It's my first time posting and I'm delighted to be chatting with other fellow Knight Rider fans like myself. I remember watching the show when it first came on in 1982 and after the premiere aired I was hooked. During that time, I always wished I could meet KITT and talk with him a bit. In 1987, my wish came true when I visited him at Universal Studios in California. I asked him what was his top speed and he told me that he can go up to 300 mph. It was a cool moment, indeed. Although the voice sounded like William Daniels, it was not really him, but some guy hiding somewhere in the theme park with a microphone/walkie-talkie.
Anyway, one of the coolest features of KITT was the turbo boost system. I discovered a website that featured an article on how it worked. First of all, there were several KITTs built, some of them were made as stunt cars. These stunt cars were aided with a couple of ramps that were camouflaged. The receiving end ramp was there to ensure minimal damage to the car because if it weren't for that, the stunt car's front fender would have been badly damage from the impact once it hit the ground. Let's face it: cars are not really made for such stunts, only for vehicles that have high suspension with thick tires such as: pickup trucks, dune buggies, and 4x4s.
However, in one episode of season three, there is a scene where Michael and KITT were chasing a jeep equipped with a flamethrower, and they managed to disabled it by turbo boosting over it and shattering it to pieces. The moment KITT landed on all fours the front fender didn't even scratched the ground. I had to freeze frame it shot by shot to get a closer look and sure enough there was no damage, at least there was none from an external viewpoint. My question is, how were the special effects team able to pull that off that turbo boost jump without the aid of ramps, and with no front fender bender damage? With hydraulics perhaps?
Whitestar
