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The GTA VI Grotti Cheetah is no longer just a virtual getaway car—it’s a real Ferrari Testarossa car conversion available in London.
A Wanted-Level Car With a Real-World Price
I’ve stolen more Cheetahs in Vice City than I’d care to admit, usually while some unfortunate driver sat motionless at a traffic light. In the game, the penalty was simple: a wanted star, a frantic getaway, and perhaps a helicopter making the whole evening unnecessarily complicated.
Now Rockstar has placed a real price tag on the fantasy. A fully drivable Grotti Cheetah car built from a genuine Ferrari Testarossa is being offered at Selfridges in London for £1 million, roughly $1.3 million. Suddenly, my old in-game car thefts feel like remarkably good financial decisions.
From Vice City to Oxford Street
The car is part of Rockstar’s launch campaign for GTA VI, displayed inside the Corner Shop at Selfridges on Oxford Street. The surrounding Vice City pop-up runs until November 28, turning a London department store into a strange little corner of Miami nightlife, neon color, and fictional automotive excess.
West Coast Customs created six GTA VI-inspired cars altogether, but this is the only one being offered for purchase. It wears a pink-to-blue gradient that looks lifted from a Miami sunset, while retaining some of the Testarossa’s most recognizable features, including its pop-up headlights and long side strakes.
The famous Ferrari emblem car has been replaced with Grotti’s rearing rabbit logo. It’s a tiny change in shape but a major change in attitude. The original badge says Italian performance and expensive tailoring. The rabbit says, “I may be parked outside a nightclub, but I’m also prepared to escape from the police.”
This isn’t a vehicle that can be casually tossed into an online shopping basket. Interested buyers must arrange an appointment through Selfridges Personal Shopping. That sounds much more civilized than hotwiring it, although the game version would probably approve of the second option.
The Testarossa Beneath the Fiction
The Grotti Cheetah works because its foundation is already one of the most dramatic shapes ever to leave an Italian design studio. Ferrari introduced the Testarossa at the Lido nightclub in Paris in October 1984, just before the Paris Motor Show. Pininfarina’s team, led by Leonardo Fioravanti, created a car that looked broad, low, and almost deliberately excessive.
Its long side intakes were covered by slatted panels that became known as “cheese graters.” Behind those openings sat twin side-mounted radiators, giving the bodywork both a practical purpose and a visual signature that made the Testarossa instantly recognizable from half a block away.
The car also held an important place in Ferrari’s American story. It was the first 12-cylinder Ferrari sold legally in the United States since 1973, and Ferrari produced 7,177 examples by 1991. That combination of rarity, power, and unmistakable styling turned the Testarossa into an instant cultural object.
For many people who grew up during the 1980s and 1990s, it was the default answer to the question, “What does a supercar look like?” Sega placed one in Out Run video game, and countless bedroom drawings followed. Mine certainly did, although my version had wheels that were far too large and a spoiler that would have required its own postal code.
The Miami Vice Connection
The Testarossa’s connection to Miami became even stronger through Miami Vice. Sonny Crockett spent the first two seasons driving what was presented as a Ferrari Daytona, though the car was actually a replica built on a Corvette chassis.
Ferrari reportedly disliked the fake Daytona enough to offer the production two genuine Testarossas, provided the replica was destroyed on camera. It was, early in the third season. The real cars arrived in black, but director Michael Mann had them repainted white so they would stand out more clearly during nighttime scenes.
That bit of television history matters because Rockstar has been borrowing from the same visual language for years. GTA: Vice City featured a police-issue Cheetah in 2002, an obvious nod to Crockett’s sleek, crime-drama transportation.
The GTA VI version, known as the Cheetah ’95, adds another layer to the formula. Its front end brings in cues from the Ferrari 328 while keeping the familiar Testarossa silhouette. It isn’t a perfect replica of either car, and that’s probably the point. Grotti has always existed in the space between recognizable automotive history and exaggerated game-world fantasy.
Six Cars, One London Showpiece
The Cheetah wasn’t the only custom vehicle created for the campaign. Its five companions remained in Miami, forming a lineup that feels suspiciously close to a car meet organized by someone with access to a very large budget.
The group includes:
- The Pegassi Tempesta, wearing black-and-white police colors and drawing from the Lamborghini Huracán.
- The Progen Emerus, inspired by the McLaren Senna.
- The Invetero Coquette, with the shape and character of a Corvette.
- The Albany Buccaneer, a lowrider with plenty of visual attitude.
- The Albany Manana, a dramatically tall land yacht.
Rockstar photographed the fleet at two Miami landmarks: Hilario Candela’s 1963 Miami Marine Stadium and Herzog & de Meuron’s 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage. Both locations also appear in the game, creating a neat connection between the promotional photography and the digital world.
That choice of locations is one of the campaign’s more appealing details. It would have been easy to place the cars against generic palm trees and call it a day. Instead, the photographs treat the vehicles almost like design objects in an architectural tour.
The Cheetah received the London assignment, which feels logical. Out of the six cars, it’s the one most closely tied to the image people already carry of Vice City: a bright, expensive supercar gliding past palm trees while trouble waits at the next intersection.
Is the $1.3 Million Price Justified?
Here’s where the fantasy gets a little less comfortable. A typical Testarossa sold at auction for a median price of around $202,000 over the past year. That means the paint, body conversion, fictional badge, and GTA VI connection represent a premium of approximately $1.1 million.
That is an astonishing amount of money for a sunset-colored tribute, even before considering that the car began life as a classic Ferrari rather than being built from scratch. The GTA branding is powerful, but it is still branding. At this price, the buyer isn’t simply purchasing a Testarossa with a new appearance; they’re purchasing a piece of launch publicity that happens to have an engine.
My first reaction was that the whole thing sounded like an expensive marketing prop. After seeing the details, I’ve softened slightly. The conversion understands why the original Testarossa mattered, and it doesn’t erase the design beneath the costume. Still, “softened” is not the same as “convinced.” I admire the car far more than I’d ever admire the invoice.
There’s also an amusing contrast with Ferrari’s own revival of the Testarossa name. The company brought back the name last year for the 849 Testarossa, a hybrid V8 producing roughly 1,035 horsepower and starting at €460,000 in Europe. Many fans complained that the new car carried very few visual cues from the original.
That leaves the oddest conclusion imaginable: the most faithful Testarossa tribute of 2026 comes from a fictional car company with a rabbit badge. I’m not completely certain that sentence should make sense, but somehow it does.
A Supercar for One Buyer—and Everyone Else
The Selfridges display runs until November 28, so anyone hoping to see the car in person has a limited window. Whoever buys it will own the only one of the six campaign cars being offered to the public, which gives the vehicle a level of exclusivity that even its original Ferrari identity couldn’t quite provide.
For everyone else, the digital solution is considerably easier on the wallet. The $99.99 Ultimate Edition arrives on November 19, offering the chance to drive a Cheetah car without arranging a private shopping appointment or explaining a million-dollar purchase to anyone who shares your bank account.
That’s the beauty of the GTA version. You can borrow one, crash it, repaint it, lose it, and steal another before dinner. The real Grotti Cheetah, by comparison, requires patience, paperwork, and a level of financial confidence I can only imitate while looking at pictures.
Conclusion
The real GTA VI Grotti Cheetah is an unusually clever collision of game design, television nostalgia, and classic Ferrari shape. Its $1.3 million price is difficult to defend as a car purchase, but as a piece of automotive theater, it has genuine charm. Would you pay the premium for the rabbit badge, or would you keep the Testarossa original and steal the Cheetah digitally?
FAQ
- What is the real GTA VI Grotti Cheetah based on?
It is built from a genuine Ferrari Testarossa, with custom styling inspired by the fictional Grotti Cheetah from GTA VI. - How much does the real Grotti Cheetah cost?
The car is listed for £1 million, which is roughly $1.3 million. - Where is the car being displayed?
It is displayed at Selfridges’ Corner Shop on Oxford Street in London as part of a Vice City-themed pop-up. - Can anyone buy the car directly online?
No. Interested buyers must arrange an appointment through Selfridges Personal Shopping. - How is the GTA VI Cheetah connected to the Testarossa’s history?
The design uses the Testarossa’s wide silhouette, pop-up headlights, and side strakes while also drawing on the car’s links to Miami Vice, Out Run, and earlier Vice City games.
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