WATCH: Maltese Car Collector Boasts Fleet Of Replica Vehicles From Some Of The Most Popular TV Series And Films
Jesmond Caruana is not your average car enthusiast. What started out as a dream to one day own the car from his childhood favourite TV series Knight Rider ended up with the Maltese man finally having the beautiful black Pontiac in his garage… along with five other iconic vehicles.
Talking about his passion on local car programme Paqpaq, Jesmond showed off his six-car fleet, all of which will be very familiar to fans of 70s and 80s film cars. There’s Knight Rider’s KITT of course, but there’s also The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazard, the DeLorean from Back To The Future and the Gran Torino from Starksy & Hutch. As for the hit A Team, then, Desmond managed to bag two vehicles; the ‘FACE’ Corvette and the popular GMC van.
Obtaining the vehicles and giving them the modification treatment necessary to turn them into their famous cousins was not enough for Desmond. “Once I had the cars, I felt that the next step would be to meet the people associated with them,” he said, going on to explain how he actually ended up meeting the famous actors and actresses who played the famous roles alongside his favourite cars.
He even shared clips of himself meeting cult legend David Hasselhoff, who signed his leather jacket… along with the car’s futuristic console, of course. He even met Rebecca Holden, who played the part of the mechanic for ‘the world’s first smart-car’.
When Jesmond found out that Dirk Benedict (who used to play Lieutenant Templeton Arthur Peck, or simply Faceman in The A Team), was coming to Malta, he actually went the extra mile of obtaining a 1985 Corvette like the one Benedict’s character used to drive.
“It ended up arriving just 10 days before the event,” Jesmond said, retelling the lucky story of how he was on holiday in the UK and was informed that the car was up for sale just a two hour drive away from where he was staying. Eventually, as with the other cars, Jesmond did get the protagonist’s signature, thanks to a very impressed Benedict who spent four days with Caruana and his family.
Jesmond finds a great deal of support from his wife Joanne, who has even encouraged him to buy some of the cars in his fleet. You’d think six would be more than enough for Jesmond, but there are plans for more on the horizon.
“You already know there is another one waiting,” he said on his Facebook post. “Should be the last one now.” Although of course, knowing Jesmond, he might just end up getting even more.
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