GTA 6 takes over Miami: Vice City cars on the streets, a blimp and banner planes

Rockstar has taken GTA 6 to the streets of Miami: since 15 October, real cars dressed up as in-game vehicles have been driving around with Leonida plates, including a Vice Beach police cruiser, while a blimp in Vice City colours floats over the city. On top of that, banner planes are advertising NINE1NINE, the game's nightclub. Here's what's been spotted, where, and how much of it is official.

Which GTA 6 cars have been spotted in Miami?

On 15 October, Miami drivers ran into something that looked straight out of a play session: a convoy of real sports cars dressed up as GTA 6 vehicles, every one of them wearing a Leonida licence plate, the fictional state Rockstar has built out of Florida. According to IGN, the group included:

• A Lamborghini Huracán in Vice Beach police livery, the car everyone is talking about.
• A McLaren disguised as a Progen Emerus.
• Real-world takes on the Grotti Cheetah, the Coquette D10, the Tempesta and the Manana.

The first photos came from Instagram, posted by andrewblakeames and gianni_mariotti, and within a few hours they were all over X:

GTA 6 Info@GTASixInfo

Rockstar appears to be bringing GTA 6’s cars into the real world for its Miami marketing. A real-life Coquette has been spotted driving with a Vice City style wrap and Leonida license plate, alongside a Lamborghini wrapped in Vice Beach Police livery. (via IG/andrewblakeames)

If those names ring a bell, they should: the Cheetah, for one, has been around since the original Vice City. Every car seen in the game so far is in our GTA 6 cars guide.

What about the Vice City blimp?

That one had been building for days. The airship is Goodyear's Wingfoot Three (registration N3A), which has swapped its usual colours for Vice City's: the city's name down the sides and the GTA VI logo on its belly. According to Spanish outlet Vandal, it first showed up at Goodyear's base in Akron, Ohio, and set off south on 12 October, with half the internet following it on flight-tracking sites.

By 15 October it was over Miami, on the very day the cars hit the streets.

The nod has history. GTA V's Atomic Blimp was already a Goodyear parody, and one floats over Vice City in the first GTA 6 trailer.

What's with the banner planes?

Another scene lifted straight from the first trailer, where a small plane tows a banner over the beach. Since 14 October, planes have been flying over Miami Beach trailing banners for NINE1NINE, the GTA 6 nightclub that spoofs E11EVEN, one of Miami's most famous clubs. The photos spread across X that same day:

GTA News 🔴 RockstarINTEL.com@GTAonlineNews

GTA 6's NINE1NINE nightclub is being advertised over Miami beach today 🌴

Nobody has said yet who is paying for those flights.

Has Rockstar confirmed any of this is theirs?

No. Rockstar hasn't posted a word about the cars, the blimp or the planes, and none of the cars says "GTA 6" anywhere. It doesn't need to: with Leonida plates, a Vice Beach cruiser and a blimp that literally says "Vice City", the message gets through on its own.

Everything suggests this is only the start. The campaign's big night is 18 November, when the Miami Heat play as Vice City, the eve of launch. And if you get bored in the meantime, you can already dress like Vice City in the official merch.

Why Miami?

Because Vice City is Miami. Rockstar has been parodying the city since 2002, and in GTA 6 it has recreated it in scary detail: Ocean Drive, the South Beach sands, the Keys and the swamps. We covered it in the real Florida locations behind the map. Turning Miami into a giant billboard five weeks before 19 November is the most direct way to say "what you're seeing on the street is what you're going to play".

The reaction online has been close to unanimous. "Miami is so unserious that turning a game launch into a city-wide event feels like a normal Tuesday," one user summed up on X. Others went straight to what matters: that Vice City police Huracán.