BRETT DAVID'S PRESTIGE IMPORTS: EXOTIC CARS CAPTURING SOUTH BEACH SWAGGER

With an inventory featuring Lamborghini, Lotus, Porsche, Ferrari, Bugatti and others, Prestige Imports has become one of the world’s most revered exotic sports car dealers

- RICK MULLER

Rarely does a business emerge that seems ideally suited to its location, the surrounding vibe and its times, so much so, like the chicken and egg, it’s almost impossible to distinguish which came first — the business or the location? Such is the case with Brett David’s Prestige Imports car dealership, one of the world’s most revered exotic sports car dealers, which has become the epitome of the South Beach lifestyle in Miami.

When Brett’s father, Irv, opened his gas station in 1977 on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami Beach, he had a dream of eventually selling European sports cars. He thought the combination of sun, sand, real estate and the money that was flowing into the area would provide his market, and Irv noticed a certain lifestyle was emerging around South Beach, an area only its residents were aware of. That was until a few years later, when Michael Mann created the iconic show Miami Vice, a combination of sex, speed and style wrapped in the hot, sultry setting of an exotic Florida night, which brought the South Beach swagger into every living room.

The early 1980s was a time of sleek style, chic sophistication, pastels, big wallets and even bigger shoulder pads, and nothing captured this better than Miami Vice, which took the glitz and glamour of Dynasty or Dallas and coupled it with the grit and street smarts of vice cops working South Beach in incredible sports cars.