Brian Boyce
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Two Terre Haute drivers hope to help find missing children while cruising the country in a replica of K.I.T.T., the computerized Trans Am from 1980s television show “Knight Rider.”
“This car’s about 90 percent complete,” owner Darrin Cooper said Sunday afternoon outside his business, Dynamic Auto Restoration at Third and Lafayette avenues. The black Pontiac Trans Am with a “Knight 3” license plate will be among this year’s participants in the 2010 Fireball Run Adventurally and Race to Recover America’s Missing Children.
Cooper explained that the “3,500-mile road rally” will run from its Sept. 23 launch in Henderson, Nev., through Oct. 2 in Galena, Ill. While crossing the country in cars ranging from Lamborghinis, Mustangs and even a DeLorean modeled after the time-traveling one in “Back to the Future,” the group will distribute posters, flyers and information about missing children.
For Cooper and his driving partner, Andrew Lee, the assigned child is Tiaj Smith, last seen Aug. 10, 2008 in Gary. According to the poster they’ll be distributing in towns along the route, Smith is believed to have been abducted by her father.
Cooper drove his Knight Rider car in the 2008 event and said 20 children were found as a result of that year’s efforts, which include meeting with the mayors in towns along the route, as well as law enforcement.
“The attention this thing gets is extraordinary,” he said of his car, which even as he was speaking had a seemingly magnetic effect on neighborhood children that Sunday afternoon.
With a flashing red light across the front, the car has a custom-made, computerized dashboard and cameras in both ends, which produce a surrounding display on a screen inside. The computer also features programmable voiceovers which allow the car to speak to people about the missing children.
“Oh yeah, it’s all functional,” Cooper said of the various computerized diagnostics on the dashboard.
Sponsored in part by NBC/Universal Studios, the Fireball Run might eventually become a reality television show, Cooper said.
Cooper and Lee are currently soliciting sponsors for their team, raising money which will help offset the cost of fuel and travel.
“You have a 383 stroker engine in there,” Lee said of the Trans Am, noting that it’s not the most fuel-efficient in the auto world. “Daily, you drive a couple hundred miles.’
In addition to getting decals placed on the car, sponsors can also get in on the talking car bit with computerized voiceovers, Cooper said. “This car will look like a NASCAR when we’re done with it,” he said.
Meanwhile, DeOnte Sparks, 11, and Anthony LePorte, 10, saw the flashing red lights of the old 1980s-era Trans Am and came over for a closer look. Checking out the inside of the car while Cooper spoke, they liked what they saw.
“I like that car,” Sparks said, snapping pictures with his cell phone camera. “Especially the steering wheel,” he said of the customized mechanism.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
