notches according to Ford Racing; we could easily feel the wonderfully improved lower rpm response.
These on-screen TV cars were built from four V-6- and two V-8-powered Mustangs, along with a wrecked Mustang that was used to make the cutaway Buck. The one Mustang GT Hero gained a Ford Racing Whipple supercharger so it would have the grunt to spin the tires and otherwise stand in for the GT 500KR Shelby. All of these cars used automatic transmissions-stunt drivers work with automatics and actors are too busy to flip their own gears should they even have the knack.
Galpin Auto Sports [(877) GO-GAS-GO; www.galpinautosports.com], the custom-shop portion of the huge Galpin dealership in the northern Los Angeles area, did the exterior work, essentially the body-kit installations on the Heroes, and installed the Whipple on the one Attack car.
Interior work and much of the heavier-duty mechanical and Attack exterior work came from The Picture Car Warehouse (www.picturecarwarehouse.net). Owned by Ted Moser-a hopeless car nut by all accounts-The Picture Car Warehouse is one-stop shopping for vehicle-needy movie and TV producers. Its specialty is meeting unrealistic production schedules, overnight miracles, and swimming the adrenaline river that is Hollywood at work.
Ted's rsum opens when he was nine years old and working at his dad's gas station. Later it was college, his own auto repair shop, then wrenching on movie cars. Finally, The Picture Car Warehouse opened five years ago, for Ted's total of 20 years in the movie-car biz. His long list of movie credits include endless taxi, police car, and limo rentals, along with the obviously over-the-top car features such as xXx and Too Fast, Too Furious.