Knight Rider, Airwolf, Street Hawk, Automan...

... and the TV version of "Blue Thunder."

Dave P. and I were talking about other "super car" shows from the '80s. It was a great, great time.

Everybody remembers "Knight Rider," which I suppose was the most succesful of the bunch. I still remember everything about that show:
What did KITT stand for? Knight Industries Two Thousand, that's easy.
How about KARR, KITT's evil nemesis? Knight Automated Roving Robot.
Seriously, I have vast areas of my brain devoted to this junk.
What upgrade did KITT get in the final season? A retractable convertible top (still bullet-proof, thank goodness).

Airwolf was the super-helicopter, piloted by the indominitable Jan-Michael Vincent (can anyone explain why he hasn't been given a celeb-reality show yet?), that shot down a different 1950's era jet fighter every week. Why? Who knows?

Street Hawk was a super cycle that -- for reasons that were never really made clear -- always had to jump out of a building to get started. Couldn't afford the garage door, maybe? Not to be confused with the Super Cycle from CHiPs, this one had machine gun and lasers.

And last, but absolutely not least, was Automan. Which was a holographic superman who could only come out at night, when the power grid wasn't under a big load - it took all kinds of energy to make him tangible. He could create holographic cars and planes, too.

Am I missing anything? Vehicles in the Eighties were awesome. The A-Team van, the Love Boat, the Porsche from "Risky Business," some of the more ridiculous James Bond cars -- it was good times, all around.