Friday 7th February 2020

Fastest rig in the West | Time for Tea?

Camera cars are normally deathly dull. This one isn't

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If you follow him on social media, you may have noticed that professional driver and PHer Mauro Calo is the proud owner of the world's fastest camera car. Essentially an R35 Nissan GT-R wearing the very latest in digital camera technology, Mauro's matte black coupe is essentially a film studio on wheels, with custom built arms and connectors that are aluminium welded directly onto the R35's internal structure. Nothing else holding full-time filming duties can keep up with it - which is handy when the car to be videoed is the quickest factory-produced GT-R yet, a Nismo,

The ever-energetic Mauro explains in this behind-the-scenes video that it's not just the GT-R's quick straight-line performance that makes it an ideal filming base, but also the ease at which it sticks with the very quickest of stuff. The car can be rigged-up, loaded with four staffers and sent firing around a circuit - without breaking a sweat. It really does emphasise the abilities of the R35, a car that we mustn't forget is now 13 years old. But, as Mauro notes, the car did practically tear up the performance car rule book.

"When I started to think about developing a high-performance camera car, I quickly realized that the Nissan GT-R was the only car that would meet my criteria," said Mauro, who's previously featured in PH videos and been a stunt driver in James Bond movies, no less. "It has supercar performance, with outstanding all-wheel drive handling and stability. It's famously reliable, and it can seat the team I need to operate the camera system. There were no other contenders."

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[dinkel]

Wow!

[untakenname]

Should pit it against this on track and see which camera rig is quickest

https://www.readyonset.com/projects/camera-car/

[anonymous-user]

Camera cars have come a long way - the ability to have smaller cameras these days mean much less scaffolding fortunately. Admittedly, the minute you get into using Russian arms, inevitably a Range Rover of a large SUV is required to cantilever the weight.


The Tasmin from Tomorrow Never Dies - it was brisk, and 'functional'. I've always been interested in camera cars from films; in the more dynamic car chase scenes, there's as much clever engineering in the vehicle capturing the action as there is in the cars on screen.

[tektas]

I would still prefer the Huracan Cameracar.

https://petapixel.com/2018/04/25/this-200000-lambo...

[Dont like rolls]

V6 XM version. who needs image stabilisation

[Sandpit Steve]

Cool to see behind the scenes car video, I guess starting with the fastest four-seater you can find for your camera car is as good a place as any for a proper camera rig, and better quality than just sticking a couple of Go-Pros to the outside of something quick and hoping the shots work out.

[Dont like rolls]

untakenname said:

Should pit it against this on track and see which camera rig is quickest

https://www.readyonset.com/projects/camera-car/

That and the one posted are "just" big camera -Mountings-....a Mega GoPro mount really

[PhantomPH]

Say, "Essentially" more....

[BFleming]

Dont like rolls said:

V6 XM version. who needs image stabilisation

Image stabilisation using Hydraulic Spheres? Love it!

[Trophy222]

Yawn

Slow news day is it.

Waste of key strokes

[Maldini35]

I've worked with this car a few times. It was pretty rapid.

It's actually a real Tommi Makinen EVO VI - which made me wince as they've chopped it up a fair bit.

[Finchingtons]

I work in the camera dept in the film and tv industry and we get to play with these things occasionally. I've worked with this AMG M Class a few times from Bickers Action and its far from dull..Makes a hell of a racket.

[mikeg15]

This is my favourite camera car.