Hoi zäme! (meaning "Hi everyone" in Swiss German)

I'm in the lucky position of driving the GT4 over amazing Swiss mountain passes. Last time we headed over the Klausen Pass. I decided to record the drive, but this time with a little twist: I aimed to achieve a third person view.

I used the wing as the mounting point (I suppose wing risers would've helped) and installed the following parts:

• GoPro suction cup mount
• a thick selfie stick with GoPro mounting point on the bottom and 1/4-20 UNC thread on the top
• 1/4-20 UNC to GoPro adapter
• Tape

I had to use the selfie stick in its collapsed form. Extending it resulted in a lot of movement. Even while collapsed, it still wobbled side-to-side. I ended up using tape to create 2 extra stabilizing points (it was a last minute hack, it helped somewhat). It's an ugly, ugly setup:



The result is something like this:

What did I learn?

• one needs a real tripod, with 3 suction cup mounts to get a really stable setup
• tape helps, but make sure you get a non-stretching one, as the wind can screw it up
• I need to mount a dedicated microphone above the exhaust
• not sure it was worth the hassle, next time I might just mount it on the windscreen
• the Klausen Pass is incredibly tight with countless blind corners. Takes away from the fun

I plan to record other mountain passes too. However, I need to improve my audio setup. The GoPro Hero 5 has a USB-C port, and one needs to buy their $60 adapter in order to use an external microphone with it. I'm not sure about the sound quality I would get.

Also, I'm a bit disappointed in the image quality. What do you guys use for recording driving videos? Mirrorless Camera? Sony Action Cam?

 

Very nice! I have great memories of my GT4 on the Swiss passes

 

Gorgeous drive! I was just in Ireland a few weeks back and you Europeans sure know how to somehow fit two lanes into one. Some tight turns there

 

Wow!

 

Thanks

Yeah, it's nuts. It seems like the roads and parking spots in Europe were designed for cars like the VW Beetle, Mini and Fiat 500. The GT4 is 77.9 inches / 1978 mm wide, including mirrors.

I'm not sure whether wider sports cars and super cars enjoy that pass. Half of the time I was inching it in the GT4.

 

What a beautiful drive! And an amazing car for it. Third person is a difficult perspective to achieve, but this worked out pretty well I'd say. Looking forward to future videos!

 

Yes, many roads in the alps too narrow, or are today's cars just too wide? Aside the GT4 I also have a 944, which I took out today. Standard B roads are super wide in that car, you can really play around. Car is 1735mm wide, even with mirrors below 1.8m.

 

Great view from that camera angle. Here's my vid from last year over Klausen in a rented C4S Cab mid-week (low traffic) and from North to South. Also did the Susa, Grimmsel and Furka in the same day. You're very lucky to live in driving nirvana.

 

Where are you based?

ah memories from ED. Opening day last year. looks like there's more snow this year. I feel like it would be more fun to do the reverse route and just go up this side in the pictures with all the hairpins. The other side of the pass is too narrow and straight.

 

Wow! Super video. Thanks for going to the hassle to do this.

I used work with car camera mounts for a living. We *always* get at least three "pick" points to stabilize the camera. There are a bunch of kits to do this. Here's one: http://tinyurl.com/yar5knoz Also, you can use one of the small cell-phone USB charging batteries (like Anker Power Core) to power the GoPro for hours at a time. It's a hassle to set up the first time, but you get better the more you do it. I have a similar kit that I use and it's a blast. Just remember to tie a safety line from the camera to a hard point on the car so you don't send the rig through the car behind you if anything should fail.

 

Very cool video! What about a simple suction cup to the top, rear most part of the roof?

Like this one I took in Yellowstone...

 

What was the outside temp.? No problem with rear sliding??

It was 73 degrees and sunny yesterday and with warm tires I lost my back-end which was not an issue because GT4 easy to correct, before in trouble, but would be a little concerned below 50 F if pushing too hard on some of those mountain passes

 

Thanks for the tips and for sharing your experience

I'm based in Zurich. I drove the pass from west to east. Next time I'll try it the other way around, and just turn back at the top. Thanks for the tip!

That's what I was trying to achieve with my sticky tape construction

I've seen that there are a few kits available. Do you think I would be able to achieve a very stable setup with a tripod? Also, am I putting a lot of pressure on my wing at a maximum speed of 60mph? I'm afraid that the wind resistance caused by the tripod + GoPro would exert an unhealthy force on my wing.

I will experiment with windshield and the top of the car.

It must have been around 50 F. The car would've been sliding around for sure if I had the Cup 2s on. However, I mounted a set of Pirelli P Zeros before my super wet, super cold (38-45 F) track day at the Red Bull Ring, and they were so much better than the Cups. The car felt confidence inspiring. I could always feel how much grip I have left.

 

^Good info

 

Digistyle13, A tripod limits your mounting possibilities (3 fixed mounting spots) and poses challenges to protect your car's finish. The small suction cups work *really* great, but they're expensive. The upside of the "pro/am" mounting gear is that it will also support a bigger camera, like a Sony A7S. Those cameras will produce much higher quality images. However, you loose the great image stabilization that the Hero5Black has. (I think that looked cool in your video; horizon was stable but some wiggle in your car) And you can spend a LOT more $$ going down that rabbit hole. For occasional hobby use, it's hard to beat a GoPro Hero5 Black with a few power and mounting accessories. Plus you can remote start/stop from the phone app from inside your car.