Filed under: Tech
Guts of KITT's new red light bar revealed
As one commenter put it, Autoblog has become KITT Central lately. Two Knight Rider posts in one afternoon? Seriously. But we thought this was particularly interesting, so we're sharing. The Muscle Car Blog sat down with Pierre Hoffman, President of Auto Indulgence, Inc., which was the company tasked with recreating the iconic scanning red light bar for the new KITT. He revealed that a number of prototypes were considered, including one comprised of 288 LED lights that pulsed to an actual MP3 file of a heart beat. That idea was nixed, and the actual one used in the show car is comprised of 480 total LED lights, 240 on each side with three rows of 80 lights per side. It's hooked up to a custom circuit board that allows them to create any pattern, pulse or swoosh of crimson light they'd like. They also installed a dark tinted film so the lights can't be seen during the day, and another diffuser panel so that the light blends together when moving from side to side. And get this, Hoffman is considering selling some of the prototypes on eBay or his website. Hmm... the '99 Alero would look killer with this mod, no?
The interview is a great read, including Hoffman's tale of how his team failed to produce a satisfying prototype in time and the producers initially decided to create the light bar effect using CGI! Thankfully he persisted and at least one component of the new Knight Rider will be truly authentic. Thanks for the tip, Mike!
[Source: Muscle Car Blog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John R 1:43PM (2/15/2008)
Can I buy one that actually scans from left to right correctly?
From what I've seen the thing goes from the inside to the outside and then back again. What the hell is that?
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Benfolio 2:12PM (2/15/2008)
It's modern.
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Wally 2:21PM (2/15/2008)
You may want to hold off on attaching one to your Festiva kiddies; they qualify as red flashing lights, which are illegal in most states.
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Anthony 2:35PM (2/15/2008)
I've seen a scanning lightbar on a show car before (autoi actually makes and sells them already; obviously it'd be for "offroad use" only, but I can see it now... introducing Rice Industries Two Thousand for the R-blooded in you
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Elmer 2:38PM (2/15/2008)
It's Knight Industries Three Thousand not Two Thousand. There is bound to be some changes don't you think?
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Jason 2:54PM (2/15/2008)
Cheap side to side scanner bars were available from like Wal-Mart and Autozone back in the mid 90's. I'm sure they weren't LED back then, but they did look quite a bit like the original KITT's scanner bar. You could zip-tie them to the back of your grille. I don't remember if they were battery powered or ran off the car's power system. I had a couple of friends that had them back around 1993/1994.
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chrisdavis 2:58PM (2/15/2008)
My car has flashing red lights. They come on when I push that middle pedal thingy.
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Benfolio 3:11PM (2/15/2008)
They took all the flashy red lights off my car before I bought it :(
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RidinLow 7:46PM (2/15/2008)
Those would look pretty sweet embedded in my Xmas tree.
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Schumi 8:28AM (2/16/2008)
What is with Autoblog and KITT? Give it a rest. The car is ugly, the concept has been done, and the show will probably be bad at best. One or two stories about it would be fine, but to go on and on. Autoblog is great and would be better without KITT and all the stupid Mustang variations ad nauseum.
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Auto Mieten Günstig 3:31PM (2/22/2008)
http://auto-mieten-guenstig.de
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