Knight Rider’s KITT is a Hydrogen Electric Hybrid
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But like any highly advertised greenwashing campaign, there are always two sides it – a KITT side and a KARR side, if you will. Yes, buzzwords like composting and carbon-footprint were interjected into the show’s overly tepid dialogue. Focus is put on recycling, and the huge carbon deficit of the KITT cave is of concern (cue the Law & Order Dun Dun sound…oh wait, wrong show).
It’s all very predictable.
All of this builds up to KITT’s top secret propulsion system — how green is KITT? In the 80’s incarnation KITT used liquid hydrogen in a turbine engine that got 100 MPG. In this updated version, KITT is a combination hydrogen electric hybrid.
Of course, we are introduced to all these features in KITT 2.0, which is a 2010 Ford Mustang.
As much as I want to bag on this greenwashing, I cannot. Knight Rider, the 80’s David Hasselhoff version, inspired me. It was that show that took me from wanting to be a Mechanical Engineer to a career in computers. And it didn’t stop there. I spent eight years of my career involved in classified government work. I know it’s cheesy, but only because it’s true.
That’s my two cents. Well, and that Val Kilmer’s voice as KITT is like an aural enema. Please make him stop!
Photo: NBC
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November 21st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The KITT that he showed off was an alternative one. If you watch the first introduction to knight rider, you’ll see that he runs off gas. There was a rather long discussion about why KITT didn’t run on something cooler or more futuristic.
Later in the scene KITT asked the Dr. why he lied about his propulsion system.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Wow I remember watching Knight Rider when I was a kid… it was so cool.. although the fact that I was a child might have something to do with it’s coolness, because this new series is just not that good. The car looks cool, but Val Kilmer as KITT is annoying.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Why do people make such a big stink of these shows. You get too technical and huge wording like you have to talk big or else. Stop it, this is ridiculous, it’s a great show, the new Kitt is awesome, I want a mustang Shelby GT now, but I don’t know what will happen to Ford in the next month or so, they might go under.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 am
Please correct this post as per Chris’s information. He’s right, the post is incorrect.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
The show just stinks anyway, I’m not surprised it’s going this route given the politically correct stereotyped characters super stupid dialogue.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Very interesting. I haven’t actually seen the new TV series, but when I heard Val Kilmer’s voice on one of the promotional comrecials, I almost wished my ears would start bleeding, because my mind was going, “No, no,no, this is so wrong!” KITT is supposed to be sophisticated, a sort of prissiness.He’s the best car ever made and he knows it. He has his moments when he’s ushure of himself, like in “Junkyard Dog”, but overall, that is what i see in his presonality. I simlpy don’t think that Mr. Kilmer was the proper choice as the voice of KITT, nor, if I may express my personal opinion here, do I think that a Ford car was the proper choice of a car, because KITT was originaly a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, and In the Knight Rider 2000 movie, he was installed in a concept car called the 1988 Pontiac Banshee.