[V8] Headlights

Sun May 29 10:31:43 PDT 2011

Hi Scott:  I agree with you completely.  I well remember the Z-Beams and had a set in one of my cars at the time.  I did not like the Z-beams as well as the Carello 7" lights of the time though, and the Carellos were less expensive as I recall.  

For a while I ran a set of Marchal Ampilux but with the "normal" wiring.  I know that there may be some reading this who are not familiar with the Ampilux.  These were 7" lamps that had 2/3 of the glass unit for low beams and the lower corner just for high beams.  Weird looking lamps and VERY expensive at the time as I recall.  The best way to wire them for best light outupt was to wire high and low beams so they would come on together.  I was about to do that when someone came along who made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I sold them, reinstalling the Carellos or perhaps Hella flat faced seven inchers.  All of this would have been in a BMW 1600 Alpina.

I also had S.E.V. Marchal fog lamps and 8" driving lights mounted on the front of my Volvo wagon.  The Volvo was a good platform for a lot of things because although it wasn't fast, it was stable and had a fully relayed headlight system and as I recall, an extra circuit already prewired for fog lights.  I mounted the OEM Volvo switch into the panel for both lamps, although I didn't wire the driving lamps through the dipper switch for the simple reason that they were NEVER to be used in any sort of public highway driving environment, but were for rally use only.  One night I was driving down a very dark stretch of Cape Cod back road (there were "back roads" on Cape Cod back then!), when this guy coming toward me absolutely refused to dip his high beams.  I don't remember what he was driving, but it has four headlights.  I was in the Volvo with stock DOT headlamps and flashed him once...then again....then again.  I was quite blinded by his lights by this point.  Neither of us was going fast...narrow road and all...so, ultimately provoked, I hit both fog lamp and 8" driving light switches and illuminated everything for about the area of a football field.  

When I got up beside the guy in the offensive car, he was stopped stock still and looking at the floor of whatever he was driving.  

In the end there is no real substitute for reflector area and beam focussing.  The high beams on a Porsche 928 are quite magnificient even in DOT form, and with Euro lights they are truly wonderful.  Again, it is always about getting enough power to the light bulbs themselves, of course.

I felt the V8 lights were/are adequate for the amount of nighttime driving that I do now.  Now, having said that, given the opportunity, I will switch them out for Euros for those occasions when nothing else will do.

I think the worst lights I have ever had in any car...worse then the Audi 200 or the 5000 CS before it with those small quad headlights that not only were weak but sucked in dirt, snow and crap dimming them down to nothing...is the headlight set up that is stock on my '98 Chevy truck.  I have a set of drivinig lights that I want to install on the bumper of that thing, but so far, time just slips by...truth is that I don't drive the truck at night much, but whenever I do, I curse at both GM and DOT for allowing such lousy lights to be produced. Once the truck reaches a certain age, the polycarbonate housings are just wortheless. 

I live in rural Maine and enjoy much the same conditions at the UP in Michigan.  Deer?  Oh, yeah!

Roger 
---- Scott Justusson <qshipq at aol.com> wrote: 
> 
>  Some good points here Roger, and I agree with most of them.  I started in ProRally in 1980, and have had 30 years of various Ecode/aux lighting on my machines since.  I became a defacto lighting critic quite young...
> http://forums.audiworld.com/picture.php?albumid=163916&pictureid=230729
> Since that time, I have owned several 5ktq's, as well as, several v8q's.  I have 2 v8 in the stable now, a 91 with DOT and a 92 with Euros.  I found the v8q DOT lights to be quite adequate for years...  Well, until I put the euros in my 92.  Although, I admit freely, the v8 ecode swap being fractionally as dramatic as the 5ktq DOT>Ecode swap.  But even in the v8, the euros produce a much cleaner light pattern, in main or dipped beam.
> 
> Interesting your comments regarding lenses.  Back in the 'coimbra' days, I advocated that brighter light on a crappy lense just made for bright crappy light.  Interesting too, the difference between the 200euros and the v8 euros is enough to give the comparo to the v8 Ecodes hands down.  That said, when I repaired the v8 ecodes that were damaged in shipping, I noticed that the innerds (reflectors and bulb mounts) were identical between the 5ktq/200 and the v8.  That means the difference in noticeable light improvement is the 30% larger lense attached to the front of the housings.  And, unfortunately for us in the US, Cibie never got the venerable "Zbeam" (Ecode without the 15* uptick) to catch on.  I had those on many cars in the 80's and they were the rats batooty.
> 
> The best ecode setup I have run uses 3 relays and a bulb mix.  I use 55/65 in the H4 position, and 100 in the inner main/high position.  I installed a fog light switch to activate/deactivate the inner bulbs from the high beam position.  This gives 3 levels of light, 110w low beam, 130w high beam, and 330w high beam.  Since many of my autobahn trips are into northern Michigan, I encounter a lot of fog and moisture laden high beam driving.  Being able to reduce the glare-back from 330w high beams, while still having the 130w high beam pattern, has helped keep the 'deer eyes' at the highest level.  All that is required to do this mod is to separate the inner high wiring from the H4 inside the housing, a procedure that can be done with just the covers removed.
> 
> I always though the v8 had one of the best sets of DOT headlights of the 90's era, but my 94 Landcruiser DOT top the v8's, mostly due to an even larger lense than the v8, but with the same decent lense pattern.
> 
> The question remains:  Are the v8 ecodes worth the investment?  That's tough to answer.  I think if a lot of driving is done at night, especially on rural roads, the answer is definitely yes.  If it's occasional driving at night, or most of that in the city, the value of the upgrade diminishes in favor of a couple of relays on the stock DOT headlights.  WRT any bulb over 100w, never had good results running those, even in the monster Rallye 2000 or Bosch Motorsport lights I still own.  The reflection of a well-lensed 100w bulb on a exit sign, can actually cause momentary flashes that will almost blind you, btdt.
> 
> HTH and my .02
> 
> Scott J
> 91 v8 DOT
> 92 v8 Ecodes
> ex
> 5ktqa Ecode
> 78 scirocco S Open Class ProRally 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com
> To: V8 at audifans.com
> Sent: Sat, May 28, 2011 7:30 am
> Subject: Re: [V8] Headlights
> 
> 
> When I bought this particular V8 it had just 66,000 or so miles on it, and since 
> my night driving had dropped considerably, I never considered installing 
> European headlights.  Well, that's not entirely true:  my "normal" source in 
> Europe had ceased offering them, and there didnt' seem to be another set lying 
> around anywhere.  I also found that the stock headlights were really adequate 
> since I really wasn't driving extensively at night.
> >...
>  My 1993 V8 came with stock DOT lighting, but since prior to that I had been 
> driving an '89 Avant into which I had installed European headlights because 
> those lights were so poor that I automatically bought a set of Euros for the V8.  
> >...
> Anyway I find it interesting that people commonly relay their headlgihts and 
> install 100 watt or larger bulbs and are impressed with their results.  In the 
> Audi 200 20-Valve Avant that I had a few yeas ago, the headlights were set up 
> that way.  The headlights in that car were a compromise of a European designed 
> front end, with headlights that met DOT standards and still fitted into the body 
> work.  They were simply lousy by design and installing 100 watt bulbs with 
> relays only yields much brighter lousy headlights.  For most this is adequate.  
> Unless you drive where there are no streetlights or building lights for miles 
> and miles, the system is sufficient.
> 
> The issue is not brightness.  Extremely bright light beyond a certain point 
> yields glare and little additional benefit.  The chief difference between 
> European headlights and DOT headlights is that the European design is based on a 
> theory that is completely reversed from US driving habits and standards.  Here 
> in the US we drive most of the time with what we call "low beams", and only 
> occasionally do we switch to "high beams". Most Americans drive in heavy traffic 
> conditions and high beams blind not only oncoming drivers but the cars in front 
> also.  
> >...  
> 
> Roger 
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