Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City + click to enlarge | view slideshow >

A full moon hangs low, out over the ocean, on the left side of the TV. A fast, yellow exotic careens wildly along Ocean Beach, a Laura Branigan song blaring from its radio.

The car's driver runs red lights, travels the wrong way against traffic, speeds, smashes into stationery objects, runs over pedestrians. Then, the car explodes.

Such are the life and times of a typical automobile in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the Miami Vice-esque variation of the phenomenally popular crime-spree series.

In GTA titles, players follow plotlines, take on missions or meander at their own pace, either taking in the sights and sounds of various neighborhoods or, more likely, killing, maiming and otherwise menacing to their heart's content. And as the game's title suggests, stealing cars is a key to success.

Like many other titles where damage to the vehicles is the rule, the 120 or so vehicles in Vice City don't carry the names or exact specifications of real-world production vehicles. But the design and performance influences are apparent across the game's vast fleet of car-and-truck-jackable vehicles.

And since this is Grand — not Petty — Theft Auto, we figured we might as well select an exotic, expensive vehicle every bit as showy as Miami Beach itself. Enter, then, the 1986 Lamborghini Countach — aka, the "Infernus."

While a Lamborghini Diablo would be closer in name to the GTA character, that bull car debuted in 1990, replacing the V12-engined Countach. Vice City apparently takes place in 1986.