Some objects are larger than they may appear.
Cars are typically designed to be symmetrical. View one head-on, from the back, or from above, and the left side will pretty much mirror the right, and vice-versa (save of course for the cockpit). But some don't, like the Hyundai Veloster or the first-gen Mini Clubman, with their unusual door configurations. And the new eighth-generation, mid-engined Corvette doesn't quite "mirror" itself either.
Or rather its mirrors don't, we should say. Because aside from the position of the steering wheel, the side-view mirrors are just about the only thing that differs from one side to the other.
The revelation comes from CorvetteBlogger, which looked at the image above and saw something that few others (if anyone else) saw: that the wing mirror on the passenger side protruded more than the one on the driver's side. So they took out a tape measure and confirmed their hypothesis: while the mirrors and their housings are essentially mirrors of each other, the one on the passenger side is placed two inches further out than the driver's.
The reason apparently comes down to those bulging rear haunches, which the driver will need to peer around to see the traffic they've likely just passed.
While it's a minor detail, to be sure, all of this attention to the new Vette's mirrors makes us wonder if other mid-engined sports cars, supercars, and hypercars have had to do the same. Because the C8 certainly isn't the only mid-engined automobile ever made, or even the only one currently on the market in the US. Among the others you'll find the Acura NSX, Alfa Romeo 8C Spider, Audi R8, BMW i8, Bugatti Chiron, Ferrari F8 Tributo, Ford GT, Lamborghini Aventador and Huracan, Lotus Evora, Porsche 718 Boxster/Cayman, and everything McLaren makes. So do their mirrors mirror each other?
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