The Old Man in Miami
Written by Jack Passey | 11th October 2024 | Car Tales
Power Boats, neon lights, synthwave and breasts barely covered by a veneer of bikini. All things synonymous with Miami. To most of the world one item trumps the rest. A white over cream Ferrari Testarossa, yes the only true star of Miami Vice. A car so cool it made even I roll up the sleeves on my jacket, a crime against fashion. But not in Miami.
We now don't think twice of the pairing, like wine and cheese or ladies of the night and Cocaine to stay relevant. But the story of how this came to be is about as smooth as the power boat sequence in the pilot episode.
Things do start with a Ferrari… sort of. Despite the white Testarossa being the icon we remember, it's not even around for the first two seasons. Not making an appearance Until season 3 in the episode “Stone's War”. In The previous seasons Crockett sported a black over tan Ferrari Daytona 365 GTS/4 Spyder, or that's what TV magic leads you to believe.
This particular car has more in common with a good old fashioned American yank tank, because it is one. The Ferrari in question was a replica built on a Corvette C3 chassis by Tom McBurnie of McBurnie Coachcraft, only examples were produced. As is the way with shows of that generation, one for glamor shots and the other to take a good beating during stunts. Producers had tried desperately to obtain the real article from Ferrari North America, but to no avail.
The reason behind this move is understandable, considering how expensive Ferrari cars were, even back then. While product placement in movies and TV shows was a successful marketing strategy even back in the 1980s, no one wanted to risk trashing a real Ferrari while filming Miami Vice. Let's not forget that the budget for filming a TV series in the 1980s was far lower than now, so using Ferrari cars could prove an expensive endeavor. Just to put things into perspective, Miami Vice had a budget of about $1.3 million per episode that had to cover the salaries of the actors, soundtrack, costumes, and settings. Today, TV shows have insane budgets. The first Game of Thrones (Season 1) had a budget of $6 million
Despite being a replica, this is where Many of us fell in love with the show. I know I certainly did. In fact, my ‘93 Eunos is the same spec. Black over tan with a Nardi steering wheel. There have been many drives with a cigarette on the go, “in the air tonight” blasting from the radio while getting on it during sunset. Just call me Crockett, however not sure the girlfriend would accept the nickname Tubbs.
Many miles away (while we enjoyed the spectacular car chases on TV) there was an Italian in his late 80's, simply known as the old man. Enzo Ferrari watched Miami Vice, and was not best pleased that the brand was being sullied by American scrap, especially with his badge on it. On a side note it's a funny image to imagine Enzo sitting down to watch the latest episode. The old man had had enough, formally suing the producers of Miami Vice (NEC Universal) for Trademark infringement.
The case was never taken to court, and quite what happened is unknown. It's believed that both sides settled on an agreement For future production, Enzo supplying two brand new Testarossa's for the remaining 3 seasons. Despite this, these are still not the iconic cars you'd come to recognise. Two early metallic black over crema, Monospecchios Testarossa's. Before they would be recognised as icons, both cars would be stripped back to bare metal and resprayed in the iconic “Cocaine white” named as tribute to the show. Now there is a reason they were painted, and no not just for 80's flare. Michael Mann was concerned about how the metallic black would show up in the show's numerous night scenes, and to combat this white was chosen as it would pick up as much ambient light as possible. Especially due to the filming deadline's, meaning there simply wasn't time to light shots.
The two 1986 model's of the Testarossa were made for the U.S. market, coming equipped with a 4.9-liter 12-cylinder engine that generated 380 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque. The engine helped the Testarossa reach the top speed of 180 miles per hour and race from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 6.1 seconds. The most famous of the two cars is chassis #63631, which now resides in Belgium. A much quieter retirement than Miami I would imagine.
Due to 80’s cop shows being notorious for writing cars off, it was deemed neither of the cars would be used for stunt work. Instead a customer DeTomaso Pantera was commissioned from Jean Claude Ratte, who is also the man responsible for painting the original cars. Due to the Pantera having the same wheel base the bodywork of the was removed while the V8 engine stayed, then fiberglass Testarossa wings and flares were mounted. Hey presto, you have yourself a stunt car. Unless Ferrari are involved.
Yet again Ferrari stuck his legal threats into the mix, as a replica was yet again wearing one of his precious prancing horses. However while this was escalating the show exploded, views skyrocketed, media attention at an all time high and the Testarossa was thrown into Its spotlight and iconic status. Seeing the success of the show, and the correlation in sales of new Testarossa's. The old man (for once) swallowed his pride, and allowed the filming to continue without interruption. With that the show plowed on. After 5 seasons and 114 episodes between 1984 and 1989, the show was done. It had successfully pushed the Testarossa onto the walls of millions of young men's bedroom's, becoming an icon of a generation.
The cars live on in collections, occasionally seen and rarely come up for sale. So if you already have the boat, the jackets and of course the alligator. I recommend buying yourself a black Japanese MX5 and a white MKII MR2. If you squint and play synthetic wave music loud enough, you two could be James “Sonny” Crockett.