Magnum PI – Ferrari 308 GTS
The moustachioed Thomas Magnum, Private Investigator as played by Tom Selleck was a mainstay of my childhood TV watching. The glamorous Hawaiian setting, entertaining ensemble cast and amusingly absurd storylines were part of it but of course my attention was mainly for the red Ferrari 308 GTS Magnum would ‘borrow’ from his employer, the never seen Robin Masters. The wink to camera and fishtailing exit onto a mountain road seemed to me to be the epitome of Ferrari ownership back then.
In fact the producers had requested a Porsche 928 with an extra-large sunroof for filming purposes but Stuttgart wasn’t willing to modify its model so the targa top version of the Ferrari 308 got the nod instead. At 6’4”, Tom Selleck was a tight squeeze for the ‘baby Ferrari’; the drivers’ seat had its stuffing removed and was bolted as close to the firewall as possible but Selleck’s head is still very obviously higher than the windscreen frame. Several different cars were used in the filming and the car used evolved in line with Ferraris model progression, changing from a 1978 308 GTS to a 1980 308 GTSi and finally a 308 GTSi Quattrovalvole, all bearing the numberplate ROBIN 1.