Philly.com have been talking Mustangs and Knight Rider with our star, Justin Bruening. Part of their Celebrity Rides strand, Justin tells them about his real-life ride: “I wanted a Shelby Cobra when I moved back to L.A. and I thought that Lexi [Alexa Havens, Justin’s wife] would buy me one for Christmas,” he says. “It worked out conveniently that I got a job where I get to drive one every day, so now she doesn’t have to buy me one.”
Instead, Bruening stayed within his new vehicular family, obtaining a 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt after filming on the Knight Rider pilot movie wrapped shooting. He admits that appearances did play a role in his choice. “Driving a Camaro around probably wouldn’t be that good,” he says, even though he has an uncle who exclusively drives the Chevy-made muscle car. Bruening considered buying a standard Mustang GT and fixing it up to his specifications, “but I looked at what I wanted to do with the car, I basically had just designed the Bullitt. It was already made, and it was perfect.” He did some of his own modifications on the car, but tried hard not to to mess with the Bullitt’s “unassuming” quality. “I didn’t get fuzzy dice or a TV that comes out of the rear-view mirror,” he says. Instead, he installing a large subwoofer in the trunk; and he had a Hurst shifter installed for aesthetics as much as anything else, though he does note that it’s “sacrilege” to drive a Bullitt with an automatic transmission.
When asked to compare his Knight Rider with the original, Justin says, “When I watched the show in ’83, it was great. But when I went back and watched Knight Rider reruns, that show would never hold up today. It was such an amazing show with such a great premise of a talking car. Nobody’s car talked. So that was the coolest thing on TV. And now we’re drenched in reality, so we need realistic storylines.
“We have a talking car, so obviously we have something that’s a little absurd,” he says. “But our episodes are based on realistic stories and K.I.T.T. has just become another actor on our show. It’s like a buddy-cop film.”
And how does he feel about K.I.T.T.’s ability to transform? “That’s pretty neat,” he beams. “He transforms not into tall robots, but into other cars. It’s a form of camouflage, a tactical advantage. He can transform into any other car, which is a neat aspect of the mission. Sometimes my character doesn’t even know it’s him.”