Knight Rider's Legacy: From '80s Icon to Modern Nostalgia

What happened to the fantastic car after the series ended?

A brief description of the famous television series. This famous television series of North American origin premiered on September 26, 1982, revolving around the adventures of a young detective who fights against injustice to save innocent people by driving his fabulous car equipped with artificial intelligence and with enough capacity to interact as if it were a person while having more than 100 spectacular features to face the different situations that could arise.

For example, its famous turbo that allowed it to reach top speeds of 480 km/h. 90 episodes were made spread over four seasons, making it one of the most watched programmes during the 80s and 90s, especially due to the unforgettable appearances of the fantastic car that often impressed us with its endless arsenal of weapons, its ability to move autonomously using an ingenious cinematic trick, its various advanced sensors that allowed it to detect obstacles or recognise people.

Let's look at some important specifications of the model used

We know that the fantasy car in real life was a Pontiac sports car launched in 1982, equipped with a black paint job and the characteristic sequential lights in the front area, some cool retractable headlights like any good sports car from the 80s and far from mounting the powerful fictional mechanics with Turborector that gave it enormous times of zero to 100 in 0.2 seconds, in reality it accommodated a modest V8 engine with little power and overly conservative performance that was out of place with its television appearances.

The aforementioned V8 located in the front area displaced 5 L of displacement and supplied 145 horsepower at 4000 revolutions per minute, 240 pounds of torque at 2000 revolutions. It was coupled with rear-wheel drive through the four-speed manual transmission, providing moderate times of zero to 100 in less than 9 seconds, accompanied by maximum estimated times of 180 km/h.

How many units were used for the show and what exactly happened to them.?

The various reports show us that the producers bought and customized around 20 vehicles which were used for various purposes such as for stunts or conventional scenes with half of the cars that ended up being bought for just a dollar, but for a rather curious reason, as it happens that a train loaded with brand new cars derailed in California in 1983, leaving them in poor condition for sale in dealerships and also for legal use on the road, but being perfect for the ambitions of the film studio that was filming the series.

The agreement stipulated that the 10 cars had to be destroyed after the filming was finished and that is why at the end of the fourth season it was decided to continue with the total annihilation of the fantastic cars by then launching a wrecking ball on the cars affected by the agreement despite the fact that the production company had some offers from collectors interested in buying them. It is also known that of the ten remaining models, 5 were discarded due to their deplorable conditions at the end of the series, with only 5 surviving, which are found in the hands of private collectors and in museums in the United States, although fortunately they can frequently be seen appearing at different conventions and television programs where thousands of fans also attend who also hope to meet the main actor of the series.

As a curious fact, it can be said that 1 of the original cars was auctioned in 2020, reaching in this case a figure close to 200,000 dollars, which demonstrates the similar sentimental value it has for many fans.