Magnum Mania!

I have been thinking that if this show was made today, the current crop of Ferrari's wouldn't really fit. What would Master's loaner would TM drive today? Lotus Elise? 911 Targa 4S?

How about a Corvette Stingray? It's rated the best luxury sports car by US News... Or if that's not fancy enough, what about the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder?

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/ca ... rformance/
http://www.gayot.com/lifestyle/automobi ... pyder.html

98golf wrote:I have been thinking that if this show was made today, the current crop of Ferrari's wouldn't really fit. What would Master's loaner would TM drive today? Lotus Elise? 911 Targa 4S?

Molokai wrote:How about a Corvette Stingray? It's rated the best luxury sports car by US News... Or if that's not fancy enough, what about the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder?

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/ca ... rformance/
http://www.gayot.com/lifestyle/automobi ... pyder.html

Hi Molokai and 98Golf,

Here is another thread that has a few more ideas....enjoy.

http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2908

Thanks for the replies. Of course it would be the 458 Spider. Same DNA as the 308. I had forgotten about this one as I was thinking about the FF, F12, LaFerrari, California, and Enzo. I totally forgot they still had numbered cars.

98golf wrote:Thanks for the replies. Of course it would be the 458 Spider. Same DNA as the 308. I had forgotten about this one as I was thinking about the FF, F12, LaFerrari, California, and Enzo. I totally forgot they still had numbered cars.

Oh yes, 458 Italia!

Imo, it would be more the Ferrari California or a Porsche Targa.

Bondtoys.de wrote:Imo, it would be more the Ferrari California or a Porsche Targa.

Selleck too tall for a Porsche...js

Selleck is too tall for any sports car.......they even had to take the padding out of the 308 seat for him to look like he fits in that car.
I think it has to be a Ferrari (a huge part of the original show) and the 458 just looks like the best fit....the California almost looks too tame.
That's my few cents worth.

It has to be some sort of current Ferrari model. Magnum driving any other type of sports car doesn't work.

I disagree with the 458 choice.

Robin would be the one who'd pay for the car and would decide which model he gets.
Having been on the island twice, I could never drive really fast there, so there is basically no need for a high-performance model like the 458.

For cruising around - the much more comfortable California would be the choice for someone in his 50s and that would be still fast enough for all occasions and to impress some chicks.

As for "Selleck is too tall for a Porsche*": That may have been the case back then - recent Porsches give more space than recent Ferraris.

And the Porsche Targa is the most similar concept to the 308GTS Targa - Ferrari only does Spiders or hard-top convertibles now - unfortunately.....

*If we take the entire story seriosly for a minute, it does not matter if Magnum fits into the Ferrari as he only "borrows" it from Robin. Magnum has no word in the decision process for a new car.

I think the spirit of the car was not what current Ferraris are all about. The 308 featured in the show was an amazing car at the time, but it was not priced in the range of what the company sells at today. The charm about the 308 is that is was probably an impractical purchase, but maybe doable if you took out a second mortgage (for the average Joe). Today's Ferraris are not priced for the same audience. As some have mentioned, I think a Porsche would be a more appropriate choice. After all, Mag was originally supposed to drive a 928. Probably a 911 would be a good choice.

In the end, however, with the way television has changed the decision would be left up to which car company pays the most to have their car profiled. Thus, the Stingray (being a Chevy) is a more likely car - American car companies are big on product placement these days. I saw the Stingray at the Geneva Auto show this past spring. It was far nicer than I expected. This one as well as the new Mustangs and Camaros are awesome. American car companies finally seem to be getting their mojo back.

Styles Bitchley wrote:I think the spirit of the car was not what current Ferraris are all about. The 308 featured in the show was an amazing car at the time, but it was not priced in the range of what the company sells at today. The charm about the 308 is that is was probably an impractical purchase, but maybe doable if you took out a second mortgage (for the average Joe). Today's Ferraris are not priced for the same audience. As some have mentioned, I think a Porsche would be a more appropriate choice. After all, Mag was originally supposed to drive a 928. Probably a 911 would be a good choice.

In the end, however, with the way television has changed the decision would be left up to which car company pays the most to have their car profiled. Thus, the Stingray (being a Chevy) is a more likely car - American car companies are big on product placement these days. I saw the Stingray at the Geneva Auto show this past spring. It was far nicer than I expected. This one as well as the new Mustangs and Camaros are awesome. American car companies finally seem to be getting their mojo back.

Bite your tongue Styles!
I know what you mean about the entry level Ferrari of today being out of reach for the average Joe, but MPI without a Ferrari is like Higgins saying OH MY instead of OH MY GOD...... ........ 20 circuits around the estate perimeter for proposing something so preposterous!

KENJI wrote:

Styles Bitchley wrote:I think the spirit of the car was not what current Ferraris are all about. The 308 featured in the show was an amazing car at the time, but it was not priced in the range of what the company sells at today. The charm about the 308 is that is was probably an impractical purchase, but maybe doable if you took out a second mortgage (for the average Joe). Today's Ferraris are not priced for the same audience. As some have mentioned, I think a Porsche would be a more appropriate choice. After all, Mag was originally supposed to drive a 928. Probably a 911 would be a good choice.

In the end, however, with the way television has changed the decision would be left up to which car company pays the most to have their car profiled. Thus, the Stingray (being a Chevy) is a more likely car - American car companies are big on product placement these days. I saw the Stingray at the Geneva Auto show this past spring. It was far nicer than I expected. This one as well as the new Mustangs and Camaros are awesome. American car companies finally seem to be getting their mojo back.

Bite your tongue Styles!
I know what you mean about the entry level Ferrari of today being out of reach for the average Joe, but MPI without a Ferrari is like Higgins saying OH MY instead of OH MY GOD...... ........ 20 circuits around the estate perimeter for proposing something so preposterous!

Doesn't Magnum mention the price of the Ferrari in the pilot at $40,000? A typical car from 1979-80 couldn't have been more than $10,000 so the Ferrari was about 4x the cost, maybe more. With a $30,000+ typical car today, that would put Ferraris past 120k which they are. I know these are crude estimates, but it's in the ballpark.

Another way to look at it. I just grabbed some numbers for median income in the US 1979 vs. 2012. It went from just under 15K to almost 50K, unadjusted for inflation. I don't think someone making 15K in 1980 was going to get a car worth almost three times there annual salary. Ferraris were pretty out of reach to most in 1980 as well. On the up side, if I did spend 3x my annual salary...I'd have myself a brand new 458 Spyder parked downstairs right now!

Pahonu wrote:Another way to look at it. I just grabbed some numbers for median income in the US 1979 vs. 2012. It went from just under 15K to almost 50K, unadjusted for inflation. I don't think someone making 15K in 1980 was going to get a car worth almost three times there annual salary. Ferraris were pretty out of reach to most in 1980 as well. On the up side, if I did spend 3x my annual salary...I'd have myself a brand new 458 Spyder parked downstairs right now!

I'm not trying to say that the 308 was affordable. It was, however, intentionally aimed at stealing some of the market away from the Porsche 911. An entry level 911 was and still is more "doable" for more people than a Ferrari. Yes, there's the nutso GT3 and others that are in that ballpark, but there really isn't an entry level Ferrari to match what Porsche has to offer. If you think back to that time, there were tons of 308s on the road - at least where I lived. They've moved to being a more "exclusive" brand since then.