Shite lights

[High Jetter]

On that subject, BMW's that have an amber light on the front corners, so if you glance at them briefly at a junction you get the impression they're turning off before getting to you.

[Missy Charm]

I've noticed a phenomenon peculiar to the tail-lights of the Mark Two and a Half Ford Focus: they are, en masse, turning orange!  Best guess is that the plastic light housing, which has a white lens on the facelift car and contains a red-coloured tail-lamp bulb, gains a yellow tint as it ages, which then blends with the red light emitted by the bulb to give an orange or amber output.  

Keep an eye out and report back!  I'm convinced I've seen multiple examples of Focuses with funny-coloured tail-lights.  No other car seems to have the same problem, even other variants of the Ford Focus.  

[Blue 850]

The greatest tail light of all time?

From humble beginnings on the Simca 1000  and Fiat 850 to the Ford GT40 and Lancia Stratos and 037 and dozens of other sportscars

[Blue 850]

I saw these posted earlier in the thread and it reminded me of the time I worked in a Fiat Dealer in Ireland . An American tourist called into the parts department and bought a pair of Brava  rear lights. He was building a custom back in the USA, iirc it was a 1941 Buick or  Plymouth and he was going to use the Fiat lamps turned 90 degrees in the rear wings. He was so happy that nobody back home would be able to figure out what they were off, that was almost 25 years ago

[Richard_FM]

1 hour ago, Blue 850 said:

I saw these posted earlier in the thread and it reminded me of the time I worked in a Fiat Dealer in Ireland . An American tourist called into the parts department and bought a pair of Brava  rear lights. He was building a custom back in the USA, iirc it was a 1941 Buick or  Plymouth and he was going to use the Fiat lamps turned 90 degrees in the rear wings. He was so happy that nobody back home would be able to figure out what they were off, that was almost 25 years ago

I liked the style of these.

[DSdriver]

As I only had my Ford Corsair for a short while in 1969 my memory might be a bit vague about the front indicator lenses being available in clear for foreign markets and amber for the UK?

[MiniMinorMk3]

15 hours ago, Blue 850 said:

The greatest tail light of all time?

From humble beginnings on the Simca 1000  and Fiat 850 to the Ford GT40 and Lancia Stratos and 037 and dozens of other sportscars

Here's some on a Biota

[MiniMinorMk3]

15 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

I've noticed a phenomenon peculiar to the tail-lights of the Mark Two and a Half Ford Focus: they are, en masse, turning orange!  Best guess is that the plastic light housing, which has a white lens on the facelift car and contains a red-coloured tail-lamp bulb, gains a yellow tint as it ages, which then blends with the red light emitted by the bulb to give an orange or amber output.  

Keep an eye out and report back!  I'm convinced I've seen multiple examples of Focuses with funny-coloured tail-lights.  No other car seems to have the same problem, even other variants of the Ford Focus.  

There's two types of rear lens fitted to the Mk2.5 Focus.

There's the one with the hexagon lens design that is fitted as standard 

And there's the other version fit to RS models and Titaniums fitted with Xenon headlamps. These have a led in the centre that make the whole light light up for tail lamps, but has bulbs for indicators and brakes. The bottom half is were the indicator is and makes the light change to orange from red. I have them on my Titanium Focus. I will take some pics one night when I remember.

[bunglebus]

18 hours ago, DSdriver said:

As I only had my Ford Corsair for a short while in 1969 my memory might be a bit vague about the front indicator lenses being available in clear for foreign markets and amber for the UK?

Anything pre-65 could have clear front, and red rear indicators. The Anglia my ex had was fitted with clear fronts

[DSdriver]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Anything pre-65 could have clear front, and red rear indicators. The Anglia my ex had was fitted with clear fronts

It was a 1965 car so that would explain it. I don't remember the rears being red though, perhaps it was an inbetweeny car.

[bunglebus]

8 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

It was a 1965 car so that would explain it. I don't remember the rears being red though, perhaps it was an inbetweeny car.

It probably didn't have red rears, it was legal but unusual.

Best one I know of is the '59 Beetle, tiny rear lights with just a twin filament bulb, brake lights flash for indicators

[robthedonkey]

Don't know if anyone else has noticed this, as I see them more often in Europe; Krone (crown) HGV trailers have a crown in the rear lights

Krone have done this for a while ... A nice touch but it's a Hella lamp and the Hella version without the krone logo is about 180£ the krone version is over £400

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

[Urko]

On 17/12/2024 at 20:55, Missy Charm said:

I've noticed a phenomenon peculiar to the tail-lights of the Mark Two and a Half Ford Focus: they are, en masse, turning orange!  Best guess is that the plastic light housing, which has a white lens on the facelift car and contains a red-coloured tail-lamp bulb, gains a yellow tint as it ages, which then blends with the red light emitted by the bulb to give an orange or amber output.  

Keep an eye out and report back!  I'm convinced I've seen multiple examples of Focuses with funny-coloured tail-lights.  No other car seems to have the same problem, even other variants of the Ford Focus.  

I have 100% definitely noticed this phenomenon 

 

[mat_the_cat]

On 11/10/2024 at 18:22, Heidel_Kakao said:

I have always liked the look of ribbed rear lights.

W123

SD1

 

On 05/11/2024 at 19:38, bunglebus said:

I have mixed feelings. I like the SD1, MK3 Escort 

MK5 Cortina 

MK2 Granada

But I've never liked those deeply grooved Mercedes lights. Don't know why

Not forgetting the humble Hyundai Stellar!

[MiniMinorMk3]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

It probably didn't have red rears, it was legal but unusual.

Best one I know of is the '59 Beetle, tiny rear lights with just a twin filament bulb, brake lights flash for indicators

The '59 Bug did not have indicators in the rear. It has semaphores in the b-pillar. Also there are no indicators on the top of the front wing.

[MiniMinorMk3]

On 17/12/2024 at 23:48, DSdriver said:

As I only had my Ford Corsair for a short while in 1969 my memory might be a bit vague about the front indicator lenses being available in clear for foreign markets and amber for the UK?

 

6 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Anything pre-65 could have clear front, and red rear indicators. The Anglia my ex had was fitted with clear fronts

Most Italian cars into the 1970s had clear front flashers with orange side repeats.

My 1971 Innocenti Mini Minor Mk3 has them. The side light/indicator is a twin filament 5/21w.

 

 

And here's a 1967 Fiat Dino Coupe with white lenses in the front bumper.

 

[bunglebus]

5 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The '59 Bug did not have indicators in the rear. It has semaphores in the b-pillar. Also there are no indicators on the top of the front wing.

'60 then 🙄

Point was, one year only oddity where a twin filament bulb performed three functions 

[DSdriver]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

'60 then 🙄

Point was, one year only oddity where a twin filament bulb performed three functions 

Very American (until they realised the error of their ways).

[MiniMinorMk3]

5 hours ago, bunglebus said:

'60 then 🙄

Point was, one year only oddity where a twin filament bulb performed three functions 

Yes I thought about it some more and my memory came to me that there was one year that had the combined stop/tail/indicator units. So I checked my copy of Etzold...

and it was 1960.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Another Ford that had white indicator lenses was the Pre-Airflow Mk1 Cortina.

 

And here's a couple Mk1 Jags with their clear front lenses...

and one showing it's combination rear lenses.

[caffeine]

A neighbour of mine has a (facelift) VW Up, I rather like the way the smoked tail-lights sort of blend into the frameless glass tailgate, or at least appear to…






So this lead me to yet another random tail-light related musing of other cars that feature this aesthetic.

There is, of course, the BMW i3...






And then, a more ‘old school’ example in the Volvo 480...







A similar aesthetic seemed to be carried over to the 480’s ‘spiritual successor’, the c30 (in the concept version at least, but unfortunately was rather ‘watered down’ for the production version with the ‘smoked’ sections of the tail-lights omitted)





 

[bunglebus]

I'm no fan of modernz anyway, but I've begun to notice a trend of new cars not having a "face" anymore. To me, a cars lights are its eyes, and most have a face. I think it started to change with that bloody awful Juke

Just doesn't look right, light placement means I don't see "eyes" on these. There are others, Nissan again with the Cash Cow

Hun-dee with the Tucson, at all just looks like grille 

 

[DavieW]

One of the Astras, (J maybe), had one segment of the rear lights which looked misted up. The rest of the cluster was clear. Looked weird. 

[bunglebus]

H it seems

I thought the G ones looked good when they appeared in the late 90s, one of the first to use a shaped reflector for diffraction with a clear lense

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 04/01/2025 at 22:17, bunglebus said:

I'm no fan of modernz anyway, but I've begun to notice a trend of new cars not having a "face" anymore. To me, a cars lights are its eyes, and most have a face. I think it started to change with that bloody awful Juke

Just doesn't look right, light placement means I don't see "eyes" on these. There are others, Nissan again with the Cash Cow

Hun-dee with the Tucson, at all just looks like grille 

 

The pre-facelift version of that Tuc-son had an interesting* feature; the ones with Halogen Headlights had a  colour- matched array of triangular DRL type things to the side of the radiator grille.

They were definitely a different colour from those that used LED headlights. 🤓

[Vantman]

My shites lights--

[Leyland Worldmaster]

43 minutes ago, Vantman said:

My shites lights--

Escargot?

[Vantman]

9 hours ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Escargot?

Afraid not but close!

[shampooefficient]

PAO?

 

I just enjoy saying "POW!" like Batman to be honest.

[Vantman]

2 hours ago, shampooefficient said:

PAO?

 

I just enjoy saying "POW!" like Batman to be honest.

@shampooefficient  Correct!