Carl,
Good comment ... in my view (sorry!), mirrors are perhaps the MOST important
safety devices on the car. Arguably MORE IMPORTANT than fuel cells, fire
bottles, etc. The driver must use his mirrors many, many times per race
session ... but he rarely, if ever, makes use of his fire system or roll bar
(we hope). Mirrors are a PREVENTIVE safety device, cells & fire bottles &
roll bars are not preventive.
Unfortunately it seems difficult to "legislate" mirror requirements. It's
like prunes: are two enough? is that one too big? The only thing that
really matters is field of view, and that's a hard thing for a Tech
Inspector to evaluate at tech. But I wish Tech would focus more attention
on mirrors -- I have seen some dreadful arrangements. If there was time,
the driver should have to sit in the car at Tech, and read all the letters
on a big wide chart posted behind the car. Oh well.
Side benefit (although unimportant in vintage) ... I have "beaten" close
rivals solely because of my superior mirrors. Without moving my head, I
have complete coverage of a very wide field of vision with my mirrors. I
can keep track of a competitor with little effort. I can drive more
consistently, more safely, and yes, faster, because I am not distracted by
moving my head around trying to locate a following car. I have "beaten"
others in "faster" cars, simply because they had to slow down to allow
themselves time to hunt for a car in their inadequate mirrors. Yes it is a
bit scary!
Minor tip: discount stores have $10 mirrors that clip over the rear-view on
a street car. If you safety-wire this onto your race car mirror, and can
adjust to the convexity, you'll get a very large field of view (COMBINED, of
course, with TWO side mirrors). Obviously I'm talking about Production cars
or Sports Racers, not single seaters.
Regards,
Mark
>From: "Carl McLelland" <carlmcle@saturnnet.com>
>Reply-To: "Carl McLelland" <carlmcle@saturnnet.com>
>To: "Vintage list" <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
>Subject: Vintage grouping, etc.
>Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 22:49:26 -0800
>
>Here's an idea to bat around regarding the current fiasco over car sizes
>vs.
>speed; along with the debate over racing tires.
>
>We've been racing for some time now with our existing car groupings, i.e.
>we
>are pretty much aware of the performance differences between the front
>runners and the rest of us. Organizers would also like to change the tires
>in an effort to slow us down.
>
>Instead of changing the tires, how about a mirror requirement. I've been
>surfing the net a lot the last few days in an effort to find a better
>center
>mirror for the Alpine. I for one (1) want a better look at what's coming up
>behind me and (2) bigger mirrors will enable me to better evaluate what's
>there in the time allowed for looking at the mirror.
>
>I've seen some with multiple mirror surfaces that are quite reasonably
>priced and would sit below the top of the windscreen, thus not altering the
>"period" appearance of the car, yet appreciably increasing the angle and
>view to the rear. Obviously this won't work in all cars (formula's and some
>sports racers), but it would be an improvement for some of the cars.
>
>As I see it (God, yet another pun) we all seem to understand what the
>problem is. There is no single solution to the problem.... with the
>possible
>exception of being better informed about what's around us. Better mirrors
>would be a step in that direction.
>
>Carl (CSRG #247, '60 Sunbeam Alpine)
>
|