Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

Ford Ranger up to 2011. 1960s-1980s Mustang. Really, any pre-1980s American car. 2006-2015 Miata. I can see the hood on all of these cars, just to name ones from personal experience. I wear polarized sunglasses while driving, so glare is greatly reduced from the hood and reflection of the dash off the windshield. However, a light-colored vehicle still throws a bunch of light my way, even if not giving me a direct reflection of the sun. Even if not blinding, that extra light is fatiguing on your eyes. Your eye color, eye condition, and general genetics also play a role in how bad glare affects you.

Again, it comes from racing decades ago, where you don't have time to use a hand to block the hood and where hours of racing means the sun will shift position noticeably through the laps. And even before that, planes have been using blacked out hoods. P-51D Mustangs come to mind. Like all performance-oriented options on pedestrian cars, they come from high performance situations where they elimante every source of error they can