Geek warning - wiper direction on RSRs

[patrick911]

Hi all,

I know this is getting quite anal, but as some of you may know, I'm building a fairly accurate copy of the Targa Florio winning Martini '73 RSR. That means I'm trawling the internet, and this site specifically, to try and find exactly where this car differed from others.
I've also bought Starkey's & Konradsheim's books for reference, but guess what, there's still mysteries to be solved, partly because even the same car differed from race to race.

Anyway, to the point. I've always seen historic pictures of the Martini RSR as the one below, with the windshield wipers parked to the right, which is sort of weird, as the RSRs were country code '100' (Germany) and all LHD.



But recently I've seen pictures of these cars as they are today, after restoration, and noticed that both the #9 car (the Museum car, 360 0020) and the #8 car (R6, 911 360 0588) have the wipers parked to the left.



So the question is, is this a mistake made during restoration, or is there a valid reason why this differs?
Also, if anyone knows why the wipers were parked to the right in the first place, that would help, as I just don't see why this - a dashboard out job - was done??

thanks!
Patrick

[edmayo]

Certain drivers may have wanted them out of their line of sight?

[Yellow491]

You can alter the electrics on the wiper motor to park it where you want,i normally park my wipers the other side.
My rsr you can park it where you choose,as does my 993rsr

[patrick911]

thanks guys - great feedback and if it indeed is that easy to change, it makes perfect sense that they just may have wanted them out of sight

[RSTarga]

One reason to park them on the right is that at high speeds the wipers tend to raise up higher than their normal parking position. On a street car left park is preferable as you get a quick first wipe.

[ejboyd5]

If I remember correctly, the park position was changed from right to left as a result of a USA DOT requirement that the first sweep of the wiper should clear water from in front of the driver. Changing the park position on my '69 was a matter of adjusting the wiper linkage under the hood and had nothing to do with altering the electrical connections to the wiper motor. Hardest parts of the job was removal of the ventilation blower to gain access to the linkage and the bending of one wiper arm to the proper orientation.