Looking Back at Looking Back.(NEWS)(cars mirror)(Ray Harroun Award)

THE DRIVER OF THE MARMON Wasp was running solono riding mechanic with a swiveling head to keep a running commentary on what was happening aft. So Ray Harroun attached a small mirror above his steering wheel. If he hadn't won that first Indy 500 in 1911, who knows how long it might have taken before the first road car grew a rearview mirror? Or the three that most of today's cars have?

Having driven assorted race cars in which the mirrors afforded me little more than a jiggling wash of color or, at night, dancing daggers of miniature lightning, I've wondered what Harroun actually saw in his little mirror while running on bricks in a motorized buckboard. Still, it was a breakthrough.

As clever as that first "aha moment in 1911, innovations continue to improve looking backward in mirrors. What a relief when someone designed a way to flick the mirrors and redirect night glare from the eyes without destroying the adjustment. Then the flicking became automatic, and dimming excessive brightness was built in. I still dip my headlights when I come upon another car within a football field ahead of me. Who knows what ...