[DeTomaso] 360 degree vision

[Mikael]

Let's talk mirrors, it might improve your safety.

Sitting in the driver's seat, you should aim to get a full 360 degrees view
of what's going on around the car. The front 180 degrees are usually covered
by your eyes, maybe  moving the head a little. The rear 90 degrees or less
are covered by the windshield mounted mirror. And the side mirrors usually
cover the rear of your car and some of the side, rearward facing. But in all
cars I've taken over after somebody, the side mirrors have been angled so
they overlap the windshield mirror. Or to put it another way, a car behind
you can be seen by you in all three mirrors. That means that you have
approximately 45 degrees of unseen territory on each side, the blind angle
that crafty engineers try to compensate for by optional warning systems.

But there's a simpler solution, one that I have now used for 10 years. Turn
each side mirror out until you can see that blind angle. That means that you
can't see the car behind you in the side mirrors, but why show the same
thing trice, and have something being invisible? Side mirrors should be set
so that when a car overtakes you on the freeway, first you see it in the
windshield mirror, then in the side mirror, then in the corner of your eye.
Ideally the car must not be invisible at any time during the overtaking, no
blind angle, and it mustn't be fully visible in two places at once. It must
be a natural flow from one mirror to the other to your eyes. Hope I
explained it well.

It does take some getting used to. You have to learn to not look for cars
behind you in side mirrors. But soon you'll get used to having 360 degrees
of vision. I know I'll never go back.

Another thought on this is that if everybody used their side mirrors like
this, not having to see what's behind you and the rear fender, in the side
mirror, then the mirror faces could be placed inside the car instead of
outside. That would reduce world fuel consumption by 2-3% and noise levels a
bit also. Just saying...;^)



Mvh/Regards
Mikael