Become the Knight Rider
When Knight Rider first aired on NBC in 1982, the real star was not Michael Knight, played by David Hasselhoff, but a black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am called K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Two Thousand). This Firebird is one of a series of faithful replicas that accompanied Hasselhoff on TV appearances, concerts (his “Night Rocker” tour) and promotional events across Europe.
The current owner acquired this American icon in October 1999, together with archive photos showing the K.I.T.T. clone alongside Hasselhoff. The car runs and drives, but its many gadgets mean it is not road-legal. For any (film) museum or collection of Hollywood memorabilia, however, it would be an absolute gem.
Cobra in Italian snakeskin
Conceived as a possible successor to the Cobra, the AC 428, clothed by Frua in Turin, was first unveiled as a convertible at the 1965 Earls Court Motor Show in London. The coupé followed in Geneva in March 1967. This silver fastback is one of 51 built over seven years and was delivered new to the USA in 1969 as one of only a dozen left-hand-drive examples.
Power comes from a seven-liter Ford V8. Disc brakes all around, independent suspension, the typically American horseshoe automatic shifter and a fantastic array of gauges set apart the coupé, which is based on the Cobra Mk III chassis stretched by 15 centimeters. It is a unique and rare blend of British GT, Italian design and American muscle.
Big cat with seriously sharp claws
Harry Metcalfe is a British motoring journalist and road tester, best known as the founder of Evo magazine and the host of the YouTube channel Harry’s Garage. This spectacular Jaguar XE spent eight years in his private collection. It is one of 200 cars, all left-hand drive, that Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations division turned into DTM-worthy high-performance sedans.
Hand-built and fired by 600 PS from a supercharged V8, the XE SV Project 8 easily reaches 320 km/h. In 2019, one set a new lap record for midsize sedans at the Nürburgring with a time of 7:18.36 minutes. Metcalfe’s big cat has covered around 32,000 kilometers and is one of the 27 (out of 35) UK cars that kept their rear seats. It is also the only one finished in the vivid shade of Merlin Purple.
The Scorpion that came from the cold
This Lancia Scorpion Spider is waiting for its next owner in Helsinki. Its unusual round headlights and bumpers with rubber overriders mark it out as one of 1,801 examples shipped to the USA between 1977 and 1978. There, unlike the Beta in Italy, it could not be called Montecarlo because Chevrolet was already using the name. Scorpion it was, then, as a tribute to the emblem of Abarth, Fiat and Lancia’s brilliant development partner.
Powered by a mid-mounted 1.8-liter Lampredi engine, the Spider arrived in Finland around the turn of the millennium with just under 30,000 kilometers on the clock. This summer, it was restored for a second time and repainted in its original Verde Metallizzato.
A barn find with VIP status
This unassuming Mercedes was found on a farm in Lower Austria. Twenty-five years and 260,000 kilometers have left their mark on the C 230 Kompressor. Normally, that would mean a one-way trip to the scrapyard, despite automatic climate control, xenon headlights and the elegant Emerald Black Metallic paint.
That would be the case, were it not for its first owner, one Nikolaus Andreas Lauda, who registered the wagon in Grinzing, Vienna, on August 9, 2001, and kept it for two years. “Niki Nazionale” was followed by two more owners, and the fourth now faces the question: what to do? Our answer is clear. The famous first owner alone rules out the crusher. Even if it were the first C-Class wagon ever to receive a full restoration, it would be worth it!
