Cars in Miami Vice - Testarossa

Testarossa

"Why beat a real Ferrari to death with power slides and 180s or mar its flawless skin with camera mounts for tight driver's shots when a stand-in stunt car could do the job quite nicely?"

Enzo Ferrari filed a lawsuit asking McBurnie and four others to stop producing and selling Ferrari replicas. Miami Vice producers, on the other hand, wanted no legal troubles, and accepted Ferrari's offer of two free 1986 Testarossas on the condition that the replicas be demolished. Carl Roberts offered to build two new Daytonas for the 1987 season (third season of Miami Vice). When Roberts learned that the Daytona was out, he proposed a trade. He would build Miami Vice a Testarossa stunt car in return for the doomed Daytona. Carl's original plan was to remove the Daytona skin from the Corvette and replace it with Testarossa body pieces, but this resulted in poor results and lead to Roberts to devise another plan.

Roberts searched and found a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera, which was perfectly suited for the Testarossa body pieces. The Pantera was rigidly modified to withstand the duties of filming. It was raised 1.5 inches for additional ground clearance, 2.5 inch wall-thick square tubing was used to prevent potential roof buckling and added a reinforcing railing that doubles as a skid plate, an auxiliary braking system designed to assist drivers in controlled spins, the master cylinder was repositioned in the brake line to enable it to feed the rear wheels enabling the driver to lock the aft end on command, and the auxiliary master cylinder utilizes the original master cylinder's reservoir and is installed in series with the outlet of the original master cylinder port leading to the rear wheels. When the stock brake is applied, fluid passes freely through the stunt master cylinder inlet port and compensating port and out the exhaust port to the rear wheels. When the stunt brake is applied, the piston in the master cylinder blocks off the compensating port to the exhaust port and pressurizes the rear brake system, cutting off the original brake master cylinder besides the compensating port in the stunt brake. BF Goodrich TA's were added for enhanced stick, as were Tilton brake calipers. The improved traction required installation of a hydraulic in-line brake power booster lifted from a Volvo P-1800. It operates on engine vacuum to aid in breaking loose the pavement-hugging TA's. To further enhance the growl of the vehicle, Robert's team installed a NOS port-injected nitrous system, which was later replaced with a plate-type configuration. He also replaced the carburetor replacing the stock with a Predator which reduces fuel lag. A Modine all-aluminum four-core radiator was used to guard against Miami's hot weather, and liquid Auto-Meter gauges to monitor the temperature.

In the second episode of the third season, Crockett complained to Lt. Castillo about driving vehicles that did not fit his Cover as a high roller drug dealer; that he was going around "looking like Li'l Abner", to which Castillo told him "It's out back." Sonny was delighted to find his new white 1986 Ferrari Testarossa, Florida license plate AIF00M. The original Testarossas donated by Ferrari North America were black metallic but were then painted white. The Testarossa briefly appears in black in the season 3 episode El Viejo, which was originally intended to be the season opener, but was then switched with When Irish Eyes Are Crying because it was thought that the season needed to start with a "bang", i.e. the fake Daytona being blown up. Different reasons were given at the time as to why the cars were repainted in white, ranging from a driving mishap by Don Johnson on the set that resulted in one of the cars requiring a new coat of paint, to Michael Mann thinking that unlike the Daytona, the black exterior paint did not make the Testarossa look good enough in night scenes.