100 Eurolights

[colin cohen]

Allow me to add 2c to your comments on this subject as I did a lot of
research on this when my company Advanced Lighting (NASDAQ:ADLT) was
"inventing" the halide systems we have on the A series cars today.

When Audi adopted the single unit aerodynamic lighting for the 4000 and 5000
as well as the Urq in the 1983 period, they were forced to change the lamp
and the glass.  Lots of legal stuff here, but the bottom line was that the
car had to impact a person without any glass breakage cutting human bodies
sufficiently to maim or kill.  The result was the 900X lamp design and
different type of glass.  two big performance problems ensued: the focus
point of the 900X lamps was not correctly set up for the unit which was
designed for either H1 or H4 lamps; and the glass absorbed light rather than
allowing it to penetrate.  Added to which was the need to deal with
substantial light redirection requiring further absorption.

These are the reasons why our older DOT lights do not perform.  Furthermore,
DOT does not care how the light works as long as the output does not EXCEED
certain levels.  In fact were it not for the sustainability issue, they
would approve flashlights or candles!

You will have noticed that initially the Japanese, then the US and some
European cars now have completely clear Lexan covers rather than glass.
This is because the use of CAD and advanced molding techniques with plastics
now allows very accurate focus points in the reflectors doing away with the
need to use the glass as the lens.  the original ovoid Taurus was
outstanding in this respect.

More than you wanted to know, but lights are a pet peeve of mine, and no
publication ever mentioned the poor lighting of the Audis throughout the 80s
and into the 90s.  Not even CU!  Which must explain a lot about the quality
of night driving in the US.

My best lights ever were a set of Euro Hellas with 80/100 H4s that I put on
my 92 100/A6, and an original M5 with GE aircraft landing lights installed
in place of the high beams.  Night into day!

Colin