Lessons from the Gunball Rally...

[jimrankin]

Since I'm not Italian or a sexy professional race car driver the statement "What'sa behinda you is'a not importante" just doesn't apply to me.

I've done a few mirror mods like making longer mounts and going to the larger Spa "sedan" type mirrors (bought flat, probably should have got convex) but still did not feel I could properly tell just what was happening behind (center mirror just shows me my roll bar) or right beside me. After spending a track day driving a closed car with a big convex center mirror I decided I had to get one for the seven. My biggest concern was that if I didn't like it, or if I didn't want to leave it on for street use I didn't want to have a bunch of holes in the hood where it had to mount.

Settled on just doing it "the hard way" since most of my projects seem to end up that way anyway. Did a complex bend of a sheet of aluminum to match the curves of the hood of the S2K and am using the hood latch (which now bolts though to an added set of backing) to hold the complete assembly in place. Have a thin rubber pad glued to the bottom of the base in hopes it will protect the paint.

I was going to just mount the mirror without any aero fairing but was afraid it might just end up shaking too much to use, so as mentioned, did it the hard way by fabricating an epoxy fairing.

I can now reset the side mirrors for just that, side view, and have a good rear view without having to take my eyes off the track too long.

Will be on track again in a couple of weeks and will see just how much of an improvement it is. If it's a real help I'll do a bit better on the spray can paint job and leave it on "as is" or think about a permanent mount that does bolt to the hood without the massive base.

[xcarguy]

It has a Maserati 'Birdcage' appeal . . . I like.

[rss]

hey jim,

that's a novel approach. and a big mirror!

my car came "pre drilled" for the spa center mirror, so i just bought another one and used the existing holes. i like the mounting point fine, it works well for me. the one thing i want to do though is cut the post off and re-tig weld it to the base at about a 30 degree angle so it slopes backward. i had thought about mounting on the dash, but decided that might not be the best in terms of safety (metal pike on the dash? :^o)

one word of caution: i put a layer of rubber between the base and hood, both to protect the hood and dampen vibration. i recently removed the mirror from the hood and noticed that something in the rubber had caused bad crazing in the underlying clear coat. so much for protection! as i recall, you have clear bra on your entire car, so perhaps that wouldn't be an issue for you.

[jimrankin]

I had the small mirror and it was dash mounted, better a bit further forward like yours as you get a better field of view. No way to have a single leg mount on a mirror as large as I installed so went with the overkill. Kept it in my line of sight but high enough that no loss of road/track view ahead. Easy to drill and thread in the ends for the mirrors to mount on longer round stock.

[rnr]

I was wondering why it was taking you so long to do the mirror - didnt realize it was a full scale engineering solution. If it works at the next Thunderhill day I may just copy it :-)

[rss]

hey i see you have an i-shift light. i got one recently and think it's awesome. i hardly look at the tach any more.

[jimrankin]

Hi RNR,

Since the mirror is only bolted through the three existing holes used for the current hood latch, and yours and mine are pretty much the same, you can try it out next time we get the cars together.

[jimrankin]

Love the shift light!! I have mine set so it goes all red just a bit before the rev limiter kicks in because I just hate that nasty sound/feel when it does. I keep expecting parts to fly out through the hood every time I run up into it.