Car Krush Jan 21, 2026

148. The Pile Up EP29: Knight Industries Two Thousand

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58:22

Car

Chevy Citation

The Chevy Citation was a popular car made by Chevrolet in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was known for being affordable and was the best-selling car in the U.S. in 1980.

Car

Valiant

The Plymouth Valiant was a small car made by Plymouth that was known for being reliable. It won an award for Car of the Year in 1976.

Concept

A 'disposable car' is a car that is made to be cheap and easy to replace, rather than built to last for many years. This idea became popular when car manufacturers started making more affordable models.

Term

X-11

The X-11 was a special version of the Chevrolet Citation that had some performance upgrades. It was meant to make the car more fun to drive compared to the regular model.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

Car

Chevrolet Corvair

The Chevrolet Corvair is a small car that was made in the 1960s. It had a different design than most cars of that time because its engine was in the back instead of the front.

Term

neutral safety switch

The neutral safety switch is a part that stops your car from starting unless it's in the right gear. It's a safety feature to help prevent accidents.

Term

overheating

Overheating happens when a car's engine gets too hot, which can cause serious problems. It usually means there's an issue with the cooling system.

Concept

hot hatches

Hot hatches are small cars with a hatchback design that are designed for fun driving. They are usually sporty and have good performance, making them popular among car enthusiasts.

Car

Volkswagen GTI

The Volkswagen GTI is a sporty version of the regular Golf car. It's designed to be fun to drive and is popular among people who like fast cars.

Car

Ford Fiesta

The Ford Fiesta is a small car that is easy to drive and park. It comes in a hatchback style, which makes it practical for everyday use while still being fun to drive.

Car

Honda Civic hatch

The Honda Civic hatch is a version of the Honda Civic that has a hatchback style. It's known for being practical and fun to drive, making it a good choice for many people.

Car

Dodge Aries

The Dodge Aries is a small car that Dodge produced in the 1980s. It was popular for being budget-friendly and reliable.

Car

Plymouth Reliant

The Plymouth Reliant is a small car that Plymouth made in the 1980s. It was designed to be affordable and efficient for drivers.

Concept

K car

The K car is a type of car platform created by Chrysler that many small cars were built on in the 1980s. It was important for the company's success during that time.

Concept

Knight Industries 2000

Knight Industries 2000, or KITT, is a talking car from the TV show Knight Rider. It was special because it could drive itself and had a personality, making it a favorite among fans.

Car

Pontiac Trans Am

The Pontiac Trans Am is a type of sports car that was made by Pontiac. It's famous for its cool looks and powerful engines, and it became well-known from TV shows and movies.

Car

Ford Escape

The Ford Escape is a small SUV that can carry more people and stuff than a regular car. It's great for driving around town or going on trips, and it has a lot of features to keep you safe and comfortable.

Term

self-driving

Self-driving means that a car can drive itself without needing a person to control it. It uses special technology to see the road and make decisions, like when to stop or turn.

Car

Pontiac Firebird

The Pontiac Firebird is a sporty car that was made for many years, famous for its cool looks and powerful engine. It's a car that a lot of people remember from movies and shows, making it a popular choice among car enthusiasts.

Concept

Pontiac's last year of production

Pontiac was a car brand that stopped making cars in 2010. They made popular models like the Trans Am, and people are reminiscing about when they stopped making them.

Concept

100 year anniversary of Pontiac

This year marks 100 years since Pontiac was created, which is a big deal for car enthusiasts and the brand itself.

Company

Pacific Motor Transport

Pacific Motor Transport is a company that helps move cars from where they're made to where they need to go, like dealerships. They ensure that cars are delivered safely and on time.

LIVE

Whenever happy Wednesday happy Wednesday, we're having a whatever day whatever who cares

Yeah, you know what people cared about was the Chevy citation people love the Chevy citation

Love they love to hate the Chevy citation. Uh-huh

Some people liked it, right?

Yeah, I mean, that's it was the it was the number one car it for 1980

It was the best-selling car in America for 1980. Yeah, and it was I think motor trans car of the year

Car of the year of the whole entire year 1976 was the Valar a mind you

What's funny is that Pat told us about that his family having the Valar a

Rizmo sent me a Keith Wiesner post about the Valar a with these like these weird land-out tops that made it look like a

Kind of looks like a convertible, but it's not it's just a solid top and it was like this package and

Oh interesting there weren't a lot of them made and it's kind of ugly looking sort of looks like it has a

I'd have to you know, I'll show it to you sometime. Oh, okay. Anyway, I'll be waiting anyway

It was funny that Pat had mentioned the Valar a being the 76 car of the year. Yeah, and then Rizzo coming along with that. I mean just

Kiz man dip it is

It is it is it's kismet that we acknowledge the Valar a and that we acknowledge the Chevy citation

Yeah, I had somebody write me and

I asked him if it had rest of the gills and he said not quite. I'll have to read his quote for more

What do you got yet? Do you want? Oh, I was gonna say what you brilliantly said was it was the first disposable car? Oh

Yeah, totally. Is it not? Mm-hmm. I mean it's trash. Yeah, it was bad five years the cars

It was bad rusted out. Well, we have this quote from I can't remember what magazine. Oh raise kits calm

Oh, the model guy. That was a good model guy. Yeah, he does scale stuff and it's cool. So despite shout-out raise kits

Despite the facts. This is hilarious. Despite the fact that the car was a total disaster

They still made models out of it the X 11 specifically

I want one they're collectible. There's one that's a low rider after this. Okay, that one was sick

That was fucking awesome. I mean, is it hard to make a low rider shitty? Isn't it? I guess that's not true

But I don't know. I generally like all of them that I see

What's interesting I want to go back. I just saw Pat's note in the notes here

And it was like Aunt Rose had a late 70s Valer with a wooden crate instead of the driver's seat. Yep

It's hard to imagine. Oh boy, that'd be hard to drive just flipping and flopping all over the place. Yeah

Okay, I'm sure it was tied down but still Van Dan 73 said my first car was an 81 citation with the 2.6

It was a tank. He said I asked if it had rust up to the gills

He said no rust on the grill, but it was an awful tan light brown

And my friend used to make fun of it calling it the brown round definitely was not an X 11 sounds like the gutless wonder

Yeah, yeah

Brown round definitely gave me a pretty good chuckle

Yeah, that's pretty funny. It sounds like butthole and I think that's what they're referring to. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like yeah

One that gets dropped off at the pool

So I'm gonna read this quote from the raised kits from the yeah, yeah, yeah, bring it on

It's quite spectacular. You know, I didn't go back to that article, but it it did it was a good write-up

Well, you did I thought you sent me this quote from it. I did I just didn't sure. Oh, okay. You didn't read the quote

It's not even dictated but not read it's just like forwarded but not read did I do that to you last time?

That was how we got that Corvair or the Corvette the 83 Corvette

The 84 the non-existent one I was like, hey, here's this Corvette mystery. I'm not gonna read about it nice and it's you

Yeah, is that what is that what created the brain buster base? No, I just did a little piece on it

I did a real funny little piece on it. I thought you'd remember that you enjoyed it

I do remember that was the 1983 Corvette because they did make one. Yeah. Yeah, or one survive

They made several prototypes

Destroy them all that was what they said to do. All right. Here is this really funny quote from

Racekits.com. I think he had one or his friend had one and he was describing it or he's quoting somebody from a newspaper article

I don't know. I just have the quote. Okay. Okay. Here we go

The guttural groan of the transmission the loud burble of the engine as it kicks into life

The heater knobs coming off as I'm trying to warm the cabin and trying to cool off the car as it is somehow

Overheating in early morphing traffic, even though it was frigid November morning

The rear view mirror dropping off the windshield the trim popping off the door once I shut them the insulation on the windows

Just flopping loose after two months the erratic veer to the left when I gently break

Gently break gently break the paint chips lying on the tarmac next to my car while it's parked as it was

Showing its ripe age of 18 months, but resting as if it were 18 years

That's the end. The rest thing is still getting me 18 months

We never came across as to why that happened. I didn't see a thing that said like it was because of this

But anyway, well, maybe we'll never know. Yeah, it's a mystery

I mean we saw that we read in that article that it was like because it was a cheap car

It was thus cheap built like yeah, and we didn't see where that made any sense

But we didn't know what the pain. Yeah, we definitely didn't want to blame UAW workers

No, we didn't and then Tanner wrote in do you want to read Tanner's a little cute little right?

I do want to read tan man Tanner friend of the pod. Yeah

Tanner previous guest our previous guests on the pod

Expert he came on to

Share the Jeep lore he loves those. Oh, he loves Jeep so much. He's gonna get a Jeep

From Tanner

Just listened to the last episode as for my New Year's Eve the blue meeting's neutral safety switch went out leaving me stranded after

Stopping for smokes had to push it onto the street so it wouldn't get towed

You know what that makes me think of is the chats the price of smokes are going up again

as for the citation

My mom had a brown fastback. I remember the radio and the smell of smoke not from the transmission

But my mom smoking with the windows up

We had to commute on the I80 up Parley's Canyon and it overheated every time

It's where I learned to turn the heater on to cool the car off

also

That'll trick

Also, this is the rebuttal to the guy that was said that no hot babes ever drove a citation

He said also my mom is a babe and

Especially when she had the citation. Yes, it's a babe car. So again confirming that guy's a loser

Yeah, that guy didn't know what the hell he was talking about and then one more explanation to a question

I had he said as for hot hatches. It was used to describe eco boxes. That's a quote of the early 80s

They were used to race the VW GTI the civic hatch Ford Fiesta, etc

Basically a new era of small sporty economy cars

So there's your hot hatches. Mm-hmm. I still sounds a I'd rather have hot hash at a diner

Mmm

Yeah, I'd rather have a I do like a hatchback though. I think they're cute. They're cute. Yeah, but I like hash browns, too

Not hot. I like hash browns better than hash

So if it was short for hash browns, I'm going for it Pat said that his his grandfather had a Chevy citation

And he replaced it with the Dodge Aries or maybe a Plymouth reliant

And he said the K car was left out during a thunderstorm Western, Pennsylvania

And wound up with a few decent dents in the roof and hood from big hail

Yeah, the K car is not real great either. What's the K car because this came up in the brain buster, too

That's a Chrysler platform. Oh, okay of a very similar era. Okay. All right

Citation is technically known as an X car. Oh, yeah, I think it was an X

I think they were built on a fixture like they had like tables that they got built on

That went down the line and it was like they planted them on these fixtures

And so I think that was a thing when they would repair the citations was they had the same like they had tables that were

Specked out with the same pens and you could basically pull the car back to fit on the pens. I don't know

Hmm. I think I think that our teacher Owen Hamrick told us that when I was in a tech school

Hmm. Yeah, okay little factoid little factoid there on the factoid platform

So we got something from Trees and Nails and he was saying this is as per our New Year's Eve

Conversation that we put out into the world as a podcast

Trying to chap things up at the micro machine super service center

It's been a bit neglected car crash got me voted motivated to take care of the fleet

And then he sent some videos of all of these little tiny

Cars that he had including a bunch of gold ones and a little tiny gas station

I had a micro machine set that was a gas can

And you folded it down and it was like you drove down a mountain and then into a little town

And it had like I think like a two-story car wash and a gas station. It was a it's really cute

It was a new set my machines were cool. I didn't really know about them until he sent me that

Oh, well, I mean, I guess I've seen little tiny model cars, but I didn't know they were called micro machines

Micro machines are also nice to take a like a quickie mold of silicone like coop does that

Somebody'll send him a van one and he'll just do like a just do a quick mold of it and cast it solid

Oh little knick-knacks to leave around. Yeah. Yeah, they're great to get for that. That's fun. Yeah

He also said my mom Mary Alice had a Chevy citation. It was silver with a red interior

She was a nurse had three kids red hair drank course light and was allergic to everything

That's the type of woman who drove a Chevy citation

She sounds like a babe, too. Yeah, that's what that's where I was headed. Yeah a nurse with red hair

Hello, yeah, I was gonna say hello naughty nurse

Dude ranch nurse funnicky youth and then also he had another comment

The reason you both are so thirsty is because you're always talking about driving

Yeah, I'm reading it. I see it. I

appreciate the gesture

The effort the joke if it's there. I

Thought it was pretty funny

So that is that's I think most of it most of the citation stuff

I feel like maybe I missed one because

There just was a lot of that was a real emotional car for people, you know

And I forgot to ask people at work about it, but I think I compiled it though

I think I compiled it all on quite a few of my co-workers are my age. I wish I had asked a few people at work. I

Mean, I feel like we talked about it. Yes next time you should

Well, we encourage brain buster people to talk at people. Yeah

Well, that's why I really feel like I missed out because the citation really elicited some strong feelings in people

I just feel like maybe I forgot one or two of the responses, but it's still oncoming. Yeah, I was pretty shocked actually

I think that Rizzo. I want to say that Rizzo was like I kind of want one like maybe somebody totally drive one

Somebody told me they wanted an X 11. Yeah, I could see him doing that. I mean Joe. Yeah, Joe. I wouldn't put it past him

Yeah, I wouldn't put it rat him. What okay, so

Where do we go from here? Well, Emily's got a deep dive. Okay. We're into a project episode. Here we go

Night Industries 2000

2000 aka

KIT TTI TT aka kit. Yes

Kit of Knight Rider. That is what we're gonna talk about

I have a huge smile on my face right now because I that was my favorite show it came out when I was

Six Emily loves this and it lasted until I was 10 and this is part of the reason why I bought a trans am

third generation trans am

It was probably like 75% of the reason that about a third generation trans am maybe 80% maybe 85

You don't want to say 90 you're you're you're going up. I'm gonna say 90 going up

Well after doing all the research, I'm like, no, this is 90% the trend is positive. This is 90% and

So what jumps out to you about the car, what do you like it so much?

Or did you like the show and the show has the car?

I just like the adventure of it. Okay, imagine having your bestie be a car and you get to go

Trample and around not trampling you get to go gliding because this car is like very tight

Okay, and very sweet and very fast and you get to go gliding around turbine powered the US

It is turbine powered turbo turbine power turbo turbine and because of that

It has that very whiny it has a whistling is they overdubbed they dubbed the whistling sounds scary

Why is it scary? It's like a haunting sound

The car is menacing every once in a while you can hear of yate the cars menacing

It is menacing, but it's so sweet and nice

And so I think that's what I like about it is you have this ultimate freedom

And then you just have your bestie with you and you're going around and you're solving crimes and you're helping innocent people and

helping Stephanie

Huh Stephanie

Exactly Stephanie Lucy's there's always a girl involved

There's always a hot young girl involved and then of course stable has all opposite hot young man. So, you know

The two shall meet of course every episode. It's cute. It's cute. There's no like

Crazy sex scenes or anything. I think there's a make-out scene that I've seen. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty TV

Yeah, yeah cable is no no no no no no no no like what it yeah, where did what it did Aaron? I

Think it was made by Universal

Think it might have aired on NBC. Okay. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so a little few things about kit

Who is a blacked out 82 trans am which we've yeah, let's lay out some ground rules, please

Well, he so the car went from 82 to 84 is I mean

This is these are ones that they used in the show from a 2 to 84 the show ran from 82 to 86

and they did four seasons and 90 episodes

I think it's four seasons and kit. So kit is a talking thinking AI

But not the kind of scary AI that we have today. He's like

his mission is to

Keep Michael Knight alive and to keep people alive like it was by voice by mr. Feeney. Oh

Is that who you're talking about? I don't know who that is voice by mr. Feeney from boy meets world. Oh

Yeah, boy meets world. Okay. I didn't know

Like is this mr. Feeney and I spelled it wrong and then I went to dig in through the cast. Yeah, and sure enough

Yeah, it is his polite ass

Yes, and you know, I actually have never heard that or seen it

No, I mean, I think I've heard of boy meets world, but I've never seen it

I didn't really know anything about it. But what I do know about that guy

What is his name actor William Daniels? William Daniels? Yeah, Bill Daniels

He voiced kit and he did not let his name be in the credits

And one of the reasons well the reason was because he wanted kit to remain mysterious

Kit was AI and he didn't want people to think that somebody voiced him

That's a theory and then another theory is that he didn't want to be typecast, but he was already famous at that point

I don't think he was gonna get typecast. I think that he was

Method acting to the core and just like I am an AI and I will not

Have my name on this Mr. Feeney is a real one. So I like I'm not surprised even a little bit

Yeah, and but uh a couple episodes in like you said

People recognize his voice you recognize it right away

And so it kind of let the cat out of the bag, but he wasn't credited in the

They never put him in the credits because he didn't want to be so there were 20 of these cars in the show

In the show. Yeah. Oh, I have 20 to 25

Uh, I have 20 in the show give or take a few

Okay, that that makes sense five remain. Yeah. Yep

Three of them were the original show car were the original like

Top prima donna. Yeah, and then one was the touring car that actually didn't start with tea tops

One was what one was like a touring car. Oh

It didn't have tea tops and then they took they took the studio dash and put it in it to tour it around after the show

Was over and keep promoting the show

I want to run back real quick to

Kit in general. Okay, because we didn't get to go over how awesome that he is besides that

He's ai and he's cooler than the ai of today. I hate I hate hearing ai

I know but that's because think about hearing it in 1982 when you're six. Yeah. No, it would have been awesome

Anytime before three years ago. Yeah. Yeah, so

Uh, let's just pretend I never have to hear the words crypto and ai again

Be fucking sick

Yeah, I hear you he was the fastest safest strongest car in the world. He was invincible. He was bulletproof

I am not sure if he was like bomb proof because there are some I've watched most of season one

And there are some points where helicopters are throwing bombs down and they're exploding

And michael's like can you take a direct hit and kit's like I don't want to find out

But there is one episode where he

jumps over and lands on top of a pile of dynamite

To shield michael in this like hot young thing from getting blown up and he takes the blow up

So invincible car is total dais ex machina

I haven't seen that

dais ex machina is when like you have a

An ending in us in something where you're just like how did that happen?

And like it all was just like wraps up and works out

Yeah, and it's not explained

Having the invincible car is just like total. It's just like inviting that into every episode

It isn't every episode because he always gets him out of the bind. Well, that's what I mean

It's like the car will always do something that has to be like willful suspension of disbelief

Well, and they're also they're always adding a doodad on about every episode

And I wrote down as many doodads as I could

But take me through the list of doodads

Well, I don't even know if I wrote them all but here these are some of my favorite ones

Yeah, let's have it has an ejector seat in the uh, both the passenger and the driver side

And obviously the passenger that's for obvious reasons, but the driver side. That's the mother-in-law seat

Sometimes michael knight. Yeah, in case your mother-in-law needs to go sometimes michael needs to that's a joke, by the way

Oh, was it and the strip star there's a windshield in front of the driver only

And then the passenger has no windshield and he would go that's the mother-in-law seat

But then also and it's an I think you should leave

joke

Where they're doing the Ford car focus group for Ford cars and then Reuben is like no room for mother-in-law

I haven't seen that. All right. Sorry. Okay. Go ahead ejection seat ejection seat sometimes bond

Sometimes michael knight needs to go 10 feet in the air to get to a fire escape or 20 feet in the air to get onto a helicopter

Brilliant

Yeah, lots of stuff there. Okay, of course. He can put out oil slicks. This is again like james bond. So james bond

He can throw out smoke

He's got a turbo. There's a spy

He's got a turbo boost

Uh, the corvair. All right

He's got a surveillance scanner

Which is government?

Cameras and it's x-ray heat seeking

Like nicole tesla so he can see through this is an eclectic car

Walls ration from all over the place. Well, he can see through walls Superman. It's not yes, okay

He can see through walls

But it's not like he can see he can it looks like little video game people

That is like moving around on his screen. So it's more of like a sort of a kid's like lucky charms

There's a lot of fun stuff. There's a lot of fun stuff

Of course, there's a wench. Of course, there's a grappling hook the wench

Obviously he's in the front. You can't go on an adventure without a grappling hook

No, I was thinking about grappling hooks the other day how they just like magically let go and you need them to somehow

Yeah, I think yeah, you're down there and they just like you just like

What wiggle the rope and it pops off

But yeah, but it was secured in the building so secure so secure it'll tear a building down hit the release button

Yep. Yeah, that's what he's got grappling hook front and rear rockets

You don't leave home without, you know, a couple cruise missiles. No, exactly. You need those. I mean traffic, you know

the funny thing is like

The rockets sort of just come out of the body and you can't tell where they live. You don't see them

They you just see them come out

You're the exhaust to keep them warm

They don't shoot out of the exhaust though. They shoot out from like underneath the car

Just near the near the exhaust it keeps them warm. You're right. Keep them. Yeah, keep those rockets warm and then

He also has access to some worldwide database

And I don't think it's the web because I don't know if the web was around in 1982

But he can get into like technically speaking in the 70s. Yes. Okay. Well, maybe he has access to the web then

Because he can get that's feasible. I think

Yeah, he can get all sorts of information about people about places about government stuff

So he's a cop

Well, michael knight was a cop. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get into that a little bit later. Yeah

Well, michael knight is like a vigilante. So he's like robocop

No, kid is more robocop

Kid is no michael knight robocop. He was a cop. Yeah before he became michael knight

And once he becomes michael knight, he ceases to be a cop

He's more of like a vigilante and he works for night industries and night industries is like a

nationwide

Organization of people that want to uphold the law and justice and so they

Go into like corrupt cities and corrupt officials and like, you know

Controversy or sorry, controversy

Controversy

Controversy so no they go into splinter cells

Places where there's corruption within like a city or within government officials. Okay, or they just you know, they are there to protect the innocent

So he's out there fighting crime. Okay, they're fighting crime. Kit is also self-driving

And that works really good if you want to make out or if you need to jump onto a helicopter

I noticed that there were some episodes again, you know, this is like the day of sex market

I like I'm talking about like just it's very convenient

Yeah, everything about the car is convenient. Yeah

It really does everything and the thing that about the self-driving is they couldn't do the scenes for a really long time because it was really

Almost impossible. It's very hard for the stunt drivers to do it

And what they would do is they would be on the passenger floor

Which is like it's a trans they're just barely they must have been the tiniest

stunt drivers in the entire world because the floor

The seat like the floor of it's the front floor of a trans am is so tiny

But they were down there and they made like controls for them to be able to control the car from there

And if you look really close like I sent you that video if you look really close

You can see in some of the episodes you can see the stunt driver like

Like kind of trying to get out of the way of the camera. Yeah, you showed me one of those shots

I mean, I used to work on the first floor of a trans am. I mean, it was just so cramped. Yeah, really cramped. Yeah

When did you what was that the first floor of a trans am?

Yeah, it's really tiny. Yeah, it was yeah, there was a hudson news

Inside the first floor of this trans am I can't believe it fit in there. Yeah, I sold newspapers and sodas and

Oh, it was a lot of people a lot of people come and go like an airport, but right. Yeah. Yeah, all right

Very tiny tiny space. Yeah claustrophobic. I would say yeah, sure certainly claustrophobic

Yeah, so it's weird because you know when gene built the reactor it was remote controlled

So this is all a little strange to me

That predates this and there that wasn't just like, uh, you know, uh stunt news

When gene did it exactly, you know, no, it could have been oh, yeah, you're thinking that they could have just made it remote control

I'm surprised they didn't

Yeah, I don't know why they didn't I mean, we're on myth busters. Davis made a remote control. I don't want to make it sound like it's easy

I'm just saying like

You're saying that these producers were fucking idiots. The tech has marched along

Like I feel like if gene had it available to him

Gene was a little behind the cutting edge just a little bit, you know

I mean that was early for a remote control car, but like we're talking 20 years after that

Yeah, how elegantly could it drive?

I don't know the answer to that. I mean when davis did the truck it was decent

But I mean it's I mean it's not easy to do but anyway, I'm just I'm a little yeah

Maybe they wanted to you know, give these stunt drivers. I mean that probably was way better driving

From stunts. It was probably better driving. Yeah, I'm sure there's a I'm sure if they could cut out

Labor they would have listen if you're a stunt driver, which you know, you've interviewed at least one stunt driver

Let us know. Yeah, let us know reach out. Yeah, let us know why they would not just do a remote control car

Yeah, just let us know. Yeah, also. We are glad that they use stunt drivers

And an AI car

Well rose isn't she's rolling her eyes so sick of hearing about AI

Now I want to go into the interior because the dash is totally nuts

And some of the little things on the dash was it has a cash machine. It has a printer and rolling my eyes

I saw the dash. It's absurd. Yeah, it has this red yellow green

You know thing going on where it's all the lights. Well, okay. So something I looked at was where the gauges are like

Okay, there's the inlet air temp gauge and it's red and then there's the exhaust temp gauge and it's green

And then the one below it it was like alternating. It was like, you know, red green red

Red green red on the other like but it was like made a weird pattern and again things like why is inlet air temp red?

So you were looking at it from the lens of somebody that knows what's going on with the car

And most of the people that were looking at it

We're looking at it through the lens of like, whoa, that looks fucking awesome

They're probably not thinking about that stuff because they don't know that much about cars

Well, that's the whole that's the whole dichotomy, right?

Is it's like it's either willful suspension of disbelief or you're like or you're just like a car buff and you're like

It doesn't make any sense. I mean, it's like what you're saying about their gauges

Yeah, yeah, but you're saying that they weren't done very well

Well, again, it's like the inlet air temp is cold. Why wouldn't they make that one the green one and then the exhaust temp exhaust is hot

Why would that be the red gauge? No, you're right

Like that's a very minimum level of what i'm asking here. I'm just like in the mind of the guy on set doing it

I'm surprised that he was like inlet air red

That's weird. That's what would be cold. That's what would be good. The exhaust temp is

Yeah, strange. No, that is it. It doesn't have to make sense. It's just a tv car

But like that dash is whack-a-doodle-doo. Oh, I love it. I think it's so cool

It's weird to me that like when they would start the cars I saw on youtube

The like speedometer would be sitting at like 265 miles an hour or like 600. Well, those are retired

Those are old retired cars. Those are old tired kids

Trash and kit based on the retired dead models

Yeah

So there was also video games for boring drives slash

stakeouts

David Hasselhoff plays video games while they drive at some point in the show. Yeah, totally. What? He sleeps. He takes like whole naps

Yeah, well, they he like drives through the night and he sleeps all night. Well, it is a night writer. He's a night writer

He's night sleeper

So just the the

It's unusual. I'm not gonna call it absurd

You don't have to love it as much as I do obviously

Yeah, okay. I'm that's I I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it

You're thinking it though

No comment stop reading my mind

Get out of my head la la la

In this show kit is the superpower

As we've already discussed kit is like the hero of the show and michael is tough

And he can do martial arts. He went to vietnam. He used to be a cop like all that stuff

But kit is the one that always saves the day

You know, he's the one that's bulletproof. He's the one that's like

He's saving the day. I don't even think I see michael holding a gun

It's all very it's all very pg-13. Well, when he stopped being a cop, he gave his gun back

Yeah, but there's bad guys have guns. Oh, I mean he just does kung fu on them or something

Yeah, he just knocks the guns out of their hands. Yeah, and then wrestles them to the ground. Yeah

Seen it seen it five seen it once I've seen it a hundred times

So now this is where I want to this is we're gonna get into um kit as we know almost did not happen

And this story there's a lot. Oh, no

Oh my goodness, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen for this one. No way producers

No as far as Pontiac

Yeah, a lot of cooks in the kitchen for this one and i'm gonna try to keep it

I really tried to make sure that I got everybody right. Uh, you know, okay

So in 1982 Pontiac firebird trans am they were really struggling

And but Pontiac's still in business

You be quiet over there

Didn't we didn't we talk about that recently? You know, it's not in business Pontiac's done

You're being a smart ass right now. I remember Saturn's the one that's done

But I just couldn't remember if we ever did we ever determine the Pontiac's done

Yeah, I was done in 2002. Oh right with the firebird. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the whole thing not just a firebird

Oh, wait. No, that was the last year of the trans am it. Yeah, it's hard to believe when was the last year of Pontiac though

I think it was around 2008. Yeah, it was around that crash

Last year the trans am was 2002. Yeah

Huh, um, I think you're right. I think it might be 2012

Or something it was definitely around the crash over 16. It was after the crash

I think it was closer to 2008 than it was away from 2008

Might have been 2010

At this point it might have been 2011 to give me a born and death date

Yeah, 2010. Yep. Oh, I was right 2010. What do I get? The brand is 26 to 31, but then the division is 31 to 2010

No, that was it founded in 26 and 100 years ago

Oh, well good for you Pontiac

Yeah, so this is yeah, this is the 100 year anniversary of Pontiac

In 1982. Oh this year they were yeah, Pontiac came to life in 26

So this year is the 100 year anniversary of Pontiac. Wow

So should we do something? Well, yeah, you're you're commemorating their best car kit. Yeah, this is true

This is true. I just have this feeling Pontiac a lot of cooks in the kitchen

But I feel like maybe they're quasi aware that you do this kind of thing

You put one of your cars in a show and you are they had tons of stuff in shows. You're stuck with it

Like they will have to live with the reputation of this

So if people make fun of kit, they will make fun of Pontiac. Well, and this is exactly where that's exactly where it's going

Jim Graham the sales promo manager

He's the one that said no because he thought it was going to be corny and it was going to damage the brand image

Where do you get that idea? Well, he got that idea from a car a movie a 1960s flop called my mother's a car

And it was about have you heard of it? No, it was about sad and terrible

It was about a car who had the spirit of this guy's mom in it

But it's not christine

No, it's from 19. It's like a no, it's I don't think it was do you remember what kind of car it is?

No, but I know I know it was a flop

It didn't do well, but I don't I think it might have 38 olds

I think it was a drama or it was a comedy

Dramaty, I'm assuming. Yeah, maybe because his mom was dead. So there's definitely some sadness there

I mean, yeah, yeah

But president of Pontiac's west coast public relations agency

Eric Dahlquist was like, uh-uh this shit is going to be badass and i'm not letting this go

He was a part of the west coast

Advertising west coast public relations agency course a west coast guy wants to get with david hasselhoff

Yeah, he was like, uh-uh i'm gonna make this shit happen. So on april 16th 1982. It's just a regular friday morning

This dude calls him up

And he makes sure that he's talking to the president of the firm

This dude calls who this dude calls eric dahlquist. Okay. Yeah, wait, wait. Who's the dude?

Oh the west coast promo guy

No, he calls the west coast public relations agency and speaks to eric dahlquist who is the president

So he this dude calls up and he makes sure that he's speaking to eric dahlquist

And he says be at the pmt lot this afternoon at 4 p.m

There will be three black transams there with keys inside take them. They're yours click

Whoa, yeah

So pmt was pacific motor transport and it was the trucking company that took the cars from the van nye's

assembly plant to the

Dealers funny. I could have van nye's assembly plant. Mm-hmm sick. Yeah, I thought that was pretty sick

Too, I didn't know that I was like hell. Yeah, it's the ta's were built in van nye's. I think they were assembled there

But what is that? Does that mean built? Yeah, the parts could be stamped elsewhere trucked in and then built there. Okay. All right

That's where they that's where they put the specific line in for the platform. Okay. So yeah

And so basically there was a big, you know parking lot at the factory and the cars would roll out just minutes old

And then they would be stored until the trucks could come again. Awesome. This is cool. So this is where they're supposed to meet

Chuck

Koch the vice president of client services says it was all very cloak and dagger very deep throat

We still don't know who made the call

Eric didn't recognize his voice and the man never identified himself. Sorry. I just wanted to hear more about the deep throat

Yeah, you did so they don't know who called them and that's what they're saying

They don't know who called them and told them about the car

They were just like mystery man. And so they went there's three cars. So they go

Yeah, so they go but they forgot to take a third driver. So it's 4 p.m. No, they got doll quiz cars 4 p.m

Where's the five come from?

They got five guys for lunch, didn't they three four five? I'm seeing a pattern here five guys. What are you?

Five guys five g it's all coming together

So at 4 p.m. doll quiz coach and then a producer from the show so you're right. What's crotch?

Doll quiz

coach

doll quiz is coach

Dude, what?

Okay, doll quiz who is the the president okay coach who was the vice president?

Okay, and then a supervising producer from the show uh harker wade a lot of names in this

They show up to the lot

Oh me and doll quiz than harker wade were passing through

So it's 4 p.m. They're at the lot three black transams roll out of the plant

Okay

It was hard to believe then and it's even harder to believe now coach says the pmt people just parked the cars and walked away

Not a word was spoken. They didn't even look at us. That's union labor for you. We got in the cars and drove

We got in the cars and drove away. There was no paperwork. There was no nothing

It was as the cars didn't really exist. We didn't care. We finally had the cars that we needed

How this ended up happening to get around graham who was the guy that was like absolutely not this is not going to happen

doll quiz coach and

John kits miller who was the last annual you gotta be you gotta be fairly powerful to be like I can just disappear three cars

Yeah, no. Well, this is how it happened. Yeah. No for sure like three just off the like right out of the assembly

Like this is like to be in that position

You've calculated that you're like, yeah, I mean, I might get chewed out, but I can make three cars go

Yeah, we can just make these disappear. Oh nice cars, but

And put them in a show like that somebody said no to black cars

You know, they're in demand. I mean black tea. Oh, yeah, for sure

For sure

So doll quiz coach and john kits miller who was the latch and his own manager

secured they got the support from important players and like sales marketing

Engineering design departments and then plus some of the more influential car lots

You know as many people as you just mentioned it doesn't sound very cloaking. Well and the van nye's rather democratic

The van nye's assembly plant manager and the manager of pmt. So all these people were all going down together if this show fails

Going down together. They were really taking a gamble here really really putting everything on that night rider horse

And how it happened was the cars. So this is coach again the cars would have are you saying cock ko ch

Coach

KOT ch cock ko ch ko ch. I'm pretty sure that's cock

Are you sure?

Yeah, I think it's cock

It's probably cock cock cock cock

Gak this is him talking the cars would have to come out of dealer allocations

So there was some horse trading involved, but everyone agreed. Wow

Kits miller horses for a bird horses for a bird exactly. That's what happened

Kits miller then sent the paperwork to hogland who signed it as promised

He then submitted orders for three loaded black 82 transams

And that's how they got the first three who signed orders

Hogland did I mention who the hell is hogland hogland dogwist

Coke bill hogland was paniak's new general manager. Okay, that makes a difference in the story. Yeah, it does

A lot of important people would believe in it

Just the one dude was like a you know, sticking them on once they got the car

John chanella paniak's chief designer wade and kotch got together to discuss the look of the car

Especially the front end and once they got done explaining it to john

He just drew it up on a cocktail napkin and wade was like that's exactly it. That's what we want

And then the red light was based on a cylon warrior from battlestar galactica who customized the cars

That

You just say the paniak had something to do with the design of the car

John chanella drew the design the first the john chanella from paniak

Yeah, this is what hager designed the kit car

He designed he like yeah, I think so he just designed the transam

No, according to hagerty

They were at a meeting so the car wasn't designed by universal studios

It was penned by a detroit designer

They knew what they wanted and then john chanella who was into the idea of the transam being in this

Show because they were like this is going to invigorate the firebird and transam brand

He was into it and so he just did a sketch real quick on a napkin

And then i'm assuming since that was his sketch. He did a better sketch later

But he did a sketch of the nose which was the main part that needed to be what was wrong with these guys

Notepads like aren't that expensive for the salary they make

You know like just carry them all skin

Everybody's just drawn on a napkin. They ripped it pieces always a famous napkin

It's like they've got like a v5 pen and it's like a dagger just ripping the napkin apart

Just you're an artist carry a notepad

Do you think it's just for the flare of the story like maybe he did write it on a notepad

Do you think that he practices at home so that when he's got to do a napkin drawing like he doesn't tear it all up like

Yeah, for sure. For sure. That's what you would do if you were drawn on napkins all the time

Practice it. Yeah, because then you look so that when you do it people are like oh my then you look good. He's doing it. Yeah

Yeah, okay, exactly

Exactly. So this is not a universal studios

car this is a

Pontiac car

Yeah

I'm I mean they had the idea though

Wade Wade was bringing it from uh, what was what they say until a professional designer put it on paper

What's the guy's name? Um, watch a professional designer work and you'll always be like, yeah, no, you're right. That's exactly what I wanted

Because that's what they fucking do

Yeah, they sell you imagery. But yeah, you Detroit designer sketches a car and you're like nah, it sucks

Yeah, you're not gonna see that. Yeah, right

That's not gonna. Those guys are good. That is not why we buy their stuff

Yeah, exactly. Okay, go on. So then it went to john ward shop for modification

This guy john ward and it took six weeks to complete. I'm guessing that was all three cars

Then went to a guy named michael chef who was an independent studio designer

And he designed and created the interior with its computerized ash and all that stuff

And it turned out to be one of this most successful automotive product placements of all time

Really? Yeah, it was iconic like it turned into this very wildly popular

Iconic show. It was innovative. It was people like night rider when it came out. Oh, yeah

It was wildly popular. It was yeah, it was insane and they sold so much merchandise

It's always so tongue-in-cheek when people talk about it now because the car is a little bit hokey

That I never can tell if people like it or if they just like the camp

No, it was a big deal. Okay. It was wildly popular. I don't know like what it was on the uh,

Nielsen ratings, but it was it was a popular show that I wanted to know how your household did

I mean it only

Lasted for four seasons. So I guess maybe it wasn't that popular

But they sold so many prop like not only did the Pontiac did the firebird

Yeah, they sold a shit ton of lunchboxes sheets t-shirts. They fire that guy that didn't want to do it

Yes

No, they didn't I don't think so. I didn't read it. He didn't get any of the proceeds

I didn't read any. Yeah, probably not. There's like you get to do any comic cons

Like you don't get to do any of it. Yeah. Yeah, um, but you know who was doing the comic cons

Or just the promo shows was david hasselhoff. He was going around the country

He was talking to people whatever the kind of shows that they had and he was celebrating night writer and

Promoting the trans am and they gave him they gave him trans amps to drive while he was filming the show

And so he would be around town

Looking all hot driving an actual trans am

I watched

A j lino garage episode about this. Yep. I yep

Did you watch the same thing? I also watched this one. Yeah, I want to hear your thoughts on it

I mean, it's fun because first of all, it's supposed to be a turban car and j owns a turban car

He has the chrysler

but

Oh, so he laughs at yeah, so

Um, well gleno can fuck off

How dare he laugh at my right?

Let me get let me get let me get through my notes. Okay. You might get the chance to say that

Okay, that might be in my notes. All right. I'm not giving this a proper intro

So I watched a j lino youtube video j lino's garage. Yep. Okay about night writer because I was like, okay

I guess I gotta get my footing

Yep, see what's going on here. And so I took some notes

While I watched the video and I'm glad that you watched the video too because I'm I'm curious what you would think about it

But this is me. This is me going through and just sort of writing things down as I make my way through this video

Jay lino's garage guy who owns the car is possibly a nerd not sure

Has a friend who is also into the car could also be a nerd possibly

Jay lino ribs these guys kind of hard for being nerds

He tried to drive them apart by asking who knows more trivia

They insist they're a team

Jay pins the trivia guy from iowa as a single man

Uh, he admits he feels busted. Yeah, he looks busted. Yeah, the guy who owns the car is married

But she's tolerant of the car. Yeah with the owner saying she's wonderful

This really chapped my eye

This part really bothered me. Yeah

Yeah, I just

Jay lino's kind of a misogynist

Yeah, when it comes to women in cars. Yeah, he just it's always like, oh, she must be so tolerant

Oh, like because women fucking hate cars and like fuck off

Sorry, now I'm mad. Well

Yeah, sure go ahead. I mean, you know, I've always dreamed of the day that I'd have a show where I get to to bash Jay lino

Yeah, I mean, I like I like lino's garage, but it whenever it comes to has there ever been a woman on that show

Has a woman been on that show?

I can't I haven't watched it enough to know but whenever it comes to like talking about

A guy and his it's always the joke of like

Oh, she must she hates all your cars. Oh, she barely puts up with it. I think that's what's so good about that

I think you should leave episode

Where where he's like

Oh, I wish I hadn't said that about my wife because it's like they're all drinking beer and the guy's like

Well, if you had my wife, you'd be glugging back a few too. And then he's like, no

I wish I hadn't said that

Because that's what they do there. He's like, oh, you got the old ball and chain. I bet she hates your car

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh, she's tolerant

Well, like like a girl can't like nightrider a girl can't like like cars like well to skip down a few notes here

It is a this is my this is like a genuine marge simpson line, but these men are nice, but clearly they're nerds

Which is what?

Homer goes to college and they have those the nerds come home because homer gets them expelled

And you know and that like lisa and barter like their nerds dad and he's like no, they're cool and marge is like

They're very nice, but clearly homer. They're nerds. Yeah

I mean these guys are absurd nerds. They met in atlanta. No, I'm sorry my mistake

There is a kit convention

Yeah, well these guys are kit as they're like nightrider historians right and they meet in atlanta

Yep, and it's hosted by one guy

And I put in parentheses a bigger nerd

There were that this is where I have the thing says there were 20 in the show give or take a few

Five remain and these two nerds own two of them total

So they admitted to taking it too seriously, but they do it because it's fun

So I like that I can get down with that

But in the episode I noticed they're like they are driving the car down

Sepulveda and then they go into like canyon country

Which is a route that I used to drive through like you go through

That's where I would go through santa clarita to get over to ventura

And then you can see in areas they're in like santa clarita

So they obviously like I think his studio is in burbank or van nice maybe

And then they they it would make sense for them to cruise up to five and like dip into santa clarita and catch

That canyon country road is really good

Yeah, they're always he's always on a cool road, which I'm assuming is the same road every time

I probably pretty close

But yeah, you could definitely see where they're cruising around santa clarita and that road through canyon country

So the car talking

Really freaks michael night out

I think I watched a clip of like the very beginning episode

And it says uh, is kit the voice of mr. Feeney of boy meets world and it is like this is obviously sort of living

And I was like the so this clip I saw the car can take a man's blood pressure

Oh, I didn't even notice that and detect the presence of an unknown drug in a person's blood

Whoa, see these are things I haven't even I haven't noticed because I've only watched

19 episodes

It's all that it has a front scanner

Yep, that seems to be a big deal

The dashboard is bananas. Yeah

The rear blackout bar is pretty cool. Yeah. Oh, you mean the over the lights. Yeah. Yeah, it looks awesome

I think that looks good and the long nose is cool. Yeah, it does seem to have a slightly longer snoot

I don't know if it has a slightly longer. Okay. It definitely it has like the red scanner on the front

There's some different things, but I think that might be the nose

Now in another clip that I watched thieves try to steal kit

And they're in a 67 firebird that rips like it's got three tone blue

Uh-huh, and they think that kit will be like a total piece of cake to steal

I also have a note here that says

Hasselhoff's character is either wildly entitled or he's just a terrible actor

Like because he's on the phone with like Devin or whoever. Yeah. Yeah, Devin his boss basically

Yeah, which is like, uh, I have another note that says Devin is quite British. Yeah, he's he's not quite

He's absolutely through all the way, but it's not it's not totally clear

To me like just upon watching this little clip. So

All right, so I'm kind of like jumping around here in my things because I just wanted to get this note in that like

Just seems not very good

And then uh, the thief threw a brick at the window of kit and then it bounced off of the window and hit him in the face

And knocked him out classic kit yet. He continues to try to steal the car

So they see the car parked again and then just like apparently this time they just get in it

It bent the guy's lock pick also he had a lock pick in the lock and somehow that mangled the pick

He's like, yeah, of course he did he's like a bit my the guy kind of like the thief

They've kind of styled him like Richard Pryor or something. It's a weird kind of like

The thieves are always like bumbling and kid always like evades them. Yeah, so

Uh, they're totally freaked out about the car talking them with the demeanor of a movie grandma

But also he tells his pal that's with him his other thief friend

When he's like talking about the car talking and they can't figure it out. He's like, don't jive me brown

And then they're also okay, so the car starts driving itself

And the guy's like, why are you going that way? That's uptown

So they're scared of going uptown, but it looks like they're in Santa Clarita

Oh interesting. Yeah. Well, it was around LA. I mean they filmed it. Yeah, california

That's my other note here at the beginning is that he says he's going to silicon valley. That's where stefanie is

And apparently silicon valley is just past joshwood tree

Because they're like driving through a desert with joshwood trees and that's joshwood tree

Oh, yeah, my part of the desert barely had any of those

Right. Yeah. Yeah, you know, so like certain parts says like they clearly were over there like

Yeah

Weird, I mean just off the 10 basically

The car uses a slide whistle to eject the two thieves into a county sheriff car

Okay

Yeah, yeah, like onto the county sheriff car, right? Yeah. Yeah when they get thrown out again

Yep, it's a little more digital. Yeah a little bit not total like sideshow mel slide whistle, but it's like

Yeah, it has a little digital ache to it

And I think the reason why they're able to get into it is because michael left kit running

Well, he was yeah, well, he was talking to debon on the phone. Yeah, okay

And then I had this one clip that was titled police station release

And it goes into a video montage of his conventionally attractive generically blonde girlfriend

And she loves him

And then he picks up stefanie from jail. Are they the same person? I'm guessing they are

I don't know and he sort of strong arms him into going with him

Like she's like, what are you with and he's like the international group against crime and she's like, why would some group?

I've never heard of bail me out of jail and he's like, do you want to leave this place? And she's like, well, yeah, I guess so

I don't I don't know if I watch that episode. Yeah, but he's like he's had this montage

Like I think he knows her and then that's when I have my note devin is quite british. What's his deal?

Well, he's heads up the foundation

But was it why does why does michael keep saying the old man? Is it devin's dad? No, I oh, yeah

Okay, the gist of the story of how he becomes michael knight is he is on a sting operation

With his partner and some other cops undercover agents

His partner gets killed and then he gets shot in the face

And then this guy, I think his last name is knight who has a bazillion billionaire

In the 80s billionaire. So he was extra rich

He saves michael

And he he gets plastic surgery. So he so his face isn't recognizable

He saves him

And then he enlists so he is completely entitled

He enlists him to do this job and then he dies

And his whole thing is he said michael one man can change the world

That's the whole thing is not that these guys said they liked about it and jay lino was like

Michael knight is the one guy that changed the world. They're like, yeah

That's part of what they liked about it. He just he just made fun of these guys. No, I know he made fun of him the whole time

You saw it. Yeah, what do you think about that?

mostly it was the like when he was just dissing on like women like that part

Annoyed me like I've already said it was actually in my notes

I'm I took it out because I was like I'm talking too much

But I didn't care

I mean he dissed on the car

But I didn't care because I still doesn't make me like knight rider any less

And I like I don't need to listen to what leno says

You know what I liked about it

Was that it finally was like getting to watch somebody else get treated the way vanners get treated all the time

Like the scooby-doo stuff and all that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was cool. That makes sense. Excellent deep dive

I've got more though. I've got so much more

We've been talking about doing a tv car deep dive for a while tv movie car and we had already decided to split it tv movie car

Yeah, um, I mean obviously for me because gene did so many movie cars and tv cars both

So there's like a lot for me to hit. Yeah

I don't know. Maybe maybe we'll maybe we'll dig a little deeper into a couple more. It's one of my favorites

Yeah, I think we should do I think we should do more for sure

You had a really good clip of the motorcycle gang slicing the mural off of that guy's hand

Busting his big bubble windows out. Were they heart windows? They were heart windows. Oh my god

They're huge heart windows on the side of his van and like him and his kid are watching like heart broken

Yeah, it was pretty they like the guy rode his motorcycle up the front of the van

Yeah, and I'm gonna post that clip on instagram. Oh, yeah

Yeah, so people can see it. I really I hope that y'all

Have a reaction to this and I would love to hear your thoughts on it

Because I do have a lot more things to say and well, I'm going to compile people's reactions and then give the rest of what I have

My factual tidbits about the show and about kit mostly it's about kit and like how they filmed what they did and everything

Which I find fascinating, but I don't know I love that trans am

Love it trans am lover love it

We've got some trans am lovers out there. So we want to hear your trans am love, right?

Yeah, I want to hear some stories about it. We know that we know the caster just got a new super secret cool trans am

He wrote me about it and then of course, uh, you know, Gina's got hers. You've got your ta

Yeah, you know and and in the show it was trans am and firebirds. They had both

Oh, yeah, it was a lot of them actually were firebirds that they just dress up to look like trans there's some base firebirds and stuff

So yeah, but even kit was a lot of them were they weren't all trans ams. They were firebirds as well

Just dressed up dressed up. Well, you've been piled up. You've done been piled up. Bye

You

0:00

58:22

148. The Pile Up EP29: Knight Industries Two Thousand

Chevy Citation

Valiant

disposable car

X-11

Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet Corvair

neutral safety switch

overheating

hot hatches

Volkswagen GTI

Ford Fiesta

Honda Civic hatch

Dodge Aries

Plymouth Reliant

K car

Knight Industries 2000

Pontiac Trans Am

Ford Escape

self-driving

Pontiac Firebird

Pontiac's last year of production

100 year anniversary of Pontiac

Pacific Motor Transport

About this episode

Original notes