[V6-12v] RE: V6-12v Digest, Vol 18, Issue 1
Roger M. Woodbury
rmwoodbury at downeast.net
Sun Apr 3 08:56:40 EDT 2005
Actually, I don't agree with this. What are called "driving lights" today
perform totally differently than the driving lights that we used on rally
cars in the middle of the last century. In fact, for the vast majority of
US drivers, DRIVING has changed significantly as well.
By "driving lights" I am referring to those lights that are used to provide
illumination way out in the path of travel over a much wider area than the
road surface. The light output is the product of lens and reflector size,
having been designed to provide a vast flood of illumination...think about
lighting the area of a football field in front of the car to nighttime game
standards and you have the picture.
Most people drive at night in areas where there is considerable ambient
light...shopping centers, the 7-Eleven, and high intensity discharge or
sodium street lights. For that relatively urban driving then OEM headlights
are adequate, and when additional light is needed, small augmentation lamps
are appropriate.
When there is fog, fog lights wired through relays from the low beam side
work well. Fog lights' ONLY real purpose is to illuminate the road, and
particularly the edge of the travel lane directly in front of the vehicle,
and are useful at speeds generally well below 40 miles per hour.
Several years ago, I bought a set of Hella driving lights for use on some
vehicle or other that I had, and have never mounted them. I have thought
about using them on the Chevvie pickup, but think they will be too small to
amount to much...they are only 5". When I talk about "driving lights" I am
talking about something like a Cibie Oscar (or Super Oscar), or the
rectangular Cibie 175, which is about the size of a loaf of bread.
In the "old days" we used to mount at least two large driving lights and two
fog lights on the front end...it was also easy to do, as the front ends of
cars were made of steel, and there were real bumpers that could be drilled
to accept the mounting studs. A Volvo wagon that I had and that my ex-wife
and I rallied, had two SeV Marchal 8" driving lamps and two Lucas "Square 8"
fog lamps mounted above and below the bumber with OEM headlights.
The transformation from night to day on rural or gravel roads in the severe
dark was "religious", and the lights were automatically dimmed when
approaching another car or meeting a car from the opposite direction.
One night driving down a narrow two lane road on Cape Cod during a night
time rally, a car came around a turn some distance away. I flicked my
headlights "down" to low beam, and the a**hole approaching me had four
headlights full up. I flicked my high beams to ask him to dip his VERY
bright headlights...ignored. I flicked again...ignored...SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I
pushed the two switches that "armed" the driving and fog light circuits and
went to high beams. As we passed the guy with the offending headlights, he
was sitting by the side of the road, stock still.
THOSE were driving lights. (Then there was the night that I illuminated the
side of a Massachusetts State Police cruiser, and thought that the decal on
the door was going to melt....and was the trooper surprised! But that's a
whole 'nother story...).
Roger
-----Original Message-----
From: The CyberPoet [mailto:thecyberpoet at cyberpoet.net]
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 4:56 AM
To: Roger M. Woodbury
Cc: v6-12v at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V6-12v] RE: V6-12v Digest, Vol 18, Issue 1
"driving lights" and "fog lights" are not one and the same, although it
would appear that many Americans don't appreciate the differences
between the two (and the differences in focal lengths, beam patterns,
etc). Driving lights won't blind anyone else unless there is ice on the
road to cast the light back up, instead offering long thin beams on the
road surface; fog lights do exactly the opposite, generating wide area
lighting.
Cheers
=-= Marc
On Saturday, April 2, 2005, at 09:37 PM, Roger M. Woodbury wrote:
> 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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