Included in that new insurance policy was a clause that would nullify any mandatory excess if I was able to provide dashcam footage of any incident. I thought it would be nice to have a camera and I was sure I wanted it to be inconspicuous. That meant something that would sit centre of the dashboard, ideal integrated with my phone holder.
Most cameras are intended to be installed pretty permanently but I wanted to be able to remove it, partly to be able to protect the camera from rain but also for basic security reasons. The actual space between the back of the windscreen and the dash is limited because of the slope of the windscreen and the need to have the camera high enough so that the lens will see over the wiper blades.
These constraints reduced the options significantly and I ended up getting a relatively wide flat camera from 70Mai that just fitted in that gap. It came with a smaller device intended to be fitted as a rear-view camera.
Having decided to make them easily removeable, I fitted some magnetic strips to the underside of two metal plates (one each for the front and rear cameras) and glued the one camera to the topsides of each plate. The magnetic fixing seems plenty strong enough for either camera and neither interferes significantly with the sightline from the driver’s seat.
At the moment, I am trialling the two cameras to see which works best. The small one intended for use as the rear camera does work surprisingly well and is hardly noticeable. The larger camera has the added advantage of having and back facing camera intended to capture the view in the cabin but which actually provides a pretty good view out of the rear.
My 170S Build 