A little while ago I said I had something big to announce. Now I’m announcing it. Back when I was fifteen years old, I happened to pick up a copy of the Hemmings Motor News, flip to the Pontiac section for some unknown reason, and see a listing for a Knight Rider replica selling for $18,000 in southern California. Since I’d not known that building a replica of the Knight Industries Two-Thousand was even possible until that moment, I proceeded to obsess over the car for over a week before I was again capable of rational thought.

Over the next eight years I pondered, I imagined and I dreamed. I landed myself a beautiful ‘98 Trans Am, I finished college, I got married, I started a career, and I bought a house. Still, there in the back of my mind, percolating, was this crazy idea. That one day I was going to build my own KITT car. At $40,000, buying one already finished was out of the question. I knew I was getting myself into a hell of a project, but I was ready to make it happen—or at least learn from my mistakes.

For over three years I’ve worked to build up enough money to take the first crucial step toward building that car: Acquiring a base unit from which to work, a third-generation Trans Am that will serve as the host for the many augmentations I plan to heap upon it. And on the evening of Monday, September 15th, after much careful planning and discussion, I secured the immediate use of $5,000 for the ultimate KITT donor car. Auto Trader is gonna get to know my IP address real well in the coming months, I think.

Okay, so let me see…by this point, I’d guess that about 50% of my readership is cheering right along with me, and the other 50% is shaking their heads and asking, “Where did we go wrong?” I won’t expound upon that, but let’s just say that I came to a personal decision over the weekend. A personal decision to stop listening to conservative caution and to take a chance to grab for this dream I’ve had since childhood.

On Sunday my wife and I were out with some friends, with me having served as the driver on a road trip to Tampa. It was late afternoon and we’d been visiting open-air flea markets and shops all day; our feet were tired, and my eyes were heavy after having gotten up at 5 a.m. I was behind the wheel of my wife’s four-cylinder Pontiac Vibe, a “pleasant but unremarkable” car which had plenty of room to haul our stuff, but a serious dearth of power with which to get us all moving. And then, as we were finally headed home, I saw it: A beautiful, Gunmetal Gray Metallic ‘89 Trans Am GTA parked on the flatbed of a truck, for sale for $3,900.

The T/A was a hardtop, making it irrelevant to me (everyone knows that KITT can only be a T-top), but that car nonetheless brought to a boil these feelings that have been building up in the back of my mind for the last two or three weeks. Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been letting this dream of mine slip away. I’ve been entirely too complacent in allowing people to talk me out of it. And every time I got behind the wheel of the Vibe, I felt sad. Not because it’s not a nice car, but because it’s not an exciting car. Because I felt like I was letting life pass me by whenever I drove it.

Yeah. I guess you could say I take this car stuff seriously.

Originally I had written a six-page rant for this site, about how much my job sucks and how much I’ve let my life suck because I wouldn’t pursue my own dream. But when I got to the end and saw the size of that lament, I asked myself, “Why don’t you just do something about this shit? You’ve worked your ass off for this. Why haven’t you gotten anywhere?”

And here’s where I must thank my beautiful wife, who in all her kindness and patience decided to grant me the use of some of the savings we’ve been accumulating for the last three years to finally get my project off the ground. This is just a small chunk of that savings, and it will be replaced quickly, but I was not about to just take it without making my intentions clear. And besides, where was I going to hide another Trans Am? In the closet? There had to be full disclosure.

With my wife’s blessing, I now go in search of the finest third-gen that five grand will buy. The Auto Trader website is always chock full of third-gen Firebirds, Formulas and Trans Ams, but after combing through every single listing, I’ve decided to wait it out and see what pops up in the next few weeks…months, if necessary. If this project is going to be done right, I have to choose the perfect donor car. Building a KITT replica means you need very specific parts—interior, spoiler, hood, fenders, bumpers, rims, even the center console and gearshift knob…granted, most of the above can be swapped out later, but the more you start with, the easier (and cheaper) it is.

You might have noticed that this post is the first in the new category I just created, Knight Project, dealing exclusively with my quest to build KITT out of tinfoil and baling wire, as it were. Over the coming days, assuming I get some time, I plan to add a special page to this site detailing my progress, my choice of parts, and a log of milestones in the project plan. It’s not going to happen very fast, but just having a car to drive around—and imagine what it will become—is a good enough start for me.