[V8] HID's for V8

Fri Jan 18 08:11:20 PST 2008

So, what's the point?  Unless the beam pattern is improved, merely changing
color temperature of the light and increasing lumen output will merely yield
more of the same negatives of the old beam pattern.  

E-code lights are intended to be operated completely differently from US DOT
standard.  E-codes have a MAIN beam, which we call "high beam" in the US.
It is a well defined, long range beam that has an oval shape at its furthest
effective range, which is about 200 yards or so.  For in town driving, the
"dipped" beam is used, which has a sharp sloping cutoff on the left hand
side, a flat cutoff at about hood height and a 15 degree rise to the right
so pedestrians can be seen when they are walking on the road side.  The
correct aiming allows a white, halogen light to be applied to the road and
to the right side but the oncoming driver is not blinded.  

US DOT lights have a lousy, downturned mouth pattern on low beam that shows
practically nothing.  High beam is a big, unfocussed blotch that doesn't
show much either, unless you are in a big pickup.  

So many people are using their fog lights all the time because they can't
see anything with the regular headlights..even now, with the new free form
bulb and lenses that the DOT has allowed nationally.  More power only makes
them more annoying.

The change from DOT lamps in a 200 is remarkable, in a V8 a bit less so, but
still dramatic.  I have a hard time realizing what an entirely new, and
presumably expensive, conversion will accomplish that the E-codes don't
already accomplish.  

Now, a confession:  I haven't driven a NEW Audi that has the NEW zenon
headlight system.  I find the color when looking at a car with the system
approaching to be strange, but not particularly annoying.  Subaru fog
lights, on the other hand, are both annoying and useless blobs of light
being thrown out for no good reason.  Fog lights are for lighting the road
right in front of the vehicle in the FOG.  Driving lights are different.

R

-----Original Message-----
From: Ingo Rautenberg [mailto:ingo.rautenberg at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 10:46 AM
To: Scott Simmons; v8-bounces at audifans.com; Ron Wainwright
Cc: v8 at audifans.com; rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com
Subject: Re: [V8] HID's for V8

Yup. True HIDs are special bulbs filled with xenon gas and requiring a
dedicated ballast for each side and usually used for low beam only. 

Ingo Rautenberg

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Simmons <indischrot at gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:28:24 
To:Ron Wainwright <ron_01056 at yahoo.com>
Cc:v8 at audifans.com, rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com
Subject: Re: [V8] HID's for V8

I was under the impression that HID used a xenon gas and a special bulb, 
not just super-hot halogen bulbs.  Don't they call that HIR or 
something?  Or is HID just a generic term?

~Scott S.

Ron Wainwright wrote:

>HIDS use less power to through more light.
>
> Ron
>
>--- Roger Woodbury <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I confess that I haven't been faithfully reading all
>>of the posts in this
>>most current thread, but I wanted to pose a question
>>regarding the
>>retrofitting of V8 headlights with HID equipment.
>>
>>What is going to be gained, I wonder?  Won't it
>>depend entirely on which
>>headlight assembly is being used?  If you install
>>(somehow) a much more
>>powerful light source inside a regular USDOT
>>headlight shell, it seems to me
>>that all you will get is a much brighter terrible
>>headlight.  
>>
>>If the headlight is a European shell, then HID stuff
>>will be, what, brighter
>>than 130 watt halogen H4 plus, say a 100 H3?  Why? 
>>Aside from being totally
>>obnoxious to that totally obnoxious Ford F250 driver
>>who won't dip...or
>>maybe that incredibly stupid broad in the Subaru
>>Forrester who has her fog
>>lights on and high beams on all the time by
>>definition, I doubt that the
>>light "throw" is any better nor has any better beam
>>pattern.
>>
>>The problem with US DOT headlights is the beam
>>pattern that is in the lens
>>primarily.  Poor focus, poor light distribution and
>>little differentiation
>>between high and low beam aside from the difference
>>in aiming of the high
>>beam filament.
>>
>>I was reading the Maine DOT vehicle inspection
>>procedure manual yesterday,
>>and I can see how it will become impossible for a
>>TYPE 44 Audi to pass
>>inspection at some point just due to the fact that
>>the car is an older Audi.
>>IF the inspection station ever gets around to
>>actually looking at the
>>headlights in my car, it will an automatic
>>rejection.  
>>
>>Roger
>>
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>
>
>
>
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