Remember that old movie, “King of the mountain “ ? Dennis Hopper drove an old C2 on Mulholland Drive and he’d race against his own time with a stop watch taped to his mirror. I’ve seen stop watches often in pairs mounted to the dash of rally cars but I guess it got me wondering if this was ever a thing back in the day for road racing or whatever? Wondering if it’d be a period correct add on for shows or such ?

 

Road rallys use a navigator so any timing devices would not be on the mirror.
Other competition events prior to helmet communication used pit boards to communicate to the driver.
You don't want a watch flying around in an accident.

 

I doubt a watch flying around in an accident in the Vette would be my primary concern. I’m pretty much consigned to that any accident in the Vette is unsurvivable so…
Just wondering if there was any form of racing, sport, or activity a C3 would’ve been in that involved using a stop watch setup be it dash mounted or whichever.
Just working on creating a 60’s era vibe for shows.

 

I stated road rallys mounted on the passenger side.

 

I’m just asking if anyone would remember seeing a stopwatch used in a Vette back in the day for any form of racing

 

No never.

I started following racing as a kid in the mid 60's, and was involved in racing by the late 70's. I've never seen anyone install a stopwatch on a mirror, or anywhere else in a Corvette or any road race car for use by a driver. As MelWff said, maybe on the passenger side of a rally car for use by the navigator, but not usually in front of the driver on a race car.

I think the rear view mirror would be a horrible place to mount a stopwatch. Not only would it limit what could be seen from the rear view mirror (rear visibility is pretty important in road racing), but chances are it would also vibrate so much in a race car that it would be difficult, if not impossible to read. Also, I just find it hard to believe that a driver could or would try to reset a stopwatch while navigating a 10 turn road course at high speed. There are now digital lap recorders available to install in race cars that record lap times, the number of laps raced, etc, but I don't know any driver that tries to watch them during a race. They're mainly used to document track time to review times afterwards, or as evidence if there is a dispute over qualifying times or finishing position.

Before we had radios to communicate lap times to drivers we used pit boards with the lap time (usually with just the seconds shown, and not the full time in minutes), the lap number, the driver's position in the race and the difference in seconds to either the car ahead or behind. The pit board served to keep the driver up to date in real time, on all the information he needed. Modern F1 and endurance racing cars can display lap times, position, gap between cars etc on the dash or steering wheel, but do so by telemetry and without any input or participation by the driver.

In 100+ years of making movies Hollywood has only made a small handful of accurate movies about cars or racing (mainly 1966's Grand Prix, 2013's Rush & McQueen's 1970 Le Mans). Most of the movies Hollywood has made about racing are just silly, with no basis in reality. A good example is 2019's Ford vs Ferrari where in the first few minutes they showed drivers having a conversation with each other while in their cars racing each other on the track. I can tell you it's almost impossible to talk with a driver in a helmet with the car idling on the grid, let alone from between cars at speed on track. Just because something appears in a movie about racing, doesn't mean it's something that's been done in racing.

If you'd like to have a stopwatch mounted on your dash or somewhere else within reach for your use because you like the idea or think it looks cool go ahead, but I think you'd have a hard time proving it was something commonly done in race cars.

 

Stop watches on dashboards, usually in pairs, like the Heuer Rally Master, were for rallying, usually in Europe where stage rallies are more popular. They would be operated by the navigator, not the driver and allow timing of stages, elapsed time and the total time during stage rallies where checkpoint arrival and departure times are critical. They are also invaluable for "Regulatory Rallies", along with a degree of maths ability by the navigator. They would probably be used in conjunction with other instruments to measure speed and distance (Halda for example).

They are not a track racing accessory. Only in very recent years with the arrival if digital dash displays and telemetry have drivers on race tracks been able to see their actual and predicted lap times in the car.

I'd suggest that stop watches are not a "period" accessory in any Corvette really.😄

 

Vintage dashboard mounted Heuer timers & stopwatches can go for big $$$ today...

 

I'd suggest that stop watches are not a "period" accessory in any Corvette really.😄….
This is the kinda response in a nutshell I was looking for , yeh or neh.
Probably shouldn’t have posted the screenshot of the stopwatch on the mirror from the movie as everyone fixated on it being placed there. I was just searching for any image showing a stopwatch mounted in a Vette, that’s all I could find.
Anyway got my answer it’d be unnecessary bling that was never used in vintage Vette racing.
So I’ll abandon that idea.