A classic, this month's world's coolest boat pick had a starring role in Miami Vice. The Chris-Craft Stinger 390X was a high-performance offshore powerboat
The words ‘Miami Vice powerboat’, for anyone of a certain age and a boating bent, move the mind instantly to the Miami Vice Scarab 38KV. Aquatic hero of four seasons of the iconic 1980s undercover cop show, it featured in many cool powerboat sequences, shoot ups, drug busts and liaisons. It is THE Miami Vice boat, but interestingly, it wasn’t the first, neither was it in the coolest boat scene of the entire series run!
Miami Vice was groundbreaking when it first aired. Directed by movie legend Micheal Mann, it introduced a new way of filming, a new way of story telling and a new way of melding music with the action.
The most iconic scene ever was in the pilot, Crockett and Tubbs heading downtown late at night to take down Calderone, a drug lord who had killed Tubb’s brother. The close up shots of the black Ferrari Daytona Spider, all set to the Phil Collins classic ‘In The Air Tonight’, absolutely nailed the tone for the series.
That Ferrari was part of their cover as high-rolling drug runners (in the USA, police are allowed to keep confiscated cars, boats and even houses for its undercover officers to use as cover), as was Crockett’s boat, originally a Chris Craft Stinger 390X with a tri-colour blue and white paint scheme and twin Mercruiser V8 petrol engines that could top 60mph.
And amongst screen time, which included a fantastic powerboat race to the tune of Steppenwolf’s 1968 classic, ‘Born To Be Wild’, it had its iconic Daytona moment.
A 390X played a starring role in the first series of Miami Vice
Series One, Episode Five, coincidentally called ‘Calderone’s Return’, saw our heroes heading from Miami to the Bahamas on the trail of Calderone. As Russ Ballard’s ‘Voices’ played and the sun set in the background, we were treated to some epic shots of the now classic powerboat blasting through big seas (you can find it on YouTube).
Interestingly, in the closing moments of that episode, the duo were briefly shown heading back, and the eagle-eyed might have noticed the helm had swapped sides – they simply ran some of the same shots back to front!
It seems someone remembered this, as in what must have been a nod to this moment, in the 2006 Miami Vice movie that featured two Donzi powerboats running fast into Miami at night, the navigation lights of the boat Crockett is driving are reversed!
Although The Stinger only lasted for the first series before being dropped for the Scarab, it had the coolest boating moment and then it lived on in the title credits forever, three seconds of getting props out airborne as the theme music plays.
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Miami Vice Chris Craft Stinger 390X Specifications:
Year: 1984
LOA: 39in (11.9m)
Beam: 9in (2.7m)
Power: 2x Mercruiser V8 petrol engines
Speed: 60mph
Price: £127,000 (in 1984)
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