Electrathon America Forum

Nearly all of Willamette's cars use stick on round spot mirrors. A 2" dia on each side will meet the requirements but is not much viewing area. I don't let my team use less than a 3" and I prefer the 4" as it give a better rear view. There are also some rectangle shaped spot mirrors out there that work. We weld a 1/2" tube with a sheet metal 'circle' attached to our car. The circle has 3/4 tabs that wrap around the mirror to hold it because the self stick will not hold with the rough tracks. To make it more aerodynamic we can add a 'cone' out of plastic/fiberglass/aluminum etc. to the leading edge and even an aerodynamic cover out of VERY clear plastic on the trailing side. As you know building 20 cars a year we get by as cheaply as possible and these cost about $1-2 each. Just be sure that you have them adjusted correctly to begin with as they are very hard to adjust later unless you take the mirror off. Nearly all bike mirrors tend to bounce too much without any suspension and are hard to see out of not to mention that they cost much more.

Zaine, I obviously race close ****pit cars outside of running electrathon, and in those cars we actually cannot turn our head side to side. We have found the best thing you can do is mount the mirrors as close to you as you can, while it still being comfortable for you to view them.

Sit in the car as you would when racing it, and have someone move your mirror of choice around. When you find a spot you like it, mount it there. Just be careful with mounting it, if you dont brace it enough, hitting a bump or even working on the car in the pits and it can fall off.

I also used the 2" mirrors and HATED them. I'd suggest at least 3" mirrors, I will run them on our car from now on.

The easiest solution is to use motorcycle mirrors. The cheapest solution is round spot mirrors. They are hard to see and judge distances in. Bike mirrors are to wobbly,in the NW we will make you replace them with stronger mirrors.

If you really want to get elaborate, you can mold them into your car for aerodynamics. Bottom line is it really helps to see. The new helmet rules are going to horibly limit your side viewing ability, so mirrors are gonig to be even more important. When you get hit you end up going really slow.

Aaron