A huge jump in The Topaz Connection!

[Knight-Armen]

(Please, click on the picture to get a larger view)

Well, here's a capture from The Topaz Connection and this is the scene were Kitt is chasing a pick-up truck.

Does anyone know whether they had to install new suspensions for Kitt after this jump? Because he landed very badly, unfortunately...

The reason why I'm asking you this is because after the jump, the chase continued as if the car never jumped nor gained any damage by the landing whereas if you look carfully, the second before he reaches the ground you can notice the car is falling apart (almost)...

[LuvKITT]

Well they used different cars for different stunts. As far as the show goes KITT could do anything so I assume it didn't bother him. Of course Bonnie always was making adjustments and repairs on KITT.

[Juggernaut30]

After this jump,the car was wrecked.

Like after this jump....



They continued the chase with an differend car.


Markus

[Knight-Armen]

Well they used different cars for different stunts. As far as the show goes KITT could do anything so I assume it didn't bother him. Of course Bonnie always was making adjustments and repairs on KITT.

Well, of course! They used different cars and carried out some reparations, however the fact that Kitt could do anything is not entirely true.

A couple of seconds before landing:



Notice how the tires dissappears in the body! The suspensions must have suffered a great deal...

Seconds after the landing, the car appears to be totally wrecked:

[spyhunter]

Didn't the Dukes jump this same creek?

SH

[Jay_n1]

Yea they did and the General had the same outcome.

[K2000kid]

I read somewhere that Kitt had a skin like an onion that they'd peel off and he'd look a good as new underneath

[K2000kid]

"We use four identical black Trans Ams, not one," Hasselhoff told a reporter. "And when the stuntmen do those 50-foot jumps, a car sometimes breaks in half. Each of the cars has a protective outer shell on it. When a car gets banged up, they peel off the outer shell, like the skin of an onion, and the shell underneath makes K.I.T.T. look like new."

How do peel off the shell and make KITT look new after that

[TurbomanKnight]

Its a rubber outter layer to protect the paint and body. Look at the scenes where KITT is being shot at. You look closely you can see the explosive charges mounted on the body. Look even closer you can see the outer skin. Its usually higher.

[K2000kid]

The outer skin was actually as you described, but the way the article was written the reader is led to believe when they jump a car and total it all they have to do is peel off the outer layer and have him as good as new.

i guess they peeled him whenever he got dirty too

[TurbomanKnight]

Nah, if its dirty a little wash and wax is done.

[Joe Huth]

Here's a picture of Hasselhoff sitting in the shell that's mentioned here:



Joe

[TurbomanKnight]

You the man Joe!

[Akaihiryuu]

It's true that they used different cars, but there's more to it than just using 4 Trans-Am's. The cars they used for jumping were specially built "jump cars" that were put together completely different from how a normal Trans-Am is. For one, the jump cars had front leaf springs. The jumps did often damage the jump cars, but it didn't always total them. The jump cars also looked very bad if you see them up close (as you can in frames here and there in places)...what looks like black paper over the windows, body panels in the wrong place, things looking like they're going to fall off, etc. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that they didn't take perfectly good Trans-Am's and jump them. The jump cars were probably built out of cars that had been wrecked already in one way or another. The only time they used a good condition Trans-Am was for interior shots of KITT, slow cruising shots, KITT parked, etc. They had one "KITT" car that they used for that and close-up shots, everything else used specially built stunt cars of one form or another. Just like in Dukes of Hazzard...they had one really nice looking General that they used for all the close up shots, and they used beat up customized clunkers for the stunts.

[kittknight1979]

Is this a recycled jump on Knight Flight to Freedom on Season 4?

[Skav]

Yes, the jump was used in quite a few episodes.