Home Racing World

I am relatively new as a fan of Nascar and have been researching and building some classic cars for racing. I was looking over a book I had and noticed the cars lacked side mirrors.

I built the car I made to have side mirrors.

Did classic Nascar race cars lack side mirrors, and if so how did they keep an eye on everything going on around them?

They used an inside rear view mirror just like the street cars.
Some drivers used a Wink mirror, a long mirror made up of four or five segments, which gave a panoramic view.
http://www.allviewmirror.com/pdf/nascargarage.pdf

Some drivers used a small round mirror attached to the forward roll cage tube.
http://www.badgroove.com/index.php/2011 ... on-friday/ (See fifth, sixth, and seventh pictures.)

Thanks for the links.

I think it is a tiny detail that I have to delete if I want to be more accurate, or include to look kind of cool. It is odd I never noticed that before. I guess they could get knocked off pretty easy and bounce around on track.

You might want to spend some time wandering around this website: http://www.randyayersmodeling.com/model ... /index.php .

If you go back far enough, a lot of American cars either didn't have side mirrors at all or they were "luxury" options. My 1941 Ford Tudor Deluxe had a tiny side mirror that was utterly useless, and I always wondered if it was just there to make the car seem more sophisticated. Until the 1950s, a spotlight was a more popular option in that spot by the driver's window, although some cars had both in a rather crowded arrangement. I remember the first VW Beetle I saw had a side mirror as well as semaphore turn signals, and we all stood around it staring. That was the day we learned an engine could be in the rear and a gas inlet could be inside the "trunk".

What has already been stated is true. Only inside rear view mirrors, mostly extra large stock were used for awhile. Depends on the ERA you are modeling. In the 70's, even the door handles were soon missing. It was all about the AERO. Mirrors, door handles...excess drag.

Google is a great tool. Type in the year then NASCAR and hit images.