The Show: Miami Vice
The Cast: Don Johnson, Phillip Michael Thomas
Number Of Episodes: 114
Years It Aired: 1984 to 1989
Detective Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) drives a black Ferrari Daytona Spyder that gets to show off the muscle of its V-12 engine in nearly every episode. However, the show didn't use an actual Daytona Spyder, which was an extremely rare car. Instead, the producers settled for using a stunt car that had been created from a Corvette chassis, using body panels and hardware to mimic the Ferrari.
After two seasons, Ferrari decided to capitalize on the publicity from Miami Vice and
supplied the show with the real thing, delivering two Testarossas, a model that the
automakers designed specifically to target the U.S. market. Stunt cars still had to be built for filming some of the more aggressive chase scenes, and Robert Motor Co. created a model car that more closely resembled the Testarossas than the stunt cars used to mimic the Daytona.
The Testarossa had a sticker price of $87,000 when it was introduced in 1985. It boasted a 5.0-liter flat-12 boxer which could propel the car from 0 mph to 62 mph in 5.8 seconds. The switch from Daytona to Testarossa is incorporated into the storyline of the show. When the 1986 season started, Crockett watches his beloved Daytona get blown up by a
gunrunner, who happens to drive a black Testarossa. In the next episode, he receives the confiscated Testarossa, now painted white. Ferrari sent the cars in black, but they were repainted white to be more visible in nighttime scenes.
