I stand corrected, although the #1 is clearly not a spyder
From the aforementioned book, regarding the camera car:
Quote:
... a Ford GT40 that had been put out to pasture by John Wyer was purchased by Solar (Productions, McQueen's film company) and modified in England to accommodate several cameras.
The top of the coupe was sliced off and it was converted to open-cockpit configuration. The car was then handed over to Gaylin Schultz, a Hollywood film technician who specialized in fabricating special effects paraphernalia.
A camera mount was affixed behind the cockpit in the center of the rear deck, onto which a rotating35-mm Arriflex could be bolted. Fitted with special gyroscopic adapters and powered by tanks of compressed air secured in the cockpit, the mount allowed camera operator Alex Barbey, sitting in a left side passenger seat and wearing a helmet and fireproof suit, to pan smoothly and follow a fast-moving 917 or 512 through a full 180-degree approach-and-pass sequence. With a set of controls and a small shaded television screen mounted on the dashboard Barbey could see what he was filming as he operated the camera.
A second mount could be positioned on top of the left door to allow Barbey to shoot with a swivel-mounted 35-mm Mitchell camera with Panavision lenses.
Operating complex cameras such as these was a difficult job under normal circumstances. Strapped into a race car doing 150 mph, at times in the rain, complicated the chore considerably.
The radical modifications made to the GT40, and the weight resulting from adding camera and other equipment needed to operate them, detracted considerably from it's (sic) handling. In fact, it made it downright diabolical in high-speed curves.
Having driven the 908 camera car in the race (actual footage shot by Solar during Le Mans), Jonathan Williams was nominated to handle the GT40, but after a week or so at the wheel, and several hair-raising moments, he opted to let Dutch driver Rob Slotemaker tame the unwieldy beast.
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That's pretty cool about the Sebring car, a Ford GT "Targa".