Over 25? Your eyes need more light, so the best headlamps are?

[forddeliveryboy]

So now it's dark for a few months and roads seem to be damp even on drier days, which cars have the best lights? And what's the answer to making a huge difference to crap modern dipped headlamps, HID kits, Cree LEDs? Or just doing the old relay thing and grinning and bearing the slightly-less dim lighting, thinking how rap everything now is.

 

Loads of French cars from the seventies seemed to have bloody great lights, the reflectors were often huge. I'm thinking about Citroën GS/a in particular. Old Rolls-Royce seem usually to have decently sized lights, also.

 

Tell me how to see better, using modern light units. I'd like to graft a pair of GS lamp units onto modern stuff, but it would be difficult.

 

 

 

 

 

[Timewaster]

Since turning 25 I haven't been out after dark. No good can come of it.

 

 

[SambaS]

Instuck the cheapest set of bright white headlamp bulbs in eBay in the Samba Style 2 or 3 years ago, they are forming excellent! I stuck* on** fucking***

[carlo]

Don't know about the best lights, I'm finding modern cars' headlights blinding - don't really like driving at night any more.  I am an old codger though.

[320touring]

in the e30 you can use the push/pull headlamp switch to tell if there are oncoming cars.

 

with the switch in the off position, if its brighter, then there is a car heading your way:)

 

 

I've fitted nightbreakers to the e30 dipped beam- helluva difference- well worth the effort

[brickwall]

A yellowish glow is best. Any more and I cannae see dick.

[derskine]

You sir, just need to buy a giffer car.

After all most giffers are over 25.

[mercrocker]

I wish we all still drove round on sideys in town.  It was much easier to see what was going on.....I fuppin hate modern headlights, the H4 is the most anybody needs IMHO.   This white shit is going to keep me in after dark.

[Micrashed]

Ive been rather norty.

 

Ive fitted some Ring Rally bulbs in the Micrashed - 55/100W - so standard on dip, blind the local wildlife and cause UFO reports on main.

[Bren]

The headlights on my vectra c are without doubt the poorest of any car I have ever driven.

 

HID kits are very popular - no surprise as the standard items are like tea lights.

 

By contrast, the 29 year old SD1 I have in the garage has wonderful headlights - the full beam is the brightest I have ever known on a car.

[Stanky]

I can recommend trying the Osram Nightbreakers which are a direct swap for the standard fitment and come in 2 flavours, +50% and +90% brightness. I never got the +90% ones as I was worried that they might blind oncoming traffic, but the +50% ones did make a noticeable difference to what yo can see from the helm. I think they have more 'blue' in the light they emit so you can see further, but in slightly less detail. I think that light which is more 'yellow' gives better detail but less distance.

 

I may have made this up however.

 

anyway, they are usually on BOGOF at ECP/GSF/Halfrauds and come in H4 and H7 types, and possibly others too.

[2MB]

I had a rover 213 as my first car. I fitted a pair of 100w pure white bulbs, they were pretty bright but took about 200rpm off tickover speed

[Partridge]

Full beam, and fuck it!

[forddeliveryboy]

Yep, HID kits seem popular and the prices seem to have tumbled. Anyone have any experience of the ones around £20? I suppose they're slightly less illegal than the LED aftermarket fits, too.

 

 

A yellowish glow is best. Any more and I cannae see dick.

 

All this blue-light business can only be fashion, since nothing reflects like blue-ish ness. Ok perhaps on a dry night with clear air but in anything other than that (ie when you really need good illumination) and visibility will be reduced compared with a yellower light. It's why the sky's blue, and the sun's yeller. 

 

The French knew what they were doing with 'Selective Yellow' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow. Today a Frenchman uses yellow bulbs to suggest he's smelt the bullshit of the EU, I heard.

 

They should outlaw all modern bulbs and insist on H4s, oncoming modern lights blind you to bits. Even the local traffic lights are so bright you have to hold your hand in front of them to see the road. This is the sticks, mind.

[Richard]

The 850's lights are pretty good for a post-1990 car. I can only assume the Volvo engineers didn't get the memo.

[forddeliveryboy]

^^ True.

 

 

The CX lamp unit is so deep it almost reaches the inner wing. Later twin-optic lenses showed that the engineers couldn't give a damn, anymore. They just stuck a divider into the reflector with main beam on one side, dipped on the other.

[garethj]

I started driving on old VWs, so anything now with more than 8V getting to the headlights is brilliant.

 

With my miserable old giffer hat on, I don't know why anybody needs headlights as bright as modern ones.  If you're having that much trouble seeing in the dark it's time for a visit to the opticians.  Unless you're tearing down a rally stage at 100mph at 10pm, most normal headlights are just fine.

[155V6]

What's the deal with LED bulbs,are they ok in normal lights or are they as evil as HIDs?

[STUNO]

We use high beam a lot in this part of the world. The best lights I had were Cibie 100w spots fitted on my Allegro ! The whole district lit up when those were on.

[Spiny Norman]

Best standard lights I've had on any of my recent chariots were on the Jaaaaag XJ40. Good range on dip and the main beams could burn holes in the road signs.
Cibie units in old French cars were usually quite good too.

[Matt]

It sure as hell isn't the candles in jam jars that are attached to the front of my Swift that's for bloody sure.  I had a pair of £19.99 Ring 6" spotlights fitted to my last car and I don't think I will ever do another winter without some kind of aftermarket spotlights sitting between my headlights.

 

This is the standard full beam of an early 90's Polo Vs the standard full beam plus the aforementioned spotlights.

 

 

Going to see if I can get brackets made for the Swift so I can mount a pair of nice Hella lamps without drilling holes (visible ones anyway) so I can keep them when I sell the car.

[cobblers]

Reet, I know a bit about this as I'm into this kind of thing through work somewhat,

 

For single filament bulbs, Almost all LEDs are complete shit, no use as a headlight at all, unless they are like The ones in the picture above with fuckin heatsinks and fans coming out he back of them. The beam pattern will be to cock because the size of the emitter and location are not really all that close to what the original bulb is.

Cheapo HID kids are £13-£30. All roughly the same kind of quality, they last for about 6 months to a couple of years. A bit brighter than halogens but the beam pattern is never quite as good as stock. Depending on the particular lamp unit it could end up absolutely terrible - park in front of a wall with one bulb in each side and compare.

Some lamp units will tolerate HIDs/LEDS better than others. Projector types are much more likely to be usable than reflector types.

Higher wattage halogens will give the easiest upgrade in power while keeping a reasonable beam pattern, but you need to make sure the wiring and headlamp unit will take the extra. Halfords do 90w "rally" bulbs which are OK priced if you have a trade card.

 

For H4s, basically anything other than the stock halogens will give you a totally messed up beam pattern in either dipped or full beam. Some HIDs have a little shield that kicks back and forward. I used these in my MK2 golf and they were OK on dip but on full beam it was patchy and weird. Some H4 HIDS only give you dipped beam, and some have a separate halogen bulb for full beam. All total shit.

LEDS again are absolutely unusable for many reasons - Not bright enough, won't last very long run at the power required with the cooling available and there isn't yet an elegant solution to the dual beam situation.

 

Again, just buy some bright halogens if you want a somewhat easy life. 

 

Oh, and ebay HIDs take 20 seconds to warm up, so they are no good in a full beam application.

 

Personally I have a set of £13 ebay 3000k (yellowish) HIDs in the dipped beam of my daily, and some 100w Halfords Rally bulbs in the full beam.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Best standard lights I've had on any of my recent chariots were on the Jaaaaag XJ40. Good range on dip and the main beams could burn holes in the road signs.

Cibie units in old French cars were usually quite good too.

 

The quad headlights on the XJ40 are really very bright indeed - quite a bit better than the Fishtanks, but even the Fishtanks are pretty good.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Osram Nightbreakers make a big difference to brightness.

[robinmasters]

You know you're on the inevitable decent to gifferdom when your answer to the question 'I can't see very well when driving at night, what should I do?' isn't 'buy brighter bulbs', but 'slow down'.

[forddeliveryboy]

You know you're on the inevitable decent to gifferdom when your answer to the question 'I can't see very well when driving at night, what should I do?' isn't 'buy brighter bulbs', but 'slow down'.

 

We're all heading that way, some sooner than others but I think if there weren't the number of cars (especially high up 4x4s) on the road with ultra-bright lights, few would be complaining. Whether they're adjusted or not isn't the point, come over the brow of a hill and they're right in your eyes. Same with 4x4s in queues and lines of traffic.

 

I'm not convinced that brightness is the issue, so much as an even spread of light in the right places. Even a GS headlamp unit with tungsten bulbs gives a superb light even on roads full of dazzling lights - that's just 40/45w. I'd always guessed reflector surface area was what really counted, not the ever-so-clever computer-designed complex surfaces and whatever else has come along in the meantime.

 

I'm liking the pics demonstrating light performance.

[Junkman]

I turned 25 twice now, so I don't need headlights, I need someone to help me cross the street.
 
However, what I have in the haunted Rover is as follows.
 
Two dipped beams like these:
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crystal-Halogen-headlights-kit-lamp-5-3-4-Westfield-H4-headlamps-lucas-cibie-/380857683767

 
Two genuinely ouch-expensive main beams courtesy of a friend in Norway like these:
 

 
 They are so illegal, that they had to take them off the market even over there.
 
And four of these bulbs:
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-X-12V-160-100W-H4-P43T-RALLY-SPORT-HIGH-WATTAGE-HALOGEN-HEADLAMP-BULB-BLB486-/291264338386

 
 
This means, on full blast, I have over 1kW luminous power from what effectively amounts to clear glass headlights.
Strangely, a sponsorship contract with the British ophthalmologists association was not forthcoming,

but I can bloody well make the Moon shine brighter.

[mat_the_cat]

Lots of interesting stuff

 

I was going to say that this is one of my pet subjects! Can't really add any more, but I use Osram 64205s which are rated at 2000/1350 lumens - slightly more than the Nightbreaker 90s @ 1895/1150. Although technically not permitted as they are 65/60 watts, and the trade off is short life; rated at only 150/400 hours on main/dip.

 

For that reason I'm considering a soft start circuit to prolong their life a little, just to ramp up the voltage slowly so the filament resistance builds up (with heat) and you don't get the large current surge through the cold filament.

 

I used to use 100/55 w bulbs (2400/1000 lumens), but found the contrast between main and dipped ruined my night vision. The Nightbreakers sound interesting as they may be more of a satisfactory compromise with the output vs lifespan trade off, and also legal given that AFAIK the rules only govern the wattage rather than the light output!

[Noel Tidybeard]

my honda spaceship has factory HID which are superb and night breakers in the mains and fogs!

i always seem to be driving in daylight lol

[pshome]

The best of all lights ever has this car, but you all knew this, didn't you?