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Miami Vice was a great hit TV show in the 80’s. The stars, the cars, the clothes. All of it. The plots were, of course, pretty thin. If you see reruns now, you laugh out loud at some of the stupid lines and the total disregard for the rights of criminals. Some of the bad guys over the top actions are really funny too.
But the cars. They played a major role for me and a lot of other people. When the show first aired, Sonny drove a Ferrari Daytona. It was an expensive car. But the truth is, that car was a fake Ferrari. It was a kit, designed to look like a Daytona. The budget for this show was small and a real one was out of the question. But once the show became so popular, Ferrari started getting orders for those cars. Enzo Ferrari found out about the show and threatened to sue for some kind of imitation lawsuit. They reached a settlement with the Ferrari lawyers and came away with a great compromise. They would furnish 2 White Ferrari Testarossas for filming, but the Daytona had to be destroyed …on camera.
So if you ever see the episode of the gun runner when Sonny asks if the Rocket Launcher he is buying from the dealer is any good…he actually blows up Sonny’s car. And it is a great scene as then Tubbs (under cover) looks at the dealer and says “Sold”