Yahoo Autos One of the Mid-Engine C8 Corvette's Side Mirror Stalks Is Two Inches Longer Than the Other
A whole lot of changes were made in the Corvette's transformation from front-engine to mid-engine for the C8 generation. Most of them are obvious, but some, like this one discovered by Corvette Blogger, are a little bit more subtle.
If you look at the mid-engine Corvette head-on, you'll notice that the passenger side view mirror extends out from the body noticeably more than the driver's side mirror. Keith Cornett from Corvette Blogger actually brought a tape measure to the east coast reveal of the car to confirm the visuals with real data, discovering a two-inch disparity between the two mirror stalk lengths. Now that we've seen it, it's hard to ignore every time we look at a picture of the new 'Vette.
Why are the two sides different? Well, it all comes down to visibility, obviously. Because the rear haunches on the new C8 house things like cooling apparatuses, they stick out from the body a whole lot. That means the mirrors have to reach far enough to see around them. Because the driver's side mirror sits close to the driver at an acute angle, it doesn't need to stand out much to see behind the car. The passenger side is viewed farther away, so engineers probably wanted to give drivers a clearer, more direct mirror location to work with.
We reached out to a Chevy spokesperson for some insight, and they told us that in addition to visibility purposes, the differing lengths are also required to meet some international laws. The C8 is the first Corvette to be sold as a truly international vehicle, and the first to be available in right-hand drive. We're guessing the stalk lengths are switched depending on which side the driver is on.
Interesting stuff.
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