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This wild Land Rover films Game of Thrones

Need a car to film an epic Game of Thrones battle? Look no further than the Vampyre Batt

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There's a working ute, and then there's this. It's the Vampyre Batt, a unique take on the notion of a tracking rig, built by Scotsman Duncan Barbour.

With winter now truly upon us, we stumbled across this amazing doco from season six, showing the incredible lengths and detail that goes into GoT.

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The Land Rover Defender ute is fitted with a flat tray, and runs a Chevy V8 and long-travel desert racing suspension along with big-bag offroad tyres, in order to create a smooth-as-possible platform for the huge camera boom.

Known as a Russian arm, the huge carbon fibre boom is operated from the tray of the vehicle, where the film crew is completely sheltered from the elements.

It proved its worth in one of the biggest battle scenes ever filmed for a TV show, where more than 80 horses and more than 600 cast and crew were involved on a freezing winter's day.

"We were a bit annoyed [when we saw the final edit]," said Kit Harington, who plays leading man Jon Snow. "It looks like it was done in CGI, but it wasn't!"

The Vampyre also sports a fully detachable roll cage, 240-volt on-board power via a removable generator under the car.

It has extra mounting points for other cameras, as well as a winch to allow the Vampyre to anchor itself when filming in tough spots.

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Barbour also makes another unique tracking vehicle that was used in Game of Thrones, known as the ROBIN. Based on a side-by-side Can Am Commander quad, the ROBIN has room for four people on board but with all-wheel drive, a locking front diff and a top speed of 120km/h.

Like the Vampyre, the ROBIN features a rear-mounted Steadicam stabiliser mount, which isolates the camera from the vehicle’s movements and makes for smooth shots even when moving quickly.

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