David Hasselhoff makes no secret of the fact he’s a massive petrol head and the actor, known to millions from his time on Knight Rider and Baywatch, just took part in another Gumball 3000.
The 63-year-old reveals his love of the R8, Rolling Stones and breaking the rules.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
It was a little go-cart that I got when I was in the eighth grade. It was like a little mini KITT (from Knight Rider), it was black and I drove it in the street and built jumps and had crashes. And then the first real car was a tiny Corvair – they don’t even make them anymore.
DID YOU PASS YOUR TEST FIRST TIME?
I don’t remember – it was quite a long time ago. Probably no, ha! I probably had a bad time with the parallel parking. Nowadays cars can park themselves.
WHAT DO YOU DRIVE NOW?
I drive an Alpina, a 640 horsepower BMW and then I have an Escalade and a 190SL Mercedes from 1960. I also have about two or three Knight Rider cars in my garage – to be honest, there was never one specific car. There are so many of them around the world.
WHAT WAS YOUR DREAM CAR?
I drove an R8 in the Gumball rally and the reason I drove an R8 is because it’s a safe car, I was buzzing past everybody because it was raining and slick, you don’t want to go too fast on the public roads and you never know if someone’s going to cut in front of you and if they do, you know that car’s going to stop on a dime, it’s not going to lose traction.
So I prefer an R8 to just about anything because it’s fast and safe and fun.
WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO?
Just rock n roll, you know? I go back to the age of the Beatles and the Stones, anything from that era gets me going, but mainly the Rolling Stones to be honest.
ANY PET PEEVES?
Yeah, horns – but not in the UK. In America it’s getting to be nuts. In the UK, it’s pretty funny. I kind of break all the rules because I really don’t know what the rules are. Everybody kind of cuts me off until they know it’s me and then they go ‘Hi’, so I have a lot of fun driving
in the UK.
ARE YOU A GOOD DRIVER?
Yeah, I’m a safe driver and I think it’s important not to overreact. The best thing you can do is not react to some guy who is cutting you off or blowing the horn. You just don’t engage, you get through it and you go.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT GETTING BEHIND THE WHEEL?
I love the beauty of driving. I loved it when we came through Scotland (during Gumball 3000) – it was incredible. Being in an R8 and driving through a little town and seeing all these people turn out, it was just magic.
It was very emotional actually. I was thinking, ‘Wow, man – 30 years after Knight Rider, I’m in a R8, driving in the hills of Scotland and people are all outside applauding and wanting to take photos’. What a cool life, you know? I’ve been blessed.
Hoff The Record is on Friday nights on Dave.
