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Detroit City Council vetoes Autorama stunt, objects to Confederate flag

Detroit's Autorama hot rod show will stage its 67th annual event next month, and wants to kick off with Burt Reynolds tribute. The plan is to re-create the Mulberry Bridge jump from " Smokey and the Bandit" using a movie-correct 1977 Pontiac Trans Am. But the Detroit City Council voted 7-1 to prohibit the jump. Why? Because the Trans Am's front license plate holder displays the former Georgia state flag, a portion of which is the Confederate national flag, and the city council doesn't like that. In the movie, Bo "Bandit" Darville was a Georgia driving legend, and the flag on the car was Georgia's flag at the time. Councilman Scott Benson laid out the council's position when he said that the car "still proudly flies a Confederate flag, which is a symbol of oppression, slavery, as well as home-bred American terrorism. So this body said we are not going to support that type of symbolism nor the audacity to support that type of activity in the city of Detroit." It seems part of the council's ire comes from the same event two years ago. A stunt group called the Northeast Ohio Dukes re-created a "Dukes of Hazzard" jump in 2017 using a series-correct 1969 Dodge Charger, complete with a Confederate flag on the roof. Benson said the stunt group "expressly said they would not display that [Confederate flag] symbol during the jump." Not only was it displayed, but when driver Raymond Kohn gave interviews after the jump, his driving suit featured the Stainless Banner on the collar. Seems the council has been grinding its axe in silence for two years. Now Benson accuses Autorama of "a history of supporting images and symbols of racism, oppression, and white supremacy." Autorama is certain to take place March 1-3 at Cobo Center. This year's show will have around 800 cars on display, along with a special exhibit of 17 low riders and a Batmobile built by Flint native Carl Casper. Even if the Bandit car doesn't make the jump, the Trans Am and other memorabilia from the film will be there. A spokeswoman for Autorama said, "We are continuing to work to try to resolve this with the city." Related Video: News Source: Detroit News Auto News Government/Legal TV/Movies Pontiac Convertible Classics Detroit pontiac trans am smokey and the bandit

This KITT replica sold at auction for $32,500

UPDATE: This 1987 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am KITT replica officially sold for $32,500. Here's hoping the new owner has a blast throwin' it into Pursuit Mode. Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: This isn't a perfect KITT replica. The original KITT used in the Knight Rider TV series was based on a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. The one you see above, which is currently for sale at auction site Bring A Trailer, is a 1987 model, and since it's a GTA edition, it has some extra body cladding that the smooth-sided television car lacked. That aside, most casual observers would probably never notice the difference, and even those who did (like us) are still likely to be impressed by the car's transformation. This KITT replica is powered by a 5.0-liter V8 engine mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. It ought to be fairly quick, though quite a bit shy of the fictional car's very fictional 300-mph top speed. We're not exactly Knight Rider experts, but some quick Google sleuthing suggests that the Knight Industries Two Thousand supposedly cost more than $11,000,000 to build in Hollywoodland. This one will surely command a significantly lower sum — as of this writing, it's been bid up to $18,000 with four days remaining on the auction. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. For those truly fanatical about accuracy, here's a video of one of the originals visiting Jay Leno's Garage for reference. There are several videos of the car that detail its modifications inside and out, but suffice it to say it seems to be a well-sorted replica. Here's hoping its new owner keeps it well clear of other KARRs. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

There's a 'Knight Rider' movie in development

James Wan, who has directed films from the first "Saw" to "Aquaman," with "Furious 7" in between, and produced even more projects, is producing a new Knight Rider movie according to a report in Deadline. Just in case there's a reader who doesn't know, Knight Rider was one of the seminal trio of iconic-car shows from the 1980s, along with "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Miami Vice." The series lasted 90 episodes that ran from 1982 to 1986, following the crime-fighting exploits of Michael Knight, a man who crusaded for justice after being shot in the face. Billionaire Walton Knight hired Michael to work with the Knight Foundation, where Michael helps develop the Knight Industries Two Thousand, a Pontiac Trans-Am with AI that can talk, drive more than 200 miles per hour, and could teach MI6's Q Branch about gadgetry. Collider described David Hasselhof's Michael Knight as "crimefighter by trade and wearing-a-leather-jacket-with-no-shirt-underneath innovator by hobby." The show made such an impression that there was a series spinoff called "Code of Justice," two TV movies in 1991 and 1994, a convention called KnightCon, and a series reboot on NBC that lasted for one season from 2008 to 2009, as well as stores full of action figures and models and literature, YouTube fan-made trailers and movies, and this wacky German-dubbed short "Knight Rider" film starring Hasselhoff. We don't know anything about the new movie's plot yet, other than that it's set in the present. T.J. Fixman, better known for now as a video game writer who worked on franchises like "Ratchet and Clank" and "Resistance: Fall of Man," has been attached to write, with a mandate to keep "the anti-establishment tone of the original." With matters still early in development there's no telling when the movie will hit theaters, and Wan's probably got his hands busy with the new MacGuyver reboot for CBS, anyway. Now that there's already been a Knight Industries 2000 and 3000, that gives us plenty of time to imagine — in a world where 200-mph hypercars powered by everything sprout like weeds and even Cannonballers are using military-like equipment — what would a Knight Industries Four Thousand possess? And would it be called KIFT? Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.