Mardikian Car 4 on his car lot before Miami Vice

[VICE365]

Not sure if this has ever been posted before.

Here is Car4  before it was the star of Miami Vice on Trend imports showroom in Newport Beach, California.

[Mvice8489]

I wonder what that particular car would be worth today if it still existed as it was on the air

[Kavinsky]

Huh, no I've never seen that, and the seats do look right, funny seeing it next to a geniune spider you can see what they were going for with the seat design

same design up until the top, then they mold the headrest into the main part of the seat, and cut a recess in it, almost like someone took the design and wanted to make more of a racing bucket out of it.

and M Vice it still exists, about the only changes are minor, door panels were redone, wood was removed and replaced with black plastic, wheel spinners were changed from the yellow to black, and the plexyglass was removed and replaced,

but other than that, hell you could put the smoked plexyglass back on, maybe polish the grill, although after looking at the ferrari 308 in that ratarossa rebuild I think the matt finish might have been intentional, plus the design is similar too

and she'd be ready

Edited June 23, 2020 by Kavinsky

[Mvice8489]

where does this car in the picture exist today?

[CameraDaytona]

I own car #4 - the only one of the four that Mardikian had that was originally painted black.  I have owned it since 1988.  Where did you find a photo of the Advertisement/flyer from Trend Imports?  It's really cool - I have never seen it before.

[VICE365]

Hi Camera Daytona, I have been following these cars for over 30 years. I thought that this flyer was so cool due to this is where Universal/Micheal Mann first saw the car after  Dan Haggerty informed them about these cool cars. I built my car in the early nineties and dealt with Carl Roberts after he had the cars , Built the one for speed Zone and sent Car 1 as well to the production. How he had sold/ Lease one car to an Ohio Transmission shop to have them sell his kits AKA DAYTON Spyder where he marketed his as Miami Spyder. Can't remember for sure either your car or car 1 was at the Carl Caspers Auto show back in early ninties with Universal documentation at the Transmission shop display. These are some cool little cars as I still love mine after all these years. Maybe some time we can talk shop. Take care

[Mvice8489]

great stuff guys!  Wish I coulda found one of the cars in quality condition.

 

CD,  please PM u ever consider moving on and selling your car.  CASH $$$ ready to be wire to you ASAP

Thx 

[CameraDaytona]

On 7/4/2020 at 9:21 PM, VICE365 said:

Hi Camera Daytona, I have been following these cars for over 30 years. I thought that this flyer was so cool due to this is where Universal/Micheal Mann first saw the car after  Dan Haggerty informed them about these cool cars. I built my car in the early nineties and dealt with Carl Roberts after he had the cars , Built the one for speed Zone and sent Car 1 as well to the production. How he had sold/ Lease one car to an Ohio Transmission shop to have them sell his kits AKA DAYTON Spyder where he marketed his as Miami Spyder. Can't remember for sure either your car or car 1 was at the Carl Caspers Auto show back in early ninties with Universal documentation at the Transmission shop display. These are some cool little cars as I still love mine after all these years. Maybe some time we can talk shop. Take care

I have been following these cars since 1988 when the fellow who built our house pulled into our driveway in the number 4 Daytona and showed me the paperwork and said, "Should I buy this car?"  I looked over the paperwork and realized what he had and said, "You should definitely buy this car!"  And he did - and then sold it to me 6 months later (having bought a "real" Ferrari).  So, the car at the auto show in the early 90s was not my car.  As you may know, a fellow from a town about 20 miles away from where we lived had contracted with Carl to build him a "Miami Spyder", but he had not gotten it done.  So, the guy raised hell and ended up getting car #4 - which Carl had cleaned up and had planned to use as a "show car" to promote his Miami Spyders.  Jurassic Narc and I visited Carl a number of years ago - and got his stories.  My car is the only one of the two for which Carl got the title from Universal studios.  The Universal documentation you mention may have been the contract for his building the "stunt Testarossa" which shows the 2 cars going to Carl in partial payment for building the TR.

It's all very interesting to me - and thanks again for posting the flyer!

[Mr. Calderon]

say im idiot. i dont want an original daytona. i want the original kit car from vice.

[Dadrian]

1 hour ago, Mr. Calderon said:

say im idiot. i dont want an original daytona. i want the original kit car from vice.

Then I am idiot too 

[daytona365]

22 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

Then I am idiot too 

Yep, same here

[Kavinsky]

you know just looking at the flyer and the seats I think I got it with how they made the original seats for the car before they were switched out after the pilot, which might have been done for continuity, a I remember theirs a photo of what looks to be car 1 with completely different seats to car 4 when it was still painted red, so I think what happened was that Markadian took the C3 Seats, redid them with the daytona package, as both you and jurrasic narc said the C3 seats were what were used

but actually use the foam structure/top of that of a 81 Camaro for the base for the top, as I found this randomly, these are reupholstered 81 Camaro seats, like if you cut the headrest part, moved it up so their was a gap, and then put a headrest ontop of it , it WOULD match the photo in the flier there with car 4, almost uncannily

and I kinda think just looking at it, that's what they did, FYi  it shows up as TMI Products' Custom Sport X bucket seat upholstery for 1971 through 1981 Chevrolet Camaro if you wanna take a look for yourself, like I just put in 1981 Car seats and that popped up randomly, and the thing that really does it is if you look at people just selling the replacement seat foam, it looks pretty damn close to that shape, like maybe all they did was reworked that onto a corvette base and then put a headrest on it

which kinda looks like the one of a XJS from 1981 too, its all guess work, but it looks kinda damn close the more I look at it, and regardless atleast I found a source of something that should work without too much trouble lol

Edited July 23, 2020 by Kavinsky

[Sonny-Burnett]

On 6/13/2020 at 6:27 AM, VICE365 said:

Not sure if this has ever been posted before.

Here is Car4  before it was the star of Miami Vice on Trend imports showroom in Newport Beach, California.

Incredible find! I've never seen this photo of the show cars (Car1 was originally orange, I believe) in Mardikian's showroom. 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Sonny-Burnett

[CameraDaytona]

On 6/22/2020 at 8:01 PM, Kavinsky said:

Huh, no I've never seen that, and the seats do look right, funny seeing it next to a geniune spider you can see what they were going for with the seat design

same design up until the top, then they mold the headrest into the main part of the seat, and cut a recess in it, almost like someone took the design and wanted to make more of a racing bucket out of it.

and M Vice it still exists, about the only changes are minor, door panels were redone, wood was removed and replaced with black plastic, wheel spinners were changed from the yellow to black, and the plexyglass was removed and replaced,

I saw Sonny-Burnett's post today and re-read the rest of the items.  Car #4 (the one in the photo) was called the "camera car" because (at least early-on, not so much in later episodes) it was used for the close-ups of the driver and passenger.  The "long shots" were originally Car #1 - or the "stunt car".  As such a lot of the shots of the whole car showing the wheel spinners were of Car #1 - which had the "gold" background spinners.  If you look close at some of the later shots, it definitely appears that the wheel spinners had the black background.  I don't know of any reason that Carl Roberts would have changed the wheel spinners after he got the car.  The door panels, etc were replaced since the original ones were worn from use in the series.  The cars were "movie props", not show cars, so I assume they had some hard use over time.  And Carl wanted the car "looking good" since he was using it to promote his "Miami Spyders".

[RedDragon86]

Does anyone know if the yellow Daytona in "One Way Ticket" was real or a replica?

[Dadrian]

2 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

Does anyone know if the yellow Daytona in "One Way Ticket" was real or a replica?

It was real. It was on display at the Swap Shop in 2016. I imagine it still is. I took this photo:

[RedDragon86]

36 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

It was real. It was on display at the Swap Shop in 2016. I imagine it still is. I took this photo:

That's great!

 

[wolfie1996]

On 7/8/2020 at 2:35 PM, Mr. Calderon said:

say im idiot. i dont want an original daytona. i want the original kit car from vice.

I do too!!! Come on, somebody! There's a market out here!

[VICE365]

On 5/11/2021 at 4:28 PM, Dadrian said:

It was real. It was on display at the Swap Shop in 2016. I imagine it still is. I took this photo:

This was not the car used in the Miami Vice episode One Way Ticket, The car in that episode had black interior and seats did not have headrests as well. The car is still at the swap shop in 2020 as well as the original MV Testarossa when I was there.

[Dadrian]

3 hours ago, VICE365 said:

This was not the car used in the Miami Vice episode One Way Ticket, The car in that episode had black interior and seats did not have headrests as well. The car is still at the swap shop in 2020 as well as the original MV Testarossa when I was there.

No chance the seats could have been changed? Is that the only difference?

[RedDragon86]

9 hours ago, Dadrian said:

No chance the seats could have been changed? Is that the only difference?

 I think there is a good chance that you are right, I mean were those seats even available back then because they look very modern.

The first picture you posted looks like it has the original black seats because one of the beige color seats should be showing on the passenger side.

Edited June 4, 2021 by RedDragon86

[Dadrian]

There was a sign in front of it in 2016 saying it was used in MV, so I just believed it.  

[RedDragon86]

45 minutes ago, Dadrian said:

There was a sign in front of it in 2016 saying it was used in MV, so I just believed it.  

But did apply to the Yellow Daytona though?

[Dadrian]

21 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

But did apply to the Yellow Daytona though?

Yeah—it was nowhere near the Testarossa at that time. 

[daytona365]

2 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

 I think there is a good chance that you are right, I mean were those seats even available back then because they look very modern.

the seats it has now were standard for the 365, maybe the headrests were optional but they're OEM

 

In the episode it looks like original seats too, however with the headrests removed, as the headrest guides are still visible

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by daytona365