173 ONLY CAMS...

Discussing the trip with my colleagues at work, one of them casually asked if I was fitting a dashcam to record the trip and add a layer of safety. I hadn't really given it any serious thought, but now it was in my head.

I know nothing about dash cams other than that they are expensive and can be a pain to fit neatly. So I hit the internet and asked it to come up with some decent suggestions for an affordable, 4K unit, preferably with a rear camera too.

I checked Auto Express, Car Magazine, Parkers, and even The New York Times, and remarkably, the same suggestion kept coming up. The best value unit on the market right now is the Miofive 4K Dash Cam. It comes in a few flavours, with the most feature-packed being the S1 Ultra.

The S1 Ultra features dual 4K cameras recording at 30 FPS, GPS, a G-Sensor, night vision with a wide-angle lens, 24-hour parking monitoring, a 3-inch IPS LCD and Bluetooth app control, all that for just £130. It also helps avoid speeding tickets by using a database of fixed, red-light, and average-speed cameras. Frankly, it feels like an absolute bargain to me.

It isn't perfect, though. There are reports of connection issues, cable faults and units that give up the ghost after a few weeks. Still, by and large, the devices are highly regarded, with reviewers commenting on the ease of setup and quality of recording.

I've had a quick look online, and fitting a dashcam to an Abarth is a fiddly job. Still, it can be done without open-car surgery - although it does involve peeling back a bit of trim and forcing some cables behind the rubber seals.

This device needs to be fitted and tested well in advance of the trip. It might be the next purchase I make, so there is some time to get it installed and familiarise myself with the controls. Watch this space.