Finding the Leak, Extra Rage Edition:

This is what happens when you don’t have a clear answer for a problem.

What you see before you is the remains of the dash of Mom’s 2000 Dodge Caravan Sport. It’s been in the family since new. Since 2016, it has been inconsistently leaking rain water in the passenger footwell area, leaving me to vacuum it up and use newspaper to dry what’s left for the following days. Confusingly, it fixed itself. Years passed and the Caravan is still with us. And the leak came back. By this time, I’ve finally found a good shop and decided to let them take care of it. They did. I was told that the plastic housing of the A/C box (that holds the blower motor, blend doors, some ducting, stepper motors, etc.) was cracked and the best course of action was to close the A/C door leading outside and just run the A/C in recirculating mode.

I accepted this.

Then the leak came back.

I got angry.

The Knight Industries Two Thousand – K.I.T.T.- Behind the scanner

8 years ago, on CarLustBlog.com, I not only wrote about Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T., but also about how he was made real through the magic of 1980s television. It’s been edited and expanded upon slightly, but essentially the same. In the years since this was first published, hardcore fans like the likes of the Knight Rider Historians have upgraded and expanded from their previous online efforts, becoming ambassadors of the franchise. They’ve delved deeper in the behind-the-scenes action of the show, so this post might be a little dated as I’ve yet to cross-reference with a lot of their material. Feel free to comment below.

I liked Knight Rider so much that I wrote not one but two posts about its star, the Knight Industries Two Thousand- K.I.T.T. for short. The first one had to do with K.I.T.T. the character; this one is how that character came to be. Just like the first post, websites and blogs have been made and books have been written about the making of K.I.T.T., the stunts and how they were made, so I’ll try to keep those details to a minimum, too. Which was easier said than done.

Chrysler Turbine

This, gentle readers, was my very first post at the old Car Lust, way back on August 12, 2008. Not sure why I picked this one, but I vaguely recall that I’d seen something on TV about it and thought “Well, that’s certainly Lustable”. In a sense, a good chunk of my posts thereafter used this as something of a baseline as how one might examine certain ‘failed’ cars. I’ll have some thoughts along these lines at the end; in the meantime, I’ve done a bit of editing but this is substantially the same post.

Chevrolet El Camino/Ford Ranchero

Ladies, you may stop reading right now. Avert your eyes, if you must, because this post is about men.  Real men. Manly men. Men who do manly things in manly ways, etc. Men who mow their own lawn, fix a leaky faucet, and change their own oil. Men who brew up a pot of battery acid every morning and call it coffee. Men who use after-shave, not “post-shave skin conditioner with aloe, seaweed extract and Vitamin E with a subtle scent of coriander.” Men who wouldn’t touch a quiche with a 10-foot fork. Men who only drink whiskeys that are named after animals or people. Men who cry only when their father or best hunting dogs die. Men who frankly, my dear, don’t give a damn. Men who know every manly cliché from the last 30 years and aren’t afraid to use them.

These men drive a particular type of car. A car that drips testosterone like a leaky gasket. A car that says, “I know what I need, and this is it.” These type of men know that they’ll never drive the length and breadth of the Kalahari, but they will sure as hell be hauling 4-by-8s home from the lumberyard (note: not the “home improvement store”). Men who don’t need fine Corinthian leather or a station wagon dressed up as an Urban Assault Vehicle. No, this is the Steve McQueen of cars: no entourage, no workout video, and no frou-frou drinks with little umbrellas.

Yeah, I know, the lack of a Y-chromosome doesn’t disqualify anyone from appreciating these fine cars, let alone owning or driving one. There are no doubt many men who just don’t have the …… good taste to rate this kind of car, and plenty of women who do. It’s far more about the mindset than which restroom door you come out of.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Is he talking about one car or two?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. Read on, but only if you feel lucky, punk.

The Knight Industries Two Thousand – K.I.T.T.

Knight Rider aired on September 26, 1982. It’s only fitting that I bring out my old K.I.T.T. post, originally published on CarLustBlog.com 8 years ago. Given that the Knight Rider fandom is alive and kicking (and growing!), I’m proud to say that almost no hyperlinks were replaced. Aside from grammatical editing, this post is the same.

2022 marked the 40^th anniversary of many things. This date took me by surprise when I found out that movies like Tron and The Last Unicorn (both Jeff Bridges flicks. Wild, huh?) and albums like Yaz/Yazoo’s Upstairs at Eric’s, A Flock Of Seagulls’ self-titled album and Rush’s Signals turned 40. The youngest of the Checker A11/Marathon taxi cabs as well as the original Suzuki Katana also turned 40 their odometers. Other 1980s wheeled-sweethearts turned 40, the MkII Supra and 3^rd-gen Celica, the S-series trucks and the 3^rd-gen Pontiac Firebird… and Camaro. But out of that model year, there’s one 3^rd-gen Firebird and 1980s icon that also reached this not-insignificant cornerstone: The Knight Industries Two Thousand– K.I.T.T. for short.

Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that the body, the hardware, is called the Knight 2000, while the computer A.I. itself is K.I.T.T., but to avoid confusion, for this post K.I.T.T. is the whole machine, as it should be. Websites and blogs have been made and books have been written about Knight Rider and K.I.T.T., with lists of all of his gadgets, including those one-offs seen only once, so I’ll try (emphasis on the word ‘try’) to keep those details to a minimum.