Hi Oliver,
Your question is very relevant. Problems when driving can come from a number of sources:
1. Gawpers, who rush up from behind on the motorway, then slow down suddenly in your three-quarter blind spot while someone uses a mobile phone to take a picture. Makes lane changing very hazardous. Solution? Drop back from the vehicle in front, drop down into third and floor it. Nothing keeps up with that!
2. Speed bumps with inadequate warning can be a horrendous source of damage to the underneath of the front clip. Also, French provincial streets, with a big dip between the crown of the road and a side turning. The only answer is to be very, very careful. A big obstruction will break out the whole undertray below the air intake. Ferries and the Eurotunnel are usually very considerate and allow us to use the lorry deck, which is somewhere near road level on land.
3. Truck drivers, because we are below the line-of-sight of their mirrors, particularly the nearside ones (and off-side ones of Continental trucks). Also SUVs, 4wd Chelsea Tractors and most cars driven by women./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flamer.gif I fitted a set of very loud airhorns, and have often had cause to use them to warn people who haven't seen me. I always blast people who sit indicating in an inner lane while they decide to pull out, and watch their front wheels vey carefully for signs of their moving across.
4. An interesting problem often happens at roundabouts, when we may be below the top of the Armco, making it difficult to see on the approach whether it's clear to enter. Similarly, T-junctions and turnings which are not at right angles. Because we have very limited vision aft of abeam, entering a road at an acute angle can be a matter of hoping!
People have fitted rear-view TV and supplementary rear view mirrors, but they are no substitute for driving defensively and expecting fellow road-users to act idiotically.
The stupidest road hazard is the owner of a mildly souped-up Golf GTi or small BMW, who carve you up to try to provoke a race. They aren't worth even bothering with.
All this doesn't mean that GT40s aren't great fun to drive on the street. Most people's reactions are very positive - little boys jump up and down, other drivers give a thumbs up, girls swoon and the best bit is a reflection in a shop window.
Vain - moi?
