Follower of this website would have figured out I recently bought a 2026 Mazda MX-5 Club. I am back in the quintessential affordable sports car.
Part of the initial ownership process is fitting in a dashcam. With the post-COVID craziness on the roads still very much a thing, video footage is crucial should you have the misfortune of being in an accident. Furthermore, the MX-5 is absolutely tiny relative to the hulking SUVs out there, so if someone were to bump into me unsighted, I want them to get caught in 4K.
It really cannot get easier to wire in a dash cam on the little Mazda. There’s an existing gap between the windshield glass and trim for wires to tuck into. The A pillars are held on by a single clip. And beneath the passenger side dash is a hidden 12V cigarette port for power. It took me all of 10 minutes following this video to install a Vanture Element 1 Pro. Five of which was unboxing the thing.
By the way, you know AI RAM pricing has gone completely bonkers when the 256GB memory card I bought alongside the Element 1 Pro costs more than the dashcam.
A slight quirk with the MX-5 being a convertible is that the windshield shakes quite a bit. Obviously this is because there isn’t a structural roof attached to it. But this presents a problem for dashcams mounted to the windshield. Modern dashcams have G meters that automatically locks a video file should it detect a high kinetic event - say, in a crash. However, the MX-5 windscreen shakes so much and often, the Venture thinks it's in a one constantly.
I found this out because the dashcam kept making a locking sounds every so often. At first I thought it was the cabling rattling against something metallic, until I triangulated the noise back to the Vantrue’s tiny speaker. The solution? Turn off the G meter completely. Even at its least sensitive setting, the Element 1 Pro kept locking the video file. A nifty feature for sure, but completely useless in an MX-5.
The best anti-theft device.