ABOUT US

How the Tailgate Mirror came to life

I love the wide open spaces and adventures my family and I can have in California.  We took the plunge and purchased a truck bed camper to explore in.  I soon found out that it was very frustrating to drive my truck with the family camper on it - which meant the tailgate had to be down. My camera just looked at the ground and, as you can imagine, backing up is when you need it the most.

As a design engineer by trade, I knew I could fix this problem for myself. I made a few prototypes and worked on the shape of the mirror to get a good image.  A few friends saw the mirror in use and said they wanted one for their truck, thus the idea was born!

I then spent the next several months researching different truck models and where the cameras were located, made changes to the frame design and found one that would fit all the trucks, was lightweight, could be produced in bulk and was cost-effective.

It is easy to install and will keep you from backing over grandma!

 

More about Derk:

Derk knew early on that his passion was in cars. He raced them in local events and then went on to study Automotive Engineering at the Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegem.  Moving to the Midlands of England put him right in the middle of the European design industry for WRC, F1 and Sportscar teams. 

As a design engineer for RML he was part of the team that designed and built the Saleen S7 Supercar and was invited to move to California to work for Saleen directly. As the teams’ race engineer he managed and raced S7's all around the world – including the prestigious 24 Heures du Mans in 2001.

After Saleen, he was recruited by Kepler Motors to design and build a running prototype of the Kepler Motion – a hybrid Supercar. The picture below is him driving the Motion at Laguna Seca Raceway.

Derk now has his own company consulting for manufacturers and race teams and designing automotive performance parts.

       

Derk in the Kepler Motion at Laguna Seca “Driving a car in anger that we designed and built ourselves is truly special!”

Derk with the Saleen S7 Team