[V6-12v] RE: V6-12v Digest, Vol 18, Issue 1

[Roger M. Woodbury]

The beauty of European headlights is the fine cut off of the low beam.  By
focusing the low beam light on the road in front of the vehicle with the
sharp cut off, most of the light produced is on the road, and the 15 degree
uprise on the right, illuminates the edge of the road.  High beam provides a
huge amount of light, and makes auxiliary lighting superfluous.  

Here in rural Maine we see an awful lot of Subarus that have factory mounted
"fog" lights, as well as other vehicles that have these things.  They are
dangerous in that they merely provide more unfocussed light.  Since most
people don't know how to use fog lights or what fog lights are supposed to
do, and since most OEM headlights are so poor, they crank the fog lights on
and run around that way.  They are at best annoying and at worst, dangerous
to oncoming drivers.

I think the worst headlights in the US industry right now are on GM
products.  While I haven't driven any new GM product in several years, the
headlights in my Chevrolet 1ton dually 4X4 are so bad that I run high beams
most of the time, and forget their on.  Poor beam patter, and lousy output.
I am thinking of mounting some driving lights to go along with them.  If I
do, they will be something like Cibie 175's, separately switched and relayed
for use with the high beams only.  Low beams are fine for in town and slow
speed.

Roger 

-----Original Message-----
From: The CyberPoet [mailto:thecyberpoet at cyberpoet.net] 
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 5:47 PM
To: Roger M. Woodbury
Cc: v6-12v at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V6-12v] RE: V6-12v Digest, Vol 18, Issue 1

If the wife has night-vision issues, as does my fiancee, add more 
lights, specifically low-mounted driving lights designed to illuminate 
the road surface to a far-out distance without blinding other drivers. 
Hella makes supreme examples of these using 130 watt bulbs, but you can 
find cheaper alternatives out there as well. As a motorcyclist (as well 
as an Audi owner), I implore you to anything necessary to give her all 
the safety advantages she can have (if she wears glasses or contacts 
while driving, talk to the optomotrist about her night-vision; they 
have special processes for the coatings that will improve the contrast 
for night vision/driving).

Cheers
=-= Marc Glasgow

On Saturday, April 2, 2005, at 05:10 PM, Roger M. Woodbury wrote:

>
>  We have E-code headlights in my wife's 100CS Avant Quattro.  She 
> needs the
> best lighting possible as she is less comfortable driving at night 
> than she
> used to be.  She finds the headlights to be amazingly better than the 
> OEM US
> lights, and basically, so do I.
>
> What I have noticed from these headlights is that they have a dark 
> patch on
> high beams about 100 feet or so out in front of the car, although the 
> total
> illumination is outstanding.
>
> I had European headlights in both my Audi V8 (now dearly departed!), 
> and in
> the '89 200 Quattro Avant that I had before we bought the 100CS.  By 
> far the
> best combination of lighting was in either the 200 or the V8.  Of the 
> two,
> probably the V8's were a bit better.
>
> The 200 lamps came from Blaufernugen, and had "standard" bulbs with all
> bulbs relayed.  The V8's lamps came from the Fatherland and were 
> slightly
> used.  But they came with 130v. high beam bulbs, and the difference 
> between
> the H4 low beam side which was "standard"wattage, and the highbeams
> qugmented by the 130V H3 bulbs was astounding.
>
> I am about to put my "new" daily driver on the road....a refurbished 
> 200
> 20Valve Avant, and that car has standard oem headlights which have 
> relays
> installed. The headlights were not terrible on the trip to Maine from
> Washington DC when I bought the car, but I will eventually put European
> headlamps in it, and the high beam bulbs will be 130Volt, with all 
> bulbs
> relayed.
>
> Roger
>
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