|
Cinema Vehicle Services actually produced 12 different "Eleanors" for use in the production of this film. None of the 12 were actual Shelby Mustangs but converted standard 1967 Mustang fastbacks. Of those cars, seven survived the filming in various states of repair. A 13th Eleanor, based on a real 1967 Shelby GT500 was prepared by Cinema Vehicle Services for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, but that car did not appear in the film.
Seven Eleanor replicas were made for use in this movie. Five of them were totaled during stunt sequences. Nicolas Cage and Jerry Bruckheimer kept the remaining two. Cage regularly takes Eleanor out for joy rides while Bruckheimer is afraid of driving her.
Nicolas Cage did most of his own stunt driving for the film. He attended the Bondurant Driving School in Phoenix, Arizona, Willow Springs (another car driving school), and the Bobby Ore Stunt Driving School in preparation for the film. He liked the race car driving school so much that he continued to pursue it as a hobby after shooting was completed.
The only true Shelby GT500 in the movie was given to Nicolas Cage's character by Giovanni Ribisi's character at the end of the movie. The owner consented to the vehicle being used as long as it was returned in the original condition. Every part that could be unbolted, was and replaced by a junked replacement part.
The motorcycle that Sway's rides in the movie when she offers to help is a 1999 MV Agusta Serie ORO (Gold Series). It's one of only 300 produced worldwide. Its a 750cc, in-line 4-cylinder engine which produces 125 hp and a top speed +175 mph.
Knight Rider:
Pontiac, who supplied the Trans Am for the series, found itself swamped with customer requests for black Firebird Trans Ams with T-tops, tan interiors, and red lights on the front bumper, just like the show car.
The "jumping car" was a hollow-fiberglass Trans Am
The "auto-cruise" car was a right-hand drive car, so that Hasselhoff could get into the car without cutting the scene (only on the last season).
David Hasselhoff and William Daniels (voice of K.I.T.T.) meet on the Christmas party after six months filming the season. Until that point, Hasselhoff hadn't seen the face behind the voice of the car.
The "auto-cruise" car was driven by a stunt inside the driver seat
Throughout Season 1, there is another car that appears regularly besides the Knight Industries Two Thousand and Devon's Mercedes-Benz convertible. It is a red 1974 (or thereabouts) AMC Gremlin X, possibly one of the crew's personal vehicles. It was never used in a "supporting" role, but only as a vehicular "extra", usually driving away from the camera.
In many of KITT's jump scenes, the screen jumps to another angle (such as Michael driving) before landing. This is because more often than not, the front end of the stunt car is totaled upon landing.
The second series saw the extensive use of miniatures provided by Jack Sessums for most of the really impossible stuff like jumping over trains, over helicopters, crashing into Goliath and "walking on water". The miniatures of KITT were made to 1/8th scale, modified from the existing commercially available Monogram kit of the 1982 Camaro Z-28 to the same scale. Almost everything done involving trains were miniatures built by Sessums and his crew, as it turns out Sessums was a model train enthusiast who had large scale garden railway models already built, and the production crews made a lot of use of these models which for the most part were ready for use. The same model trains were also used in "The Fall Guy" (1981) and other similar productions of the time.
Herbie Fully Loaded:
Herbie The Love Bug was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan painted in Volkswagen L87 pearl white. Under normal circumstances, the interior would be a matching white. However, Herbie's interior was painted a special non-reflective grey color so the camera and studio lights would not reflect.
Four Herbies were made for the rail-riding stunt in the first race. One was made to jump up the rail and two were made to ride on the rail.
Bourne Supremacy:
The taxi that Bourne drives during the car chase is a Russian-made Volga 3110.
Torque:
The "Jet Turbine" Y2K bike that Cary Ford rides to catch Henry actually exists - one is owned by Jay Leno. It's an MTT Turbine SUPERBIKE, powered by a Rolls-Royce Allison 250 turboshaft engine commonly used in helicopters.
| 