A replica of KITT, a car featured in “Knight Rider” — a television series that ran from 1982-86 — parked and on display at the Volo Museum was hit with a $50 speeding ticket earlier this month, and from New York City of all places.
The incident, which museum officials say has since been cleared up, drew national and then international attention, the second such occurrence in as many months. Last month, on the 114th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, the museum’s Titanic exhibit flooded after heavy storms that week.
Following the news maelstrom, the NYC Department of Transportation sent out a brief statement in response: “NYC DOT’s automated speed enforcement cameras are extremely accurate, with 99.7% of all violations upheld. This violation was issued in error and will be dismissed.”
Jim Wojdyla, the museum’s marketing director, said it has roots going back 60 years. The Grams family, which still owns the museum, ran an antique mall that became famous for selling classic cars.
In the decades since, it’s grown into an eclectic collection of historic, movie and TV cars, film props, carousels and animatronics, although buying and selling classic cars is still the “meat and potatoes” of the business, Wojdyla said.
The California plate of the Volo Museum’s KITT replica. The accidental speeding ticket incident became international news. (Joe States/Pioneer Press)
In their collection sits a replica of KITT. “Knight Rider” starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, who fought crime assisted by “Knight Industries Two Thousand,” or “KITT,” a heavily modified Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with an artificial intelligence that could trade quips with Hasselhoff.
At the Volo Museum, KITT sits just in front of a replica of the “Back to the Future” DeLorean. On the 75-acre property of barns, displays and even a test track, there is also an Ecto-1, from “Ghostbusters,” several Batmobiles, various World War II trucks, halftracks and other unusual vehicles.
Wojdyla said earlier this month he was sitting in the office next to Brian Grams, who runs the museum side of the business. Grams was opening the mail and handed Wojdyla a speeding ticket.
“He’s like, ‘This is a new one,’ and hands me the ticket. I said, ‘Oh, that sucks, you got a speeding ticket,’ and he’s like, ‘Look closer,’” Wojdyla recalled.
The speeding ticket was from New York City, and the included photo showed what looks like a black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am — the same model as KITT — bearing a bright blue California plate with “Knight” in yellow, the same plate that appears on the car in the TV show.
The New York Department of Transportation sent a speeding ticket to the Volo Museum for a car that appears similar to KITT from the 1982 Knight Rider show with the same plates as the museum’s replica car. The incident sparked an online and news frenzy. (Volo Museum)
“It’s got to be a joke,” Wojdyla recalled saying. “We looked up the official New York City website to look up the ticket number, and it’s a legit ticket.”
They’re still not certain why the Volo Museum was the registered address for the fictional plate. Their vehicle isn’t even the real screen car, which is in a private collection, Wojdyla said. But after posting the incident online and then sending out a news release, they saw a “ton of reactions,” both online and in the news.
The story went everywhere in the United States, from Alaska to Hawaii. Then, it went international, Wojdyla said, with even newspapers in South Korea running the story. There’s been plenty of jokes about how it could have possibly happened. In the show, KITT can drive itself; perhaps their KITT took a drive on its own.
NYC DOT has since had the ticket waived after all the media attention, Wojdyla said, attributing it to a simple mistake. The unusual incident has led to some wild claims online, he said, with some theorizing it’s a marketing stunt. There’s an upcoming “Knight Rider: Declassified,” a multi-part documentary series on the making of the original TV show, and rumors of a movie in the works.
Wojdyla said they “thought for sure it was a gag” themselves when they got the ticket. But it wasn’t “genius-level marketing.” They had simply posted about a strange coincidence. Wojdyla theorized that the story had exploded as it touched on pop culture and car culture while being a funny, but largely harmless story.
“I guess there’s just a lot of crazy news going on right now,” he said. “So, stuff like this is fun to talk about.”