TV's Most Famous Car Stars

Ferrari Daytona Spyder

The Show:  Miami Vice
The Cast:  Don Johnson, Phillip Michael Thomas
Number Of Episodes:  114
Years It Aired:  1984 to 1989

"You've got to know the rules before you can break 'em. Otherwise, it's no fun." — Sonny

With its innovative style, Miami Vice put a groundbreaking spin on the popular cop-buddy format when it debuted in September 1984. Everything about the show screamed 80s cool and, of course, fabulously fast cars were part of the package.

	Don Johnson (left) and Philip Michael Thomas.

Detective Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) lives on a sailboat with his pet alligator Elvis. He 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.

The Daytona debuted in 1968 and remained in production for the following 10 years. Its legendary 4.4-liter V-12 engine was labeled in a 1979 issue of Autocar as "one of the fastest production cars of all time," capable of reaching speeds of 0 mph to 100 mph in 12.6 seconds.

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.


Ferrari Testarossa

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.

Miami Vice photo © Everette Collection

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