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‘Absolutely epic’ - Man spends £32k building his own Knight Rider car
Paul Nicholls, from Great Yarmouth, has spent £32k building lifesize replica of Knightrider car, popularized in the 80s on the famous TV show with David Hasselhoff. Picture: Victoria Pertusa - Credit: Archant
A man has spent £32,000 transforming his car into the crime-fighting KITT from iconic TV series Knight Rider - surprising by-standers when he drives it to the shops.
Paul Nicholls, from Great Yarmouth, has spent £32k building lifesize replica of Knightrider car, popularized in the 80s on the famous TV show with David Hasselhoff. Picture: Victoria Pertusa - Credit: Archant
Paul Nicholls, 40, from Bradwell, near Great Yarmouth, loved watching the 1980s show as a boy.
“The car was the coolest thing I ever saw as a kid,” he said
“It’s something you don’t ever forget, and as I got older I thought if could ever build a car like that it would be absolutely epic.”
Since learning to drive, Mr Nicholls has always had sports cars and it was after getting a BMW M3 he wondered how he could go “one better”.
Paul Nicholls, from Great Yarmouth, has spent £32k building lifesize replica of Knightrider car, popularized in the 80s on the famous TV show with David Hasselhoff. Picture: Victoria Pertusa - Credit: Archant
“I wondered what can I build that could be really good fun,” he said.
In May last year he bought a five-litre 1982 Pontiac Trans Am - the car KITT was based on - for £15,000.
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“When I first bought the car most of it had to be re-done,” he said.
He spent a year and a half - and £17,000 - doing the car up, converting it into his car of his boyhood TV dreams.
Paul Nicholls, from Great Yarmouth, has spent £32k building lifesize replica of Knightrider car, popularized in the 80s on the famous TV show with David Hasselhoff. Picture: Victoria Pertusa - Credit: Archant
“There’s so much stuff to do. Because the car doesn’t exist, you have to build it, and finding the parts is difficult, but it’s got to a point now where I’m pretty happy with how it looks.”
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Knight Rider starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a crime-fighter who drove KITT, an autonomous, artificially intelligent, talking car.
Mr Nicholl’s version also talks - as he has created a playlist collating more than 4,000 phrases, allowing the car to interact with bystanders and passers-by.
Paul Nicholls, from Great Yarmouth, has spent £32k building lifesize replica of Knightrider car, popularized in the 80s on the famous TV show with David Hasselhoff. Picture: Victoria Pertusa - Credit: Archant
“It tells jokes. It engages with people in the best possible way. I’ve had to go through thousands of different phrases and choose the best and most relevant ones,” he said.
Mr Nicholls, a digital marketer who also runs a jet wash business, enjoys taking the car when doing the groceries.
“Most people know what the car is, and most people are just like, wow,” he said.
“If I pull in at Tesco, people get their phones out and start recording it, because it’s a very rare thing to see in the area.
“I put it in the carpark and leave on KITT and leave the light on and I come out and there are lots of people around, taking pictures.”
Mr Nicholls has a YouTube channel, Funky Projects, with more videos of his version of KITT.
