McBurnie Coachcraft was a US bodywork company mostly known for their replicas of Ferrari Daytona Spyder. McBurnie also manufactured a Ferrari 250 GTO replica in the style of the Alpha One GTO and the Velo Rossa (See, Ferrari S.p.A. v. McBurnie Coachcraft, 10 U.S.P. Q.2d 1278 [S.D.Cal.1988]).
The Daytona replicas are based on the Chevrolet Corvette C3 and became very popular because they were featured in the TV series Miami Vice where the main character Sonny Crockett drives a black Daytona Spyder. Ferrari took legal action [1] to stop McBurnie and other replica manufacturers from producing replicas, [2] under the legal principle of trade dress. An fire caused by arson at McBurnie's shop on April 28, 1989 (less than a year after the case was decided) caused significant damage to the building and the vehicles inside it. [3]
Later Tom McBurnie manufactured the 34 Lightening Thunderod, a hot rod kit in addition to replicas of the Porsche 550 and Porsche 356 Speedster with the company name Thunder Ranch. He produced the RIOT car as seen on the television series Baywatch. He partnered with San Diego State University to make an electric RIOT car with hybrid technology. [4] The rights to the RIOT were sold to Nathan Wratislaw. [5]
In 2012 McBurnie sold his company to Carrera Coachwerks partners Theo Hanson and Alan Cassell. [6] Anticipating a dispute with Porsche, the name was changed to Custom Coachwerks in 2013 or 2014. However, the El Cajon, California shop was later closed and its assets were divided by the partners.
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche, is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company is owned by Volkswagen AG, a controlling stake of which is owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Porsche's current lineup includes the 718, 911, Panamera, Macan, Cayenne and Taycan.
The Porsche 356 is a sports car that was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first production automobile. Earlier cars designed by the Austrian company include Cisitalia Grand Prix race car, the Volkswagen Beetle, and Auto Union Grand Prix cars.
A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor vehicles or purchased new from other vendors. Kits vary in completeness, consisting of as little as a book of plans, or as much as a complete set with all components to assemble into a fully operational vehicle such as those from Caterham.
The Porsche 550 is a racing sports car produced by Porsche from 1953 until 1956. In that time only 90 Porsche 550s were produced, and they quickly established dominance in the 1.1- and 1.5- liter classes. The Porsche 550 is a mid-engine car with an air-cooled four-cylinder engine, following the precedent of the 1948 Porsche 356/1 prototype designed by Ferry Porsche. The mid-engine racing design was further developed with Porsche's 718 model; its advantages led to it becoming the dominant design for top-level racing cars by the mid-1960s.
The Porsche 986 is the internal designation for the first generation Boxster, a mid-engine two-seater roadster built by German automobile manufacturer Porsche. Introduced in late 1996, the Boxster, based on the 1993 Boxster Concept, was Porsche's first road vehicle to be originally designed as a roadster since the 550 Spyder. The Boxster's name is derived from the word "boxer", referring to the vehicle's flat or "boxer" engine, and the name "speedster", first seen on the 356. Powered by a 2.5-litre flat six-cylinder engine, the base model was upgraded to a 2.7-litre engine in the year 2000 and a new Boxster S variant was introduced with a 3.2-litre engine. In 2003, styling and engine output was upgraded on both variants. The 986 was succeeded by the 987 which retained the Boxster roadster and added the Cayman fixed-roof coupé body style.
The Porsche 964 is a model of the Porsche 911 sports car manufactured and sold between 1989 and 1994. Designed by Benjamin Dimson through January 1986, it featured significant styling revisions over previous 911 models, most prominently the more integrated bumpers. It was the first car to be offered with Porsche's Tiptronic automatic transmission and all wheel drive as options.
The Ferrari Daytona is a two-seat grand tourer produced by Ferrari from 1968 to 1973. It was introduced at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968 to replace the 275 GTB/4, and featured the 275's Colombo V12 with a larger cylinder bore for 4,390 cc. It was offered in berlinetta and spyder forms. The car came in two variants: the 365 GTB/4 coupe, and the 365 GTS/4 convertible.
The Ferrari 250 is a series of sports cars and grand tourers built by Ferrari from 1952 to 1964. The company's most successful early line, the 250 series includes many variants designed for road use or sports car racing. 250 series cars are characterized by their use of a 3.0 L (2,953 cc) Colombo V12 engine designed by Gioacchino Colombo. The 250 series designation refers to this engine's cylinder displacement of approximately 250 cc. They were replaced by the 275 and 330 series cars.
Chamonix NG Cars is a Brazilian automobile manufacturer based in São Paulo. Until about 2011 it was known as Chamonix Indústria e Comércio and located in Jarinu (SP). The "NG" in the company name stands for New Generation. The company was founded in 1981 by Milton Masteguin, formerly with Puma Cars as constructor of racing vehicles, and the US-American automotive engineer Chuck Beck.
The Lola T70 is a sports prototype developed by British manufacturer Lola Cars in 1965, the successor to its Mk6. Lola built the aluminium monocoque chassis, which were typically powered by large American V8s.
Banham Conversions was a coachbuilder and manufacturer of kit cars from the late 1970s until 2004. The company, based in Rochester, Kent, was founded by Paul Banham and started off as a coachbuilder, converting vehicles into convertibles. The company built convertible versions of high-end vehicles such as the Ferrari 400, Aston Martin DBS and V8, and the Rolls-Royce Corniche during this time.
Porsche has been successful in many branches of motorsport of which most have been in long-distance races.
The cars in Miami Vice mainly involve the Ferrari Daytona Spyder and the Ferrari Testarossa, but also include other automobiles driven by the characters on the show. Currently one Daytona is in a private collection and the other is on display at the Volo Auto Museum; the Ferrari Testarossa stunt car resides in Kingsport, Tennessee and is owned by Carl Roberts of Carl Roberts Motor Group. Today, one of the hero cars is part of The Witvoet collection owned by Bastiaan Witvoet in Belgium.
The 2010 Paris Motor Show took place from 2 October to 17 October 2010, in Paris expo Porte de Versailles.
François Hubert Marie Perrodo is a French billionaire businessman, racing driver, and car collector. He is the chairman of Perenco, an oil and gas company with operations in 14 countries, which was founded by his father. In October 2023, Forbes estimated his family to be worth US$10 billion.
Neri and Bonacini, also known as Nembo, was a small carrozzeria and mechanic shop based in Modena, Italy, active from the late 1950s to around 1967. Founded and run by Giorgio Neri and Luciano Bonacini, the shop worked on and produced bodies for Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati road and race cars, both in an official capacity for those manufacturers and for private owners. Their best known projects are the Ferrari 250 GT-based Nembo spiders and the Lamborghini 400GT Monza. Neri and Bonacini also designed a car under their own name, the Neri and Bonacini Studio GT Due Litri. Two prototypes of this car were made between 1966 and 1968 but it never entered series production. The shop closed around 1967 when Bonacini went to work for De Tomaso and Neri started his own shop, Motors-World-Machines (MWM).
The Velo Rossa is a fibre reinforced plastic composite automobile body built by Reaction Research in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. It is designed to re-style the body of the 1970-1978 Datsun/Nissan S30 Z series cars. Front end appearance panels are replaced. Doors and rear external components are over-skinned after trimming out the wheel wells for wider tires.
RCH was founded in 2007 in Katerini, Greece, by Elias Gaganelis, and produces high-quality replicas, mostly of older Porsche models. These include a variety of types based on the 356 Speedster, as well as the 550 Spyder, while models based on the Volkswagen Beetle have also been produced. For several years, the cars could not be legally sold in Greece, with all produced cars exported, mostly to European countries. In late 2016 the company introduced a Beach Buggy model of its own development.