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Behind the scenes: creating the flying Ford Anglia
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How do you make a car fly? If you're Arthur Weasley, you enchant a Muggle vehicle. If only it were that easy for movie directors...
Ford Anglia leaving King's Cross station
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Extracted from Harry Potter Film Wizardry
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Alas, the filmmakers behind Chamber of Secrets had to find another way.
The light blue car (license number 7990 TD) that appears in the second film was an authentic 1962 Ford Anglia 105E, built in Ford's factory in the United Kingdom. Special effects supervisor John Richardson took out the engine and gutted the vehicle to make it lighter, and then fitted it onto a rotating crane with a special joint called a gimbal head.
This let the filmmakers rotate, pitch, and roll the car backward and forward. They then fit the gimbal head onto the back of an American pickup truck with specially adapted suspension and outriggers so that they could create all kinds of flying effects while on the move.