Fanhome 1:8 K2000 KITT Knight Rider

Knight Rider was TV heaven for an 80s kid like me. The dramatic crime-fighting plots, action sequences and cool theme music made this show pure fun – and an unmissable weekly watch. At the centre of it all were undercover cop Michael Knight and KITT, his out-of-this-world supercar. KITT (short for Knight Industries Two Thousand, and also known as K2000) was of course far more than a car. This talking, artificially intelligent, self-driving machine was a futuristic sidekick for Knight.

With an arsenal of weapons, an impenetrable shell and advanced surveillance features, the KITT supercar was a formidable asset – while also being a loyal and witty companion. On top of all this high-tech gadgetry and personality, KITT was also a seriously cool set of wheels. It was in fact a modified 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, a performance car with a sleek sporty design and glossy black finish. This unmistakably 1980s style, along with the KITT’s vital character role, secured its place as one of the great vehicles in small screen history.

KITT was up there as one of my favourite hero cars as a child, along with others like the General Lee, A-Team van and Ecto-1, and one I loved to role-play with. I had a remote-control KITT model which built up some serious mileage around my home. In my mind, my KITT was indestructible just like in the TV show. I loved putting it through its paces around the garden, and over and through whatever obstacles I could find – and it was frequently launched from the top of the stairs. And of course, I never tired of watching the real thing in action in weekly instalments of Knight Rider on the TV.

This irresistible replica has some fantastic features that conjure warm recollections of the full-size original. These include KITT’s voice, working lights, and the distinctive red scanner lights, all operated by a remote-control watch like Michael Knight himself used in the show.

The model also has opening doors, boot and bonnet and a working steering wheel that operates the wheels. These components let you get up close and personal with KITT’s details as you assemble the car month by month. And as with all partwork projects, there’s an accompanying magazine issued at each stage, with build instructions plus loads of images and information to keep us absorbed.

The KITT build-up is currently available in a few select countries, including Germany, France, Italy and the UK, through various publishers such as Altaya, DeAgostini and Fanhome. Hopefully, this awesome replica of the K2000 will be expanded more widely in the near future so that even more of us can enjoy building our very own KITT.

I’ve been delighted to start work on building my own Knight Rider KITT model, which promises to be a great tribute to the original car, with some superb details. But along with my appreciation of what is clearly a stunning model, I’m also excited to introduce my own mods and upgrades.

Being a stickler for the finest details, I’m keen to make KITT even more impressive with super-realistic mods, elevating the quality with luxury build materials and matching features even more closely to the KITT we know and love from the original TV show.

As my own K2000 build progresses, there will undoubtedly be aspects of the model I will want to upgrade, correct and enhance. I’ll be busy designing and developing new KITT mods as I go, so look out for these. Plus, if you spot something you’d like me to mod during your own build-up process, please feel free to put in a request. And let’s make our own KITT replicas as extraordinary as that baddie-battling fantasy car which wowed us when it first hit our screens.