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It turns heads with replicas of famous Hollywood cars
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It turns heads with replicas of famous Hollywood cars

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When Damian Muzzi lines up his collection of cars in front of his house in preparation for his next car show, it usually creates a bit of a traffic jam in his quiet neighborhood.

That’s because he has perhaps the most unique car collection in the state.

And if you’re a fan of classic movies and TV shows from the 80s and 90s, you’d probably add to the bottleneck yourself if you were there.

Indeed, its five reconstructed replicas are immediately recognizable to fans of pop culture: the Bluesmobile from “The Blues Brothers”, KITT from “Knight Rider”, the van “The A-Team”, the DeLorean from “Back to the Future ” and the Mirthmobile from “Wayne’s World”.

Seeing just one of the cars can be a thrill, but when all five of them are together at a car show, it transports many of them back to their childhoods.

And if you happen to see the caravan of five driving down the road, you’re forgiven if you think it’s a hallucination.

“The first car that drives by might not catch someone’s attention, but as soon as they see the second car, they do a double-take and wonder, ‘What’s going on?’ , says Damian’s father August, owner of the Wilmington business. Angelo’s lunch and usually helps drive the cars with his wife, Terry.

Attention to detail

Muzzi, 45, always had car projects in his garage, working on everything from a 1968 Pontiac GTO to a 1935 Ford Tudor humpback.

But about 10 years ago, he bought a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am and began transforming it into the KITT, one of the most popular cars in his collection.

With five Hollywood cars now operational, his hobby has blossomed into a business called Delaware Star Cars (facebook.com/DEStarCars). Now, in addition to making appearances everywhere from Wilmington Blue Rocks games to car shows, including at the Hagley Museum and Library, it allows rentals so you can have one or more cars at your private event.

He was meticulous in making his versions of famous cars as screen-accurate as possible – within his budget, of course.

Muzzi hasn’t kept track of how much money he’s invested in his hobby-turned-business, perhaps intentionally. “I don’t want to cry at the end of the day,” he jokes.

He watches TV shows and movies over and over again to catch every detail, down to the three appropriate antennas on top of the A-Team van or the color of its fog lights.

Sometimes he can purchase the parts needed for these projects. Sometimes he has to build them from scratch. Whatever method he uses, he does whatever it takes to get the job done right.

“He’s super talented. I don’t know where he gets that from,” cracks Muzzi’s father August, who usually drives the A-Team van while his wife Terry slides behind the wheel of KITT. “He really shocks me sometimes. I look at what he’s done with these cars sometimes and all I can say is, ‘Are you kidding me?’

The cars are so precise that they can cause flashbacks for an unsuspecting passerby.

“Older guys become young when they drive past and realize what they’re looking at,” says Muzzi, whose DeLorean co-driver is still Stella, his German shepherd. “Their past comes to life. I’m a child of the ’80s, so I get it.”

Only two cars fit in the garage of his house and that’s where he stores the most expensive: the DeLorean and the KITT. The other three are stored in a private parking lot behind his house.

He wants to find a new place to live with his Delaware Star Cars and has a unique desire.

“I need a small house with a really big garage,” says Muzzi, whose day job is running his computer repair business. DJM Computer Repair.

He’ll need a huge garage if he ever buys his dream addition to the collection: a Freightliner FL86 cab to create his own Optimus Prime from “Transformers.”

The idea is not only to make it a centerpiece, but if he adds a car transport trailer, he could load his entire collection without needing to rely on friends and family to help him individually drive the cars at each event.

KITT from “Knight Rider”

KITT may have been its first “star car,” but it’s still a work in progress even after a decade.

It’s extremely detailed, especially the colorful, futuristic dashboard. And the parts are quite expensive.

But it was black when he bought it for about $8,000, so he was ready to start on the details, including the iconic red light in front.

Over the years, he used different tricks to make KITT speak in the same voice as the car in the series, originally voiced by actor William Daniels.

Originally it used MP3s with Bluetooth via smartphone. And now he has an artificial intelligence app on his phone that lets him tell KITT what he wants him to say, with the car repeating it almost immediately.

Muzzi’s friend Mark Burton, who also often helps him transport the cars, says he and Damian have fun with the new technology, usually goofing around while making someone’s day.

“We’ll just sit in lawn chairs and have the car say, ‘Hey, you in the striped shirt. Yeah, it’s me, talking to you,'” Burton says. “It’s hilarious.”

Muzzi even has a replica of the show’s classic blue and gold California license plate – “KNIGHT” – and he also has a legitimate Delaware vanity plate “KNIGHT” on the back, making it legal in the Street.

“A-Team” van

His next project was the A-Team pickup truck, which began its transformation journey as a basic white cargo van – a 1983 GMC Vandura to be exact, just like the one on the NBC action/adventure show that premiered in 1983.

In addition to the detailed antennas and fog lights, he custom made the push bar attached to the front of the van and gave it a paint job to replicate the original.

“It’s all these little things that a normal person wouldn’t even notice, but a geek who is interested in it would be like, ‘Oh my God. You know what? It’s actually perfect,'” Muzzi says.

The DeLorean from “Back to the Future”

Next came the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, which is the only car in the collection that isn’t screen accurate. And it’s voluntary.

Since it’s a rare, low-serial number DeLorean, he decided not to make the major modifications needed to make it match the “Back to the Future” look.

After going to a DeLorean car meet and hearing pleas from DeLorean enthusiasts not to modify the limited edition car, he agreed. However, he can sell this one for another so he can turn it into a real DeLorean time machine.

Even though the silver DeLorean is the only car that doesn’t look like it does in the movies – sorry, no flux capacitor here – it took him two years to complete.

“It sat in a barn for about 20 years before I bought it,” says Muzzi, who estimates there are only three DeLoreans registered in Delaware. “It was supposed to be drivable when I bought it and when I got there the engine was in pieces.”

For a nice touch, a classic JVC camcorder, just like the one Marty McFly carries in the film, is stored in the passenger seat.

Bluesmobile by the Blues Brothers

More recently, he completed his Bluesmobile, originally purchased as a yellow 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan.

The new paint of the police car intentionally gives off a slightly worn look to fit the film.

And the car dashboard looks exactly like the one in the movie, thanks to repeated viewings. It is strewn with a pack of Chesterfield Kings, an old crushed can of Budweiser, sunglasses and cigarette butts. He placed magnets under each object to keep them in place.

Burton usually drives the Bluesmobile, with the must-have comically oversized speaker tied to the roof with a rope, while wearing a black fedora and black sunglasses, just like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd on “Saturday Night Live” from 1980. film spawned.

When he stops at a red light, there’s a good chance someone will shout a quote from the movie at him.

“I hear: ‘We are on a mission for God!’ a lot,” he says. “And then I do my whole speech: ‘We have a tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark outside and we’re wearing sunglasses.’ It’s pretty fun.

The dashboard was signed by Belushi’s brother Jim earlier this year at a private summer party in Centerville after he made his entrance on stage in the vehicle before playing a set with a band featured under the name of The Blues Brothers.

It was a pretty neat scene, but it could have been neater. Aykroyd was also supposed to attend, but had to cancel because he was ill.

The Mirthmobile from “Wayne’s World”

The latest addition to Delaware Star Cars is a sky blue 1976 AMC Pacer with painted flames shooting from its front wheels.

The Pacer, not to be confused with AMC’s Gremlin from the same era, is the one Wayne and Garth ride in during the 1992 film “Wayne’s World” starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.

The Mirthmobile, as it is called in the film, is also the setting for the film’s most iconic scene: the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.

Inside, Muzzi has outfitted his Mirthmobile replica with everything seen in the movie: a cup dispenser with a classic Pepsi cup, a cup crusher, a portable compact disc player on the dashboard and even the licorice dispenser on the ceiling of the car.

However, it is filled with red thread instead of sugary material, as it would melt in the heat.

Do you have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and@ryancormier).