KnightCon UK 2012

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Videos

Journey to England (30th-31st August 2012)

From 31st August to 2nd September 2012, the KnightCon UK was held in Castleford, England.
This year, Project-K.I.T.T. e.V. was there with 5 replicas. We met on 30th August in Isselburg (Germany) to start a convoi to Rotterdam (NL) from where we went by ferry to Hull in England (10 hours ride). At the ferry, we met another K.I.T.T. by Roland from Holland. Though there was quite some heavy seas, we arrived safely on Friday, August 31st, in England and started another 50 miles convoi with 6 replicas to Castleford.
A the hotel, we met with Michel from Holland, who also was there at KnightCon 2011. He was here with his friend Lion, who later became the official photographer of the Con, so we got many of our pictures from him. Together we went to a car wash station, before preparing for the evening.

VIP Party (31st August 2012)

At the evening of 31st August, the KnightCon VIP Party was held.
Access was granted to holders of the platinum VIP tickets only, which have been sold to a limited number of 50 or 60 people. It included an exclusive evening with the VIP guests of the Con: Rebecca Holden (April Curtis from season 2), Peter Parros (RC III from season 4) and Michael Scheffe (Designer/Creator of K.I.T.T.)
Because of the limited number of guests, the party was VERY informal. The stars were very relaxed and took a lot of time for each guest chatting and posing for pictures. Only autographs were not wanted (there was an extra autograph event on the next day).
ChrisFTB from Project-K.I.T.T. e.V. presented a special surprise for designer Michael Scheffe: Because of the very nice meetings at KnightCon 2011, we decided to offer Michael the honorary membership at our club - including an official certification and his own club shirt. Michael was very pleased about this honor and acceped it with joy. The certifications were signed and Michael went away with his shirt, just to come back wearing it - being the only member with a golden silhouette on his logo.
The rest of the evening was also very relaxed with nice talking, tasty fancy cake (for the 30th anniversary of "Knight Rider") and a marriage proposal, which has been answered with a joyful "Yes!"...

The KnightCon (1st September 2012)

The actual Con was held on 1st September 2012.
Early at 6:30 AM, we arrived at the Xscape to get some good spaces for our K.I.T.T.s. The spaces directly at the red carpet were given to some English replicas this year, which happened to be luck for us, because there was no barrier around these cars, so there certainly were some scratches because of the crowd later. All other replicas were parked in one line behind barriers so they were protected very well.
Altogether therer were 18 K.I.T.T. replicas.
Prodatron's convertible K.I.T.T. got an extra place next to a DeLorean time machine from "Back To The Future". And there were also many other great looking Star Cars: A classic Batmobile from the 1960s, 3 A-Team vans, 2 General Lees ("The Dukes of Hazzard"), Starsky & Hutch, several Police cars, and so on...
At 11:00 AM there started a little show of several movie characters and lookalikes, who posed for photos with the visitors later...

Q&A Session & Autograph event (1st September 2012)

At noon the holders of the platinum tickets met at a small hall, where episodes of "Knight Rider" were shown at a big screen. Also, there was an exhibition of signed fan stuff and the Knights of England presented their new dash electronics.
Finally, the KnightCon stars entered the stage and said hello to the audience. Then the 30 minutes Q&A session started with interesting anecdotes from "Knight Rider". And also the fans were able to ask questions to the stars.
At the end, the autograph session was started in front of the hall at a SEMI decoration. Access was granted to platinum ticket holders only, so there were not that many people and the stars had enough time for every single autograph.
Personally, I got my trunk cover and a Con program signed by all 3 stars.

Meeting the cars (1st September 2012)

After the autograph session, the stars entered the car area. They were very interested in every single replica, asked many questions and took about 5-10 minutes time for every single car! Also there was enough time to take many pictures and get the cars signed. I also recorded some video messages from the stars for the fans of myKITT.de.
At the end, we all gathered around Prodatron's convertible K.I.T.T. for group photos, before we went back to the event hall, where Michael Scheffe held a very interesting powerpoint presentation about his works.

An evening with Michael Scheffe (1st-2nd September 2012)

So, that's it. Good night! - You could think. At least, it was already 9:00 PM. But after his presentation, Michael Scheffe came to the German club and asked, if we already had plans for the evening. He was invited for dinner, but after that, he wanted to spend some time with us! So we made an appointment at our hotel lobby.
Shortly after 10 PM, Michael arrived at our hotel, but the lobby was already filled with other fans, so we decided to go back to the Xscape, to enter a restaurant for some drinks and desserts with interesting talks with Michael Scheffe. Later, Peter Parros passed the hallway in front of the restaurant together with the organizers of the Con. They waved hello through the windows, until Peter showed up for a short time to say goodbye to us.
When the restaurant closed, we went back to the event hall and took some pictures at the SEMI decoration, before we finally got back to the hotel lobby to have some more drinks with Michael Scheffe. He was very interested in what we are doing in private life and also told many stories about himself, including a very special secret, that we will NOT share (*g*).
Around 2:00 AM, we brought Michael back to his hotel - in a convoi of 3 K.I.T.T.s, what made him very happy. I got the honor to drive Michael, who was very interested in our cars and asked many questions during the 20 minutes trip. What a great evening!

Goodbye and journey back home (2nd-3rd September 2012)

After the great weekend, we used the Sunday morning as long as possible at our rooms. When we checked out at 11:00 AM, there already were a lot of fans at the hotel and also Rebecca Holden, Peter Parros und Michael Scheffe came back to say goodbye.
It ended up in another 1.5 hours with many chats, fun and some good laughs. We took many group photos and when Peter mentioned that he has never driven a K.I.T.T. before (including the shooting times of "Knight Rider"), Prodatron offered him to ride his convertible. Peter obviously enjoyed the short trip and even jokingly tried to get away with the car ;)
After we said goodbye another time, Michael Scheffe came to us and invited us to have lunch with the organizers and stars. Still having time, we said yes. So we finished the weekend having lunch with the stars... before we said goodbye a final time and started our journey back home.

Conclusion

750 miles trip in K.I.T.T.
20 hours at the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull and back
5 days with the great Project-K.I.T.T. e.V.
Getting to know dozens of great new people... incl. the VIPs, that we never thought to take that MANY time for us...
Result: A phantastic weekend, that noone of us will ever forget! We'll certainly come back!
Many thanks to the organizers Steve Fawcett and Rob Ormondroyd - and to Lion R. Zeldenrust for his many great pictures!