The Ferrari Daytonas of Miami Vice

[Sonny-Burnett]

CameraDaytona's car was sold prior to Speed Zone, plus the VIN for the Speed Zone 2 car seems like its an assigned VIN, which happens a lot with Kit cars as it is not a Corvette serial number.  I do not know the serial # to Jeff's Daytona but I am guessing the car he has is the other Speed Zone car.  And I am guessing it is the one that was driven down the stairs and other stunts.  When you watch Speed Zone, its hard to tell, but it looks like the 2 cars have different wheels, the MV car has the yellow stickers on the center of the spinners but other times it looks like all chrome spinners, like Jeffs car.  But again, thats just my guess work with no real evidence. 

 

I couldn't recall the timing of when Car #4 was sold by Roberts but I think you're probably right on that.

I'll have to watch Speed Zone one of these days to see the details of the 2 cars you're referring to, but appears we only have one more car to account for in that movie. Might be worth your while if you cross paths with Jeff again to see if he'll provide his VIN number to you so you can check the shipping docs. Btw, I am recalling from somewhere that I thought he said he actually still had another Daytona besides the one he was showcasing on the Car Chasers episode some weeks back. Anyone recalling this?

Unless of course we start talking about Cars #2 and #3 made by Mardikian that were not used in Vice. I think I read somewhere that one went to his brother but the other destination I'm not recalling....and where these cars finally landed I don't believe has been researched much, or at least discussed.

[jurassic narc]

I couldn't recall the timing of when Car #4 was sold by Roberts but I think you're probably right on that.

I'll have to watch Speed Zone one of these days to see the details of the 2 cars you're referring to, but appears we only have one more car to account for in that movie. Might be worth your while if you cross paths with Jeff again to see if he'll provide his VIN number to you so you can check the shipping docs. Btw, I am recalling from somewhere that I thought he said he actually still had another Daytona besides the one he was showcasing on the Car Chasers episode some weeks back. Anyone recalling this?

Unless of course we start talking about Cars #2 and #3 made by Mardikian that were not used in Vice. I think I read somewhere that one went to his brother but the other destination I'm not recalling....and where these cars finally landed I don't believe has been researched much, or at least discussed.

There is really no way to trace Car #2 nor Car #3. All of McBurnie's records were destroyed in a fire at his shop in the late 1980s. Since the Replicar business didn't exist then, they would not have been titled any differently. Unless someone comes forward with the cars (which HAD at the time of manufacture the unique Mardikian logos), I doubt we will ever know. Edited April 29, 2015 by jurassic narc

[Mvice8489]

So what is the new dollar value of this car assuming all this recently discovered info is accurate?

[COOPER&BURNETT]

JN, you said, "Carl Roberts got the cars from Universal, but only got a title for the Camera Car (which may beg the question, did he really get both cars, or just end up with both cars?). When Carl sent the cars to Canada for SpeedZone, he couldn't cross the border with a car with no title. I am guessing that precipitated the number change. And since that is a felony, that would explain why I was told a long story about changing bodies and other tall tales."

 

Now that your aware of a very likely Felony with likely documented proof, do you intend to press charges, or perhaps the statue of Limitations is up now? 

[volobrian]

Value, as always, is what someone is willing to pay. But we won't be finding out any time soon because I don't see either of the 2 cars going for sale any time soon. As far as what we're going to do legally, that subject will be kept confidential until any legal actions taken are finalized.

[Kavinsky]

Car #1 was sold by Universal without a title.  An unethical way to get a title that cuts through the red tape is to drill out the vin tag and replace it with one that has a title.  After noticing the rivets were not factory GM rivets this raised questions which sparked a full investigation.  The confidential frame numbers are only visible by removing the body or cutting an access hole, something CameraDaytona didn't have access to when viewing the car.  After cutting open an access hole and finding the frame VIN numbers, it was discovered it was a 1976 VIN.  The VIN # was sent for comparison against the the Universal documents and confirmed to be the correct numbers by Jurassic Narc and CameraDaytona.  (the frame VIN is actually stamped into the frame) Furthering the investigation, the visible pillar tag calls for a 1980 body, the body is also a 1976, there are many differences between the 2 bodies, proving the visible VIN tag does not belong to the body.  Corvette bodies also came with a trim tag which designates the color codes and a build date.  The codes determined the body is a 1976 body built in the 3rd week of March.  The sequential numbers on the frame also determine the frame to be built the 3rd week of March making the frame and body a perfect match.  The body itself also tells a story, both the frame and fiberglass are shorter by 1 1/4 inches, the filled in holes exist from the misplaced nose emblem, there are holes cut in the doors for speakers (the #1 car has speakers in the door panels)  The black and white photo of the original build of the #1 car shows it to be a dark color, this car was originally dark green, the rear marker lights were patched and filled with evidence on the backside of the body, there is an abandoned brake line as evidence of the now removed stunt brake, there are remains of skid plates and other rigging on the frame, the Daytona body has evidence of red paint, the #1 car was originally red. 

 

Hmm I do see the speaker here, this is car 1 from whatever works, does the door pannel line up with what you boys have at the museum?

 

 

 

also what happened to the grill of the car, did you find it with any of the parts? along with anything else?

 

 

I must admit I am abit confused here, I thought the chasis and running gear were scrapped, and the body reused and pasted to this current car? if that's not the case what happened, did carl just junk the motor and keep the rest of it?

 

as I know that engine is off of an 89 corvette, as that was what was in it when it showed up on the corvette magazine webpage a few years back

 

although I must admit over the years looking at the volo car the proportions of the nose of car 1 were different from car 4 somehow, outside of the grill, and the volo cars nose did line up with it

 

 

Car 1 vs the Volo car, as both have a thinner nose, note the flares taper in more

 

 

Car 4 has a thicker nose

 

 

possibly because the flares might have been increased to match the starting point of the body of the car.

 

 

although what happened to the nose that someone skeletionized it like that on car 1? did someone try and do what that mechanic wanted to do to sonny burnetts car with it? IE cut holes in the bottom to make it breath better?

 

 

also maybe jurrasic already explained why this happened then, Carls brother who had passed away did a fair amount of work on these machines, maybe he was the one who oversaw the caretaking of the speed zone cars.

 

and maybe carl thought it had been scrapped when his brother told him it wouldnt work as a testarossa replica, hence this whole misunderstanding, and why we all thought that it couldnt of been the car.

 

I mean I would think it would be obivious right from the getgo that a corvette would not work as a testarossa replica, Fiero maybe, but not corvette.

 

 

 

also Volobrian my apologies over any hardships endured on our parts here, as we've had people come on here from time to time claiming not only to have the daytona, but the testarossa itself, this one more than once

 

 

this being the latest one, despite debunking everything about it,

 

Real One Original Specs:

 

1986/1987 TR, Delivery Color Nero Dayona, Crema Interior, Dark Tobaso Highlights for the dash leather, Rust colored carpets

 

that one, none of it except being a 1986 1 mirror car painted in white that was used as an after the fact universal studios promo car, not the actual one like the one down in the grove, that has wear marks on it that line up with its use in Miracle man.

 

and it will be nice to have both people who own both cars on here to say do not pass go for someone trying to scam some fan who think's he's hit a home run in the world series, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath him

Edited April 30, 2015 by Kavinsky

[volobrian]

The story of the car being dismantled was to cover up the felony VIN swap. Easiest way to get someone to stop looking, tell them it doesn't exist. The car was never dismantled. The car did have a lot of modifications done to it after MV, some of which we had already corrected. Still many items to correct. Our car didn't have door panels when we purchased the car, however the doors themselves had the fiberglass cut to accommodate the speakers. Also there was no grill in the car.

[volobrian]

Roberts also installed the 89 TPI engine, I have the docs on that, be cause the engine blew while the car was being driven.

[CameraDaytona]

I'm a little late to this party, but we do have the serial numbers of all of the cars used in both the Miami Vice series and the Speed Zone movie.  I believe the Car Chasers car is probably the "other" Speed Zone car.  I sent an email to both Jeff and Tom McBurnie after the Miami Vice Car Chasers episode aired, telling them - among other things - that I had the serial numbers for all of the cars and that if they sent me the serial number of the car that they had, I could verify it.  I never got a reply from either.  I would guess that they both know that the car that they have was not used on the Miami Vice show.  And now that we have verified that both cars are accounted for, it is impossible for them to have the number 1 car when Brian has it.

 

The placements of serial numbers on the frames of Corvettes are well known.  The numbers are stamped in two locations on every frame.  To view them you have to cut the floor of the car above the frame.  That is what Brian did and found the serial number.  The car has a lot of changes that were made after it left the MV filming.  The second brake pedal was gone, the dash and interior were totally different, the gas tank was in the trunk, the engine was late model and fuel-injected, and the main thing was that the serial number which was on the A-pillar in front of the driver as it should be showed it to be a 1980 Corvette.  I therefore assumed (incorrectly as it has turned out) that it was not the #1 MV car - but there was never any question that it had been one of the Speed Zone cars.

 

Brian is correct that all Corvettes of that era have a trim tag which lists the build date of the body and the colors, etc.  Since these are located on the cowl in front of the driver's door, they are not affected when the Daytona kit is put together.  The body build of the original 1976 Corvette is 3 days before the build date of the car (determined by the serial number) which is typical.  The steel part of a Corvette body includes the firewall steel, the windshield frame, the door front supports, etc.  So, the Daytona body was built around the "birdcage" of the 1976 Corvette.  The body on the car now is likely the one originally built by McBurnie as car #1.

 (and it is shortened versus the driver side as we know it originally was).

 

I remember Carl Roberts telling JN and me when we visited him that he got numbers from a friend for one of the Speed Zone cars - which was probably Brian's car.  As JN stated, Carl told us he only got a title for my car (car #4) and not car #1 from Universal.  (I have a copy of the contract between Universal and Carl Roberts which give Carl both cars in partial payment for building a stunt Testarossa - and both serial numbers are listed.)  I believe that Carl had planned to use the stunt Daytona chassis to build the stunt TR.  He said that he had disassembled the car and found that it was not usable.  Brian thinks that he did not pull off the body.  That is certainly possible.  The bottom line is that he used the Pantera chassis.  I don't think Carl really had the 1980 car but just had the serial number plate???

 

He then needed to come up with 2 cars for the Speed Zone movie.  He had already sold my car to a customer for whom he had promised to build a car - but never got it done (so the customer demanded that he sell him the Camera Car and he did).  Carl then had the stunt car which he modified to look like the way the cars were being built at that time - with the Ferrari-like dash, etc.  And he came up with a second car (from where I don't know).  The second car appears to have a state-assigned VIN so maybe he built it from parts.  Both of the cars were sent to Lubbock, Texas after the Speed Zone movie filming was completed.  (That is a long story.)  So, it makes sense that Jeff of The Car Chasers initially found the first Speed Zone car (which Brian has and is car #1) and now has found the second Speed Zone car, both of which were in Lubbock where he is.

[Pritt]

I just take a look at the movie Speed Zone to see the Daytona https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoHXsuBEAts

 

Unfortunately its not in HD Quality, so its difficult to see the details of the car. But i can only see one Daytona, its in every scene the same one.

Take a look at the doorhandles in 24:17, 24:21, 34:52, 43:27 They look like the doorhandles like a real Ferrari Daytona has, or like i have on my Daytona

 

Its a clip on the top of the door with a doorlock in the door.

Volobrian, may be you will find some repaired holes in the doors of your car.

 

I never saw the yellow spinner caps in any scene, just the chromed ones.

 

May be you guys find some more details.

 

Btw, the car chasers Daytona has not the same rims like the Daytona in Speed Zone.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Pritt

[volobrian]

When we originally purchased the car it had the Ferrari style door handles and we removed them and replaced them with the MV handles. One thing I do want to look for when the car is apart next is another door handle repair. McBurnie originally tried a Corvette type door handle and the doors were cut on top to accommodate the oval type push in Corvette handles. So there should be evidence of that repair as well.

[volobrian]

Pritt is the red one in the picture yours? Really beautiful car.

[Sonny-Burnett]

Brian ...here is a close-up of my McBurnie grill in case you have not seen or choose to fabricate one for your car. This shot was before I found some polish/cleaner that brought back the shine on the aluminum.  I must say however the Rowley grill has better lines and would have been my choice.

 

[Sonny-Burnett]

Pritt is the red one in the picture yours? Really beautiful car.

 

Ditto that. Nice lines....but I'm already biased to the beauty of these cars.

[Pritt]

Thanks Brian and S-B. Yes, its my Daytona. On page 98 in this thread you will find some more pics.

[Sonny-Burnett]

I'm a little late to this party, but we do have the serial numbers of all of the cars used in both the Miami Vice series and the Speed Zone movie.  I believe the Car Chasers car is probably the "other" Speed Zone car.  I sent an email to both Jeff and Tom McBurnie after the Miami Vice Car Chasers episode aired, telling them - among other things - that I had the serial numbers for all of the cars and that if they sent me the serial number of the car that they had, I could verify it.  I never got a reply from either.  I would guess that they both know that the car that they have was not used on the Miami Vice show.  And now that we have verified that both cars are accounted for, it is impossible for them to have the number 1 car when Brian has it.

 

The placements of serial numbers on the frames of Corvettes are well known.  The numbers are stamped in two locations on every frame.  To view them you have to cut the floor of the car above the frame.  That is what Brian did and found the serial number.  The car has a lot of changes that were made after it left the MV filming.  The second brake pedal was gone, the dash and interior were totally different, the gas tank was in the trunk, the engine was late model and fuel-injected, and the main thing was that the serial number which was on the A-pillar in front of the driver as it should be showed it to be a 1980 Corvette.  I therefore assumed (incorrectly as it has turned out) that it was not the #1 MV car - but there was never any question that it had been one of the Speed Zone cars.

 

Brian is correct that all Corvettes of that era have a trim tag which lists the build date of the body and the colors, etc.  Since these are located on the cowl in front of the driver's door, they are not affected when the Daytona kit is put together.  The body build of the original 1976 Corvette is 3 days before the build date of the car (determined by the serial number) which is typical.  The steel part of a Corvette body includes the firewall steel, the windshield frame, the door front supports, etc.  So, the Daytona body was built around the "birdcage" of the 1976 Corvette.  The body on the car now is likely the one originally built by McBurnie as car #1.

 (and it is shortened versus the driver side as we know it originally was).

 

I remember Carl Roberts telling JN and me when we visited him that he got numbers from a friend for one of the Speed Zone cars - which was probably Brian's car.  As JN stated, Carl told us he only got a title for my car (car #4) and not car #1 from Universal.  (I have a copy of the contract between Universal and Carl Roberts which give Carl both cars in partial payment for building a stunt Testarossa - and both serial numbers are listed.)  I believe that Carl had planned to use the stunt Daytona chassis to build the stunt TR.  He said that he had disassembled the car and found that it was not usable.  Brian thinks that he did not pull off the body.  That is certainly possible.  The bottom line is that he used the Pantera chassis.  I don't think Carl really had the 1980 car but just had the serial number plate???

 

He then needed to come up with 2 cars for the Speed Zone movie.  He had already sold my car to a customer for whom he had promised to build a car - but never got it done (so the customer demanded that he sell him the Camera Car and he did).  Carl then had the stunt car which he modified to look like the way the cars were being built at that time - with the Ferrari-like dash, etc.  And he came up with a second car (from where I don't know).  The second car appears to have a state-assigned VIN so maybe he built it from parts.  Both of the cars were sent to Lubbock, Texas after the Speed Zone movie filming was completed.  (That is a long story.)  So, it makes sense that Jeff of The Car Chasers initially found the first Speed Zone car (which Brian has and is car #1) and now has found the second Speed Zone car, both of which were in Lubbock where he is.

 

Thanks CD for your comments and great summary. I didn't know you had sent an email to Sauter and MCB after the CS show. I'd have loved to have seen their reactions...too funny.

As JN said in here earlier, the numbers don't lie and that's the bottom line on all this.

 

What still perplexes me is why would Sauter part with the car that he sold to Volo? And it was sold in such a poor condition.

When he originally sold the car to Volo he must have thought it was Car 1 at the time, because he likely would have known about the right side length issue, and the holes in the nose for the emblem, and other such details that you were aware of when you first inspected the car. And he had possession of the docs that indicated it was the Miami Vice Car, as well as the Speed Zone car. It would have been his ticket to make the car value worth more at the time of sale. Maybe Brian can comment on what was represented to him.

And now he claims to have another version of Car 1 in the CS show, claiming similar right side discrepancies (though we know less of a differential) and believes the car is worth mega-bucks, per comments by his associate in the show. So why then part with the original if he could have restored it and made big money on the deal? That seems to be the nature of his business- finding cars that require restoration work and then turning them for a profit.

In any case, the car he currently has may only have some claim to the Speed Zone film at best.

 

On my car I will need to have a look for the trim tag you are referring to, as I am not recalling seeing any tag on mine. I still do have all the original paperwork for the build and sale of my car by McBurnie to the original owner. And the VIN number on my car does agree to the Sale and Build docs.

 

Interesting on the '80 car plate and tag...for someone to donate those for use on another car presumes then that the donor car would have to be scrapped, otherwise it would not be street legal.

 

Some day I'd be interested in that story about how the Speed Zone cars ended up in Lubbock Texas, and how JS came to own them.

[volobrian]

I'm not sure how much Jeff really knew about our car at the time. He did sell it to us as the MV car, there are docs from Roberts referring to it as the MV car. And the price we paid in as is condition, I'm sure he made a handsome profit. When talking with Jeff, and I really do believe he believes this ant not just trying to inflate the price of his car, he was thinking mine was the 81 and his was the 76. He has never seen the documents that show the VINs of the two cars and has his own theory with Roberts fraud. Again, not sure what he thinks since the new discoveries. As for where the 80 VIN came from, I think Roberts bought an 80 Vett, dismantled it used the frame to try and built the stunt testarossa and used the title and vin plate on my car. He wouldn't need a title for that donor car because if the frame worked, it's a non street legal stunt car and wouldn't need a title. And the body would have been scraped and wouldn't need a title.

[Kavinsky]

The story of the car being dismantled was to cover up the felony VIN swap. Easiest way to get someone to stop looking, tell them it doesn't exist. The car was never dismantled. The car did have a lot of modifications done to it after MV, some of which we had already corrected. Still many items to correct. Our car didn't have door panels when we purchased the car, however the doors themselves had the fiberglass cut to accommodate the speakers. Also there was no grill in the car.

 

Hmm I'm scared to ask who changed the title then, but that would be post vice then I would reckon

 

is it possible that the vin numbers on their car, the Car chasers speed zone car is the 76 car, and you have theirs on the windshield? like someone switched them?

 

also I must admit I never saw the car chasers episode on the car, as honeslty I dont watch alot of tv anymore

 

although I did just literally finish a replaythough of Vice City about an hour ago, and I'm still trying to figure out how I could rig up the windshield of the real one to match the stinger.

 

as a bonus here, here is pretty much the last shot of car 1 from Yankee dollar, the last episode we think car 1 was used in, while car 4 was used for the rest until its retirement in early S3, as it had some slight nose damage on the flares from the chase with the countach that showed up in El Viejo

 

the smoke that came out right after it took off after it.

 

and you can see the shorter nose here in them

 

 

 

 

you can see here it still had its flat grill more or less during vices time

 

 

its more or less just like the rowley grill, except horizontal up and down on the sides, while on the rowley they rigged it up to look like it did on the daytona, where it was shaped to fit between the headlamps, even though it didnt protrude that far down

 

 

http://corvette.canney.net/webvettes/customized/c0072/index.html

 

vs the latter one used on car 4, but before the rowley's were made

 

 

as they can oxidize quickly as there made out of straight alumiumn, much like on an aircraft in the desert, and this was before chrome paint had come along.

 

although how he missed it on that one is beyond me. and you have to take the bumpers to get at it to polish it, so I really wonder why they didnt stick with car 1's design really. outside of trying to look like the grill of the ferrari 365 and 512 BB

 

 

about the restoration, outside of the nose modifications to repair it, and to fabricate a new grill, and redo the back end abit I would seek to preserve it as is, and document its changes over the years for the display, as it sounds like its had a rough and interesting life outside of vice, I mean jesus the last time I heard of a story like this it was for inspector morse's jaguar.

 

and if nothing else maybe have some spare sets of parts and keep everything that you take off of it, as parts for these cars are hard to come by.

 

 

also the headlamps it had in that photo, there off of a mazda RX 3, and you'll probably find screw marks ontop of the doors to go along with that change from top of the doors to the side of them in the front with the mirrors to match car 4

 

and vice versa actually as I think they went back to that for speed zone, using turbo mirrors instead and if I tried to list all of the changes over the years to the car then it would probbaly be just as long as this post from the sound of it lol

 

 

 

actually SB did you ever post photos of your cars grill post polish while I think of it?

Edited May 1, 2015 by Kavinsky

[Sonny-Burnett]

Kavinsky...from your above post. How do you know Car 1 wasn't used after Yankee Dollar? Can't see why it wouldn't be unless it had severe damage.

 

The exhaust smoke you referred to is common on the engines of that car, as I have seen blue/gray smoke in other episodes when starting up. Mine does it as well.

 

I know I've seen you reference this before, but why do you think the nose on Car 1 is smaller than Car 4? How could that be since they used the same molds.

 

And no I don't think I did post close-ups of my grill after I polished it up when it was detailed back in 2012. I will get it out in the next few weeks and do a polish touchup and try to remember to take a photo of the grill. It really did come out quite nicely after using that polish but aluminum continues to dull out and I need to go over it again.

[Kavinsky]

I think that was the given point that it was determined that they were going to be switching to the TR,

 

and Car 4 for that episode wasn't in use because of that illegal silencer deal, although past the silencer deal I really dont have anything to back that up other than me not noticing the higher nosed car in the latter episodes.

 

and the smoke I ment is from when the car ran into a low dip right here at 0:27

 

 

it looks like tire smoke but when it ran into that dip it took a small chunk out of the flare on that side that wasnt repaired for season 3 as it showed up in When Irish Eyes Are Crying, the scene where Sonny meets with Izzy, when he pulls up if you look down at the right flare theres a chunk missing

 

and sorry I would show footage but for some reason I guess NBC got youtube to sick its bots on anything miami vice related lately. as the fly on the windscreen, TR videos and all that are missing all of a sudden.

 

along with alot of good fan videos,

 

what a bunch of assholes, it promotes and makes people wanna buy the show, NOT detract from it,

 

it'd be one thing if its an entire episode, its another when its a fan montage or a very small clip, its called fair use! as hell I'm using it for Educational Purposes Dumbasses!

 

and it literally says in the law that I can use it for that just based on that.

 

actually look close here, right side of the flare, see the white mark on there?

 

 

slightly chipped right at hub level

 

but with the nose well it is a prototype and I remember jurrasic or someone else saying that it drove them nuts trying to figure out why one part of the car didnt look right, only for them to find out the frame was off by 1 inch

 

which would have ment them changing the molds accordingly for the rest of the run 

 

plus I think the rest of the run used 1980 onwards corvettes as the basis for the first 4 or 5 which had the front end redesigned for a new nose cone and air dam by gm for that year.

 

1980 -

 

 

 

1976

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

use the center of the wheel where the spinners are as a landmark and you can see it seems higher up on car 1 and less in line with the general body of it, and this is before its nose was torn up post vice.

 

and thus when they redid the molds for car 2, it might have been based on that longer lower nose design rather than the 1979 and earlier one

 

 

actually I must wonder if Brian's Car looks anything like car 1 given his car was originally a 1971 car, if I'm right it should look more like Car 4 than Car 1.

 

 

so did the mothers mag polish work then?

Edited May 1, 2015 by Kavinsky

[volobrian]

I don't think McBurnie ever re-made the molds, there was no need to.  The 1968 - 1982 frames are all the same, only the bodies changed.  The issue with the #1 car was the fender didn't fit the frame because the frame was 1 1/2 inches shorter, so he fixed this by cutting 1 1/2 inches of fiberglass off the fender. 

 

As for the height difference, again nothing to do with the frame.  These were used cars that were bought for the donors so its likely the springs were just weaker on one car than the other. 

[volobrian]

JN or CD, earlier it mentioned that the Daytona was used by a mechanic in an illegal sale of silencers..  Do we know which of the 2 cars it was for sure or could it have been either one? 

[jurassic narc]

JN or CD, earlier it mentioned that the Daytona was used by a mechanic in an illegal sale of silencers..  Do we know which of the 2 cars it was for sure or could it have been either one? 

The only public records are the newspaper accounts.  They, of course, do not specify which car.  Since the car was quickly identified and released, I doubt there would be a defining record (tags were interchanged between the two cars).

[Sonny-Burnett]

JN or CD, earlier it mentioned that the Daytona was used by a mechanic in an illegal sale of silencers..  Do we know which of the 2 cars it was for sure or could it have been either one? 

 

An article on this. A humorous aside is that whoever (poorly) wrote the article made it sound like Crockett or Tubbs was actually driving the car, and the perp was a passenger. lol 

 

NEWS

Gun Suspect Released On Bail

By Kevin Allen, Staff writer, June 29, 1985

Frank J. Pugliese, charged with selling machine guns to undercover federal agents, was released from custody Friday after posting his house as collateral for a $150,000 bond. Pugliese, 34, of Fort Lauderdale faces seven felony charges of violating U.S. gun laws after he allegedly sold a silencer and two machine guns to agents of the U.S. Treasury Department`s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who arrested him on Wednesday. Authorities said one of the sales took place at an Interstate 95 rest stop where Pugliese arrived in a sports car driven by a character on the television program Miami Vice.

[Kavinsky]

I don't think McBurnie ever re-made the molds, there was no need to.  The 1968 - 1982 frames are all the same, only the bodies changed.  The issue with the #1 car was the fender didn't fit the frame because the frame was 1 1/2 inches shorter, so he fixed this by cutting 1 1/2 inches of fiberglass off the fender. 

 

As for the height difference, again nothing to do with the frame.  These were used cars that were bought for the donors so its likely the springs were just weaker on one car than the other. 

 

hmm that would explain a great deal with the springs, as I always noticed that it seemed like one was higher than the other, and I just thought maybe it had something to do with the design changes GM did to the base cars.

 

 

plus it is one of those things you dont really think about, its only when something looks off that you do like on this hotrod before its refinishing and rebirth

 

 

JN or CD, earlier it mentioned that the Daytona was used by a mechanic in an illegal sale of silencers..  Do we know which of the 2 cars it was for sure or could it have been either one?

 

 

 

 

well that was kind of why we figured it was during that episode yankee dollar, as car 1 doesnt usually get alot of close up screen time (in Season 1 you can tell which car was used just by the windshield frame, which at that point was chrome and the top half of the dash pad was abit rough at 2:19 here)

 

 

note the pins

 

 

and I think camera said it was his car, although I could be wrong on that one.

 

 

although she did see action in the chase with the porsche 906 in S2, as by then they had switched the windshield frame over to matt black to match Car 4 and made the cars line up abit better, so the only way to really tell them apart besides the height and grill was the door top, and possibly the mirrors

 

 

as the door pannel top was different and had that horizontal line going across it, which you can see at 0:19

 

 

 

while car 4 looked like this at 0:57

 

 

 

and with the night chase there you can see, Car 1 was the car with the cameras on it for the interior shots, Car 4 was the chase car with nothing on it, as you can see based on the grill if you look close.

 

 

with the mirrors car 4 had power tornado mirrors, which are bigger than the baby tornados by something like half to a full inch, of which I kinda wonder if car 1 had, the babies I mean, as they seem smaller in the red car photo vs car 4 in the girls with guns montage at the start, which was car 4

 

Vs Car 4 here in its Markian Garments and original tail pipe location, they were moved inward post pilot probably to make space for the camera mounts. as only car 4 was used for the pilot, which makes sense given they didnt know if they would be making a series or not at that point so they only used one car.

 

 

just look at the mirror length.

 

 

but also car 4 was changed over to the babies as well after it left the show, along with other changes

 

as the door pannels have been replaced with carl roberts ones, and the mirrors changed over possibly given the wiring probably

 

hell it might have been done when the audio system was redone, so literally neither car really has its original door panels anymore.

 

about the only think I dont know about car 1's doors is if it had a light in them like Car 4 did, as during the voodo episode, tales of the goat when crockett opens the door the light comes on just after he gets out.

 

 

 

 

oh also Cooper had this on one of his other threads, this is probably the best shot of the interior of car 1 in general that we really have, its from the Bruce Willis Episode I think, one eyed jack?

 

 

 

right before Crockett grabs the guy and does a reverse one eighty with him hanging off the side, momo veloce wheel FYI, also in Yankee dollar we get a close up of the windshield here, which is different on this one from car 4, no windshield visor mounts on this one, while car 4 being an 81 has them as part of the clips for the convertible top.

 

also the burlwood center console is not really visible here, but judging by the night chase both cars had them, although its car 4 in this video

 

Edited May 2, 2015 by Kavinsky