Shite lights

[bunglebus]

Automotive lighting comes in many weird and wonderful forms.

A place to discuss all aspects of vehicle lighting, from the stylish to quirky via the downright ugly.

Inspired by a night drive, looking at the interesting shapes of tail lights made possible by LEDs, some are clever, some utterly ridiculous. 2021 Transit custom look like they're ¾ the height of the entire van for example 

Some late model stuff like Porsche 911 now use a strip the full width of the car

But are any modern lighting systems as stylish as, say, an Anglia tail light?

Headlights may have less variety, for years we were stuck with round sealed beams, still better than the awful square things the Yanks insisted everything had to have I reckon. Designers still found ways to make them stylish, with chrome trim, peaks etc - Anglia again

Sometimes there are details hidden within the lamps themselves, such as the VW logo cut out of the shade in some older VW headlights - zoom in!

[Datsuncog]

The thing I most adored on the HC Viva was the rear lights.

That long, low triple set of lenses set deep into chromed surrounds with the swage line wrapped and stacked on top still looks the bollocks to me.

The front lights, eh, not so much.

Trapezoidal indicators were a bit funky, mind.

[Dan302]

Best rear lights, imo, are Avenger hockey sticks or MK1 cortina

[somewhatfoolish]

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

The thing I most adored on the HC Viva was the rear lights.

They are nice - but why didn't Vauxhall make the outer, curved lense the indicator?

[HMC]

I always thought the Calibra front lights looked cool, like a determined cavalier. Presumably looks came second to light output?

Quite an early example of those “projector” designs- or whatever they are called

[ProgRocker]

I like the trapezoidal headlamps on the old Peugeots and Leyland Princesses/Wedges.

 

[bunglebus]

1950s American lights are some of the most outlandish designs ever created. 1959 Cadillac is possibly the top of the heap

Once again finding ways of making round headlights more interesting, doubled up, chrome trims and the shape mirrored in the lower lenses

How about the Tucker Torpedo with an extra, central headlight?

Or the bonkers 1961-2 Chrysler Imperial with separate headlight pods? Bet these were fun to clean

I think my favourite is the 59 Chevrolet though, the shape fits so well under the fins

[Mr Pastry]

4 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

trapezoidal headlamps

Which reminds me.  An intellectual pal, who was a BL storeman when the ADO 71 was new, referred to them as rhomboid headlamps.  One day he was in full anorak mode, explaining the difference between the circular headlamps on one model and the rhomboid headlamps on another when a passing mechanic overheard this, looked very puzzled, and said "Rhomboid?  nah mate, they have Lucas headlamps."

 

[bunglebus]

These 80s Mitsubishi Lancer estate tail lights always used to catch my eye

I also rather like the way Citroen used a chrome surround to alter the appearance of the Ami's rectangular lamps

At some point things moved away from round, and we started getting unusual shapes like on the Taunus 17M

[sutty2006]

2 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Sad eyes 😢

[big_al_granvia]

pop up lights and 2 racks of 3

 

[bunglebus]

Ooh pop up lights, my childhood obsession 

I like the 928s slightly frog-like units

[bunglebus]

Spaceship Civic was a bold styling move. I think the cooking versions look better than the Type R with the centres tinted

How about the early 2000s C5 estate? These remind me of tube train carriages for reasons I can't explain 

One more that's just occured to me. Volvo seemed to stack new lights on top of old when they brought out the 850 (compared to the 740)

But then Honda decided they liked the look too

[bunglebus]

Oh and BMW sparked a huge aftermarket trend when they did this with the E39

 

[caffeine]

From an era when Toyota, possibly fed up with their ‘beige’ image, tried harder to ‘do’ design, ended up going a bit mad and, alongside Lexus, starting making cars that looked like Origami.

This yielded some ...curious design cues, not least the Reeperbahn style tail-lights on the Circa-2016 Prius...

[danthecapriman]

It’s another thing modern cars just can’t ‘do’ imho!

Cool lights and attractive design is an old cars only thing I think.

Mk1 Granada’s always looked fantastic.

The mk1 & 2 estates weren’t as attractive but obviously that was largely unavoidable with the tailgate, but even on them, they had a slightly angled inwards shape I always liked.

 

I do like the US standard rectangular headlights though. I think they really suit late 70’s and 80’s cars with their angular styling, like the Chevy Caprice etc.                

Some of us like making pretend ones! Way cooler than the standard European lights.

How about hidden headlights with flip up covers… vacuum operated no less! 
The round sealed beams underneath aren’t that attractive of course but you never actually see them.

[bunglebus]

53 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

How about hidden headlights with flip up covers… vacuum operated no less! 

One of the coolest design ideas ever. American again, Dodge Charger 

And Mercury Cougar

The back of the Cougar's pretty epic too 

[bunglebus]

The old Brava had a very distinctive rear light setup

I also really liked the E Class headlights from a similar era, retro without trying too hard

They used similar lights on the C too but morphed into a slightly odd blob, a bit like when two fried eggs join together in the pan

[Surface Rust]

Another Mercury ('89 Sable) here, and one I was fascinated with as a child due to the light bar effect.

Probably why I have a spaceship Civic now!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

4 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

One of the coolest design ideas ever. American again, Dodge Charger 

 

Took the words right out of my mouth. 

Ferrari TestaRossa also did the grille thing nicely too. 

I know they're a bit marmite, but I always thought Bangle angel eyes looked good when not messed with. 

 

[bunglebus]

31 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

Another Mercury ('89 Sable) here, and one I was fascinated with as a child due to the light bar effect.

Probably why I have a spaceship Civic now!

Why does that remind me of an SM?

DS was another notable Citizen, lights that turned with the steering must have seemed pretty whizzo in the 60s

[shampooefficient]

On 18/09/2024 at 11:30, bunglebus said:

Ooh pop up lights, my childhood obsession 

I like the 928s slightly frog-like units

According to my family I used to call them "lights that pop up and come on" because I was clearly a flute of a child.

[bunglebus]

1 minute ago, shampooefficient said:

According to my family I used to call them "lights that pop up and come on" because I was clearly a flute of a child.

They were "going up and down headlights" in my childhood lexicon. I wanted a toy car with them one Christmas and got one after much searching 

 

[shampooefficient]

On 18/09/2024 at 07:40, HMC said:

I always thought the Calibra front lights looked cool, like a determined cavalier. Presumably looks came second to light output?

Quite an early example of those “projector” designs- or whatever they are called

Early Omegas had absolutely terrible headlights. The mini facelift (97-98ish) added projector lenses which looked a bit more modern but weren't anywhere near as good as the xenons fitted to the higher spec It all makes me feel very old thinking about these things in an age where you could make enormous LED projections of your own face if you so desired.

[MorrisItalSLX]

I have always been interested in the pre-facelift Toyota Celica A60, with its pop up headlights that surely took more engineering to develop than a fixed position headlight would have done.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Honourable mention to the HQ Holden with its tail lights mounted in the rear bumper, a feature that was dropped for the HJ Holden.

[Volksy]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

They used similar lights on the C too but morphed into a slightly odd blob, a bit like when two fried eggs join together in the pan

My old C180k had these, and, they were shit. The lenses weren't even fogged. 

I put some +200% bulbs in, which helped a little, but they really didn't put out a lot of light. 

[SEATMad]

I've always had a thing for the Nissan Skyline rear light design from the R31 to the R34.

[bunglebus]

18 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

I had no idea, thought they were fixed