Shite lights

[New POD]

2 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

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

Noticed that on Friday in the Yard at work walking past a couple of trailers being unloaded with stuff from Eindhoven. 

[Richard_FM]

The RWD Mazda was another model with round headlights on the lower spec trim levels.

[mat777]

On 20/09/2024 at 20:39, bunglebus said:

I made one for my MK1 Fiesta, couple of sidelight bulbs behind it after sanding the blue off 

I remember being supremely disappointed as a kid to learn that the MK4 Fez *didn't* light up in the middle like the lensed front suggested it would. It could have been so cool, all for the lack of a few extra sidelight bulbs on Ford's part....

 

15 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Yes, but you’d barely notice aesthetically.

Could be worse..... At least Citroen managed to style it out better than Merc with the W123

 

11 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

1936 Cord 810, the first production car with pop up lights

At the risk of derailing the thread, I fucking love these and would give my kidneys for one.

Just imagine being the average Joe puttering  along in your 20hp Ford/Austin with it's wood framed, upright bodywork on a beam axled chassis..... When along comes a monocoque, independent suspension, front wheel drive 120hp V8 spaceship with preselector gears and pop up lights....and that gorgeous engine turned dashboard. Ooooft! 

 

On 19/09/2024 at 01:31, caffeine said:

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...

Even weirder, they they made a completely differently bonkers rear end for the plug in version, which I actually quite like...

 

On 19/09/2024 at 13:14, SEATMad said:

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

Returning to my earlier post about mistaking a Cupra for a Charger...... Has there ever been a car that has disappointed so many American dwelling JDM enthusiasts on a dark night, as the mid 00s Impala?  🤣 

[bunglebus]

Alfa Montreal. Utterly pointless, totally stylish

 

[somewhatfoolish]

On 20/09/2024 at 19:15, MrBiscuits said:

Did anyone else have a light up badge?

 

Not quite a badge, but @PhilA's Pontiac has a fancy light-up bonnet mascot.

[Laney]

14 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

The XJ220, on the other hand, didn't :

Am I right in saying that the XJ220 rear lights are shared with the Rover 200?

A boyhood favourite of mine was the Porsche 959 rear light cluster.

[delux]

Am I the only one who thinks the guy who designed the rear of the Mitsubishi Shogun sport is a fan of the band 'Kiss'?

 

[bunglebus]

They look like they're melting to me

[Surface Rust]

2 hours ago, Laney said:

Am I right in saying that the XJ220 rear lights are shared with the Rover 200?

A boyhood favourite of mine was the Porsche 959 rear light cluster.

I think that's true for all the 80s cars with heckblende rear lights.

All very cool.

[MiniMinorMk3]

13 hours ago, bunglebus said:

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

I spotted a few of those when I was driving down south at night. I thought it was some kind of tacky Middle Eastern thing like those Gold things you see in the back of some cars.

[MiniMinorMk3]

On 20/09/2024 at 21:56, willswitchengage said:

Always thought the Corsa C's black rear lights were cool, the Saab 9-3 had something similar. Must have been a GM theme at the time.

 

Just copying the more posher Germans

[chaseracer]

3 hours ago, Laney said:

Am I right in saying that the XJ220 rear lights are shared with the Rover 200?

Yep.

[MiniMinorMk3]

More dark rear lights from the late 1980s

And the first set of triple Alfa headlamps. They made a comeback in round form on the 159 and Brera/Spider models.

[willswitchengage]

Tailblazers were very cool.

I owned the BX on the left it, and miss it dearly!

[PhilA]

On 21/09/2024 at 17:05, mat777 said:

Returning to my earlier post about mistaking a Cupra for a Charger...... Has there ever been a car that has disappointed so many American dwelling JDM enthusiasts on a dark night, as the mid 00s Impala?  🤣 

Sadly the inner red portions are just there for show.

[agent]

On 21/09/2024 at 23:05, mat777 said:

Returning to my earlier post about mistaking a Cupra for a Charger...... Has there ever been a car that has disappointed so many American dwelling JDM enthusiasts on a dark night, as the mid 00s Impala?  🤣 

And on the flip side

Okay, it might be a little bit harder to mistake a cuboid for a sports car but in case it's really dark outside and you've had quite a few drinks...

[Madman Of The People]

On 19/09/2024 at 05:23, 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!

 

The Mercury Sable's light bar really did illuminate, although not as brightly as the headlights.  This can be fixed with modern LED bulbs.

 

 

A few owners have gone a bit overboard with upgrading their lightbar, however...

 

 

[bunglebus]

Following a Prius Alpha yesterday, looked like the rear lenses had fallen off

Made me wonder what was the first car to use a clear lense on a coloured light 

[Madman Of The People]

 

The short-lived Dodge St. Regis (1979-81) had retractable clear(ish) covers over the conventional rectangular sealed-beam headlights.  The covers retracted upwards, into the body,  when the lights were turned on because, at the time, federal law prohibited clear covers over the headlights when illuminated.

 

 

The also short-lived Dodge Magnum coupe (1978-79) had similar clear(ish) retractable headlight covers.

 

 

[MiniMort]

My 2CV is one of the 70s examples to feature the rectangular headlights, which I absolutely love.

 They go against the trend that budget cars should just have the cheapo round lights but give the 2CV a kind of geeky look I quite admire. 

That said, with a set of yellow bulbs not helping things, they are pretty useless at night. You don't really notice they're on until you drive somewhere that's pitch black. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Following a Prius Alpha yesterday, looked like the rear lenses had fallen off

Made me wonder what was the first car to use a clear lense on a coloured light 

These were a factory fit option on the 2001 MINI.

[Soundwave]

Always quite liked the Scirocco Mk2 rear lights. Very clean, unfussy, efficient - in other words, very German.



Apparently, Aston Martin liked them too.

 

I also particularly enjoy VW's approach to tinting them. Produce separate smoked lenses? Nah, just stick alternating black bands onto the standard ones.



Seemed to work well enough though.

And then when it came to the limited edition Scala, they just went "Fuck it, let's make the black bits white."

[Mr Pastry]

1 hour ago, MiniMort said:

My 2CV is one of the 70s examples to feature the rectangular headlights, which I absolutely love.

 They go against the trend that budget cars should just have the cheapo round lights but give the 2CV a kind of geeky look I quite admire. 

That said, with a set of yellow bulbs not helping things, they are pretty useless at night. You don't really notice they're on until you drive somewhere that's pitch black. 

Fascinating 2CV headlamp fact!!  When the rectangular lamps were introduced, the headlamp bar had to be lengthened to make room for them.  When they reverted to circular lamps in the 1980s the longer bar was retained, so all the later cars have their eyes a bit too far apart.   Once seen, can't be unseen.  Not a lot of people know that.  Compare early and late:

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

The fishtank lights were supposed to be posh, they were only on the unbelievably decadent Club IIRC. 

[warch]

A miscellany of weird headlight solutions 

First up, due to legislation in overseas markets during the late 60s Land-Rover had to start making vehicles with headlights on the wings instead of the grill panel. They chose a very route one means of achieving this for a period of time.

The Santana Ligero was the Spanish manufacturers take on the Landrover Lightweight, a military design with removal panels for more airportability. They did a LWB as well the SWB version and a civilian version as well. Behold!

 

The original Range Rover suffered rather badly at the hands of numerous coach builders catering to the Saudi set. Hence the Harrods Range Rover.

Minis were also hit with the coach building stick during the 60s and 70s. I think this is a Wood and Pickett Clubman

[bunglebus]

18 hours ago, Soundwave said:

Seemed to work well enough though.

See also: MK1 Sierra Ghia

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Not surprising as everything McGovern signs off in recent years looks worse than what came before , but I hate the rear lights on Full Fat RangeRovers. Particularly on black cars, lighter colours look better , but who wants a light coloured Rangie?

[Metal Guru]

I hate the rear lights you see on a lot of lorries. The indicator and reversing light are under one piece of irregularly shaped opaque colourless plastic with the red lights in the same rectangular cluster.

From a distance they always look like they’re broken.

[MiniMort]

23 hours ago, Mr Pastry said:

Fascinating 2CV headlamp fact!!  When the rectangular lamps were introduced, the headlamp bar had to be lengthened to make room for them.  When they reverted to circular lamps in the 1980s the longer bar was retained, so all the later cars have their eyes a bit too far apart.   Once seen, can't be unseen.  Not a lot of people know that.  Compare early and late:

 

 

That's very cool knowledge! I'm liking picking up these little nuggets of information about subtle changes. The other day I found out that my 2CV was one of the first to get the black grille surround, where they phased out the chrome only to bring it back in 1981.

[MiniMort]

22 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

The fishtank lights were supposed to be posh, they were only on the unbelievably decadent Club IIRC. 

Yes and no. When they introduced the rectangular lights there was no such thing as a 2CV Club, at least here in the UK. All 2CVs were just called 2CV6s. 

When the Special was added to the range in 1976 (1981 in the UK market), it featured the older round headlights, with the standard model getting a colour coded roof and the Club name a few years down the line. That was ultimately phased out, as with the rectangular headlights, later in the early/mid 80s, so I believe.