I seem to remember that overtaking mirrors and wing mirrors were driver aids which you bought and fitted them yourself.
I still drive a 1933 sports car with wire rope brakes. ( three independant circuits ) The car was never fitted with side windows from new. so side windows are a drivers aid as well, they keep the driver and passenger dry and stop snow from blowing into your lap.
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The most helpful driving aid I have is… not having the wife in the passenger seat!
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More safety features than helpful driving aids but I really like Auto lights and Indicator mirrors.
I still see a lot of people at night with no lights on and indicator mirrors are helpful when maybe the front or rear indicators are blocked by other traffic, great if youre a motorcyclist who filters in heavy traffic, you can see the on coming indicator mirror flashing easy.
Sadly my MX5 doesn’t have either of those 
What I’d really like is one of those systems which allows you to travel down the motorway at over a ton in thick fog or heavy rain, as fitted to many BMWs and white vans. That is what they’re using . . . isn’t it ?
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I think that it is more the removal of something rather than a driver aid…
I think it is the removal of the drivers brain…
I agree, indicator mirrors are great, but who decide to put orange blind spot monitoring warnings right next to them!
Every now and then I go past a car on a motorway and suddenly panic as I see an orange light appear on their mirror and think that have started indicating and are about to pull into me 
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I often wondered if mine were visible to others as I have never seen a car’s that I am passing. Now I know!
Funnily enough, I scoffed when I found my NC had a reversing bleeper fitted; but a combination of low seat, high boot lid and small rear window has led me to be thankful for it on several occasions.
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Yes. UXD960. Happy memories. Here’s a photo I’ve just taken of a slide from May 1970 with my Mum standing next to it. Note the necessary extra lighting as a high-speed driver aid. Try and guess where on the South Coast this was taken. It has changed a lot in the last fifty years.
Oil-bath air cleaner, it went much better running dry with no obstruction!
A friend offered me his very expensive Derrington branched exhaust manifold to replace the slotted pipe that ran along the side of the head, rumoured to offer another twenty bhp and/or five mpg. But it was available because he had snapped the crankshaft in his Zephyr-six in two by over-revving it too easily. I declined the offer.
Ford hockey stick, the worst possible exhaust manifold ever invented, one merit only - CHEAP.
I finally found the correct 1959 Derrington catalogue page, here is a scan lifted off the internet
The 1959 prices are interesting, but I thought they were out of sight, having paid a massive £65 for the car in 1969, not far short of a month of take-home pay. Then apply factors of 30x (1969) and 50x (1959) for inflation to today’s figures.
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Nice period picture, is it Bournemouth or Christchurch?
In Swanage by the lifeboat station looking past the Wellington clock tower back towards Ballard Cliff on Studland. Bournemouth etc are too far away and mostly hidden to the left. Same carpark is still there.
I’ve had a look on Google maps and I see now. Ironically all my childhood holidays in the 1960’s were spent around that area as my auntie lived, first in Christchurch and then Upton which is near Poole, she was my dad’s sister and we would spend two weeks there every year on what would have been a cheap holiday with five children much to my mum’s annoyance as she thought we should see more of the country. We used to use Sandbanks when, back then it was pretty quiet as everyone would go to Bournemouth. Great car though, made by Abbots of Farnham if my memory serves me correct.
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In this weather it’s got to be heated seats and a heated steering wheel … bliss!
Got both on my Tucson, together with lots of other aids, my Mk4 had only got the heated seats plus the usual ‘Icon’ additions.