Burbank (CA) - NBC Universal this morning introduced to the press the new KITT, the Knight Industries Three Thousand. It’s a Mustang-based successor to the previous KITT, Knight Industries Two Thousand. This Shelby GT500KR will take its turbo boost center stage in 2008. And, just like its illustrious ’80s predecessor, it talks.

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ImageKnight Rider, the TV series that shoved David Hasselhoff and a talking Pontiac Trans Am into our collective consciousness, is coming back in the form of an updated two-hour TV movie early next year. The new movie stars Justin Bruening as "Mike Tracer" a 23-year-old Iraq war veteran who, as it happens, is also the son of Michael Knight, the character played by Hasselhoff in the original series.

Comedian Will Arnett will replace William Daniels as the voice of the new KITT. He played George "Gob" Bluth II on Arrested Development, though he probably most well known as Stranz Van Waldenberg from the comedy Blades of Glory.

The new KITT operates in several different drive modes like the original. When in "Attack" mode, this new one gains armor, scoops, and even manages to change its wheel color. Some key aspects of KITT remain familiar, however, even with the new Shelby Mustang design. It will remain in black, for example. And what KITT would be complete without the sweeping red light array up front ? The new KITT has a revamped one as well. Woooosh.

Read more ... Edmunds Inside Line.