Safe Mirror Placement… how to avoid blind spots!
A few weeks ago we addressed driving your S2000 safely and promised a more detailed article about mirror placement… here it is.
With the top down, visibility in the S2000 is outstanding. Unfortunately, when the top goes up, visibility goes down… substantially. There are large blind spots on both the driver and passenger side, but these can be reduced greatly by correct mirror placement.
When the top is up, you need to be primarily dependant on the center rear view mirror for most of what’s behind you. Make sure you position it to give you the most panoramic view out the back window possible. The side mirrors should be tilted outwardly quite a bit more than you might think. When the top is up, the side mirrors are your only hope of seeing cars in either blind spot, and so the mirrors need to be adjusted differently than you might be used to setting up side mirrors. Because you need to extend them out so wide to see the blind spots, they become much less helpful in seeing what’s further behind in the immediately adjacent lanes. (You’ll see what’s in the lanes outside of those instead.) You actually won’t even see the cars in the immediate lanes to your left and right in the side view mirrors until they’re nearly in your blind spot already. Because of this, you’ll be more dependant on your center rear view for most driving activities. The big advantage of this setup is that you’ll be able to make MUCH safer lane changes.
With the side mirrors widened out, you’ll be much less likely to cut off another car that’s in your blind spot as you’ll be able to see them now. (With the mirrors in the “standard” position, you’d never know they were there until you heard their horn blaring or perhaps something worse…)
To adjust the side mirrors correctly, you want to move them out until you can see a car in the adjacent lane in the mirror right up until you can see it passing you out your side window. By doing this, you’ll have less overall visibility from the side mirrors, but you’ll be able to make your blind spot almost non-existent.
A convex mirror or wide angle mirror insert can also help to correct the blind spot and should also be considered.
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