A black 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am dressed as KITT, the talking car from Knight Rider, is going to auction in Zürich on November 7 after being recovered with help from Interpol. The replica toured Europe with David Hasselhoff in the 1980s before thieves took it in the 1990s. Broad Arrow Auctions estimates the sale at CHF 250,000 to 500,000, roughly $302,000 to $605,000.
Tech news worth reading: Get Techpresso, the daily email with the most interesting tech news and insights, read by 400,000+ professionals from Google, Apple and OpenAI.
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
A 1982 Trans Am converted to KITT specification
The car started as an ordinary 1982 Firebird Trans Am and was converted to KITT specification during the 1980s. According to the Broad Arrow listing as Carscoops summarizes it, the work was done by Hollywood Productions using original Universal Pictures plans. The conversion includes a red scanner on an extended nose cone, blackout taillight lenses, LED interior displays and a yoke steering wheel, the details that make a Trans Am read as the show’s hero car from across a street.
Underneath, little changed from the showroom car. The engine is a 305 cubic inch (5.0-liter) V8 rated at 165 horsepower for 1982, paired with a mandatory three-speed automatic, and Carscoops puts the run to 60 mph at more than nine seconds. Carscoops also stresses that this is a replica that never appeared on television, so its value comes from the Knight Rider tie-in and its documented history rather than from screen time.
For readers who missed the original run, Knight Rider aired from 1982 and starred Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a crime fighter who drove KITT, a Trans Am with a voice and a personality. The show used the third-generation Firebird, which is why a 1982 car is the correct base for a faithful copy. Hasselhoff’s link to the car in this sale is therefore a promotional one: the car was part of his road show for a music career in Europe, standing in for the character during concerts and television appearances.
From Night Rocker tour car to Swiss record label
The history is where the Hasselhoff name enters. Carscoops reads the car’s documentation as showing that David Hasselhoff used it to promote his 1985 album Night Rocker at concerts and television appearances across Europe. The car was later sold to a Swiss record label, which is how a Trans Am built for an American series ended up in the Alpine country where it is now being offered.
The theft came in the 1990s, and the recovery involved Interpol. Carscoops credits Interpol with the recovery in its coverage, though its text says only that the car was recovered with help from the agency. The article does not say where the car was stolen, the exact date of the theft or which officers found it. Interpol is an international police cooperation body that circulates notices and coordinates between national forces, so the exact role it played here is the detail the listing leaves out. The listing also does not say whether anyone connected to the television show took part in the search.
When the car came back it was missing some bespoke KITT dashboard electronics. Those parts have since been replaced, and the car now carries a voice box, dual monitors, an overhead console and an illuminated accelerator pedal. A buyer therefore gets a car whose most recognizable interior pieces were rebuilt after the recovery, a point that bidders will weigh against its provenance.
The Zürich estimate and a $300,000 comparison
The sale takes place on November 7 in Zürich, run by Broad Arrow Auctions as a catalog lot for the tour car, with the estimate set at CHF 250,000 to 500,000. Carscoops converts that to about $302,000 to $605,000. The range is wide, which reflects how few comparable sales exist for a replica rather than for a screen-used car.
The nearest comparison Carscoops offers is a KITT owned by Hasselhoff himself that sold for $300,000 in 2021, covered in an earlier Carscoops report. The Zürich car’s low estimate sits just above that price and its high estimate nearly doubles it, a premium that rests on the tour history and the recovery story. Collectors who want an original are limited as well: a separate Carscoops item covers Jay Leno driving one of five original KITTs, and a 2018 piece looks at a far cheaper accurate replica build.
What remains unanswered is the identity of the original thieves and the path the car took between the 1990s theft and the recovery. Neither Carscoops nor the listing it summarizes names them, and no Interpol statement was available to confirm how the case was handled. The first public result is due on November 7, when the hammer price will show whether the story adds up to the top of the estimate or the bottom. The full account of the recovery currently rests on that single report and the Broad Arrow listing behind it.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
Tech news worth reading: Get Techpresso →
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
More from Morning Overview
- Tropical Storm Rachel is dumping up to 12 inches on four Mexican states on its way to major hurricane strength
- The FTC says Lens.com doubled the price shoppers saw in Google ads
- Common allergy, bladder and sleep pills tied to sharply higher dementia odds
- NOAA now gives this winter a 75% chance of the strongest El Nino since 1950
