Stunt Vehicles – Pod Cars – Film and TV Stunt Vehicles

We are able to offer several specialist cars for rental to TV and Film productions, including our 7 pod cars – Mercedes Vito Van, Mercedes C Class, BMW X5, BMW 330, Mini Cooper S, Porsche 911 and Lexus LS460.

Modern cars have not escaped the Health & Safety brigade – for the better actually. The trouble is, when you try to perform stunts in a modern car the computers step in and stop all of the fun by way of ABS, DSC, Traction Control, etc. Although some cars let you disable a few of these safety features, they only partially do so in most cases.

We have modified our fleet of cars to enable all of these safety features to be switched off, as well as equipping many of them with very powerful hydraulic handbrake systems. In a few of our rear-wheel drive cars we have installed a ‘spool’ (locked) differential which allows drifting and doughnuts to be performed easily on any surface.

Pod Cars

Pod cars have been around for several years, used mainly on big budget films and more recently on TV productions. A pod car is basically a car which has been modified in such a way that all of the mechanical controls are moved into a ‘pod’ located on the roof. This enables actors to be shot sitting inside and ‘pretending’ to drive the car in order to safely deliver dialogue, whilst the car is actually being driven by a professional stunt driver from the roof.

Our pods are slightly different from some, in that they are capable of performing any stunt manoeuvre that a regular car can do.

Our pod cars are now fully road legal, enabling them to be used for filming on live roads.

Mercedes Vito Van
This pod van was specially commissioned for the hit Netflix show, Adolescence. We can transform practically anything into a pod vehicle. Recently we fitted a driving pod to a 33 seater bus (pictures and info coming soon…)

Mercedes C Class
This is our Mercedes C Class, a 2014 W205 model with very modern interior. Like all of our pod cars, it features our unique mechanical steering system and has a current MOT making it fully road legal. Although it is a C220D (diesel) model, the interior is identical to the iconic C63 AMG enabling it to be used for driving/interior shots of any W205 C Class Mercedes.

BMW X5
The BMW X5 features our proven mechanical steering system and, like our other pod cars, is fitted with numerous rigging points for camera and lighting equipment. It has a powerful 306 bhp diesel engine, automatic transmission and four-wheel drive system. Interior trim is black leather and all driving controls from the pod are totally hidden. We have fitted a sprung steering lock limiter to the original steering wheel inside the car to facilitate authentic steering inputs from the actors/actresses. Interior creature comforts such as heated seats, A/C etc are still fully functional. Like our other pod cars, our BMW X5 has current MOT status, is fully road legal and we have an identical double car available for wide shots/establishers.

BMW 330
Our BMW 330 pod car has a powerful 231hp engine and manual transmission. It is also equipped with a hydraulic handbrake and mechanical steering in which we have cleverly increased the steering rate from the standard 3.5 turns lock-to-lock to 2.5 turns. This makes performing manoeuvres such as handbrake 180’s and ‘J’ turns easier, as well as making the car much more nimble at low speed. Our in-house designed and manufactured mechanical steering system is now available to other pod car builders because we believe it is superior to any other systems currently available.

Mini Cooper S
Our Mini Cooper S pod car is also equipped with a hydraulic handbrake and our precise mechanical steering system. Like the BMW, it is fitted with multiple screw in rigging points to enable camera and lighting rigs to be installed quickly and easily. Both cars and their doubles can of course be colour ‘wrapped’ to suit the productions preference.

Porsche 911
Our Porsche 911 (996) is a new addition to our ever increasing fleet.

Lexus LS460
The Lexus is a luxury limousine and the largest car in our fleet. We have an identical double car and like all of our cars, it can be wrapped in any colour.

ENGINEERING

Pod cars are used for interior and close-up shots of the driver, etc. and we have identical ‘double’ cars for the exterior wide shots. They are also equipped with a removable hydraulic handbrake and always driven by a professional stunt driver. We have a list of BSR drivers approved to drive our pod cars, all of which are very familiar with their unique controls.