[V8] ... subject: closer to Audi content, and....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Quite probably.  I was really up on the idea of using the 200 mm Hellas and
making the change in the nose of the truck up until I found the Optilux
driving lights that were already owned.
 
So the replacement OEM headlights will be around $65 and since I already own
the Optilux, the dollar cost for return cannot be argued, since this is not
a heavy use vehicle.  
 
After getting back from SE Asia my wife and I did some rallying for a couple
of years. In those days we used a Volvo 142 wagon and I had some sort of 8"
Marchal drivnig lights set up to the same height as the regular headlamps,
plus Lucas Square 8's I think they were, mounted under the bumper.  Since I
was selling the things, one night I was out on a demonstration run with two
other guys in the car when some idiot in a big 'merican car with four
headlights refused to dip. We were on a narrow gravel road in Osterville or
perhaps Centerville, Mass, and after asking politely twice or so, I just lit
him up.  When we passed we could see  him sitting behind the wheel with head
in his hands.  
 
Those were fun days, but I think largely in the past.  It is now so
expensive to play rally driver that not many can or want to do so.  Still
and all, it is very nice to see at night.  I was driving back home from the
Home Depot in Rockland earlier in the fall and I got hit by a deer....lucky
strike right on the right rear wheel.  I had NO idea there was a deer going
to cross the road going warp six, and it was very fortunate that I was going
the speed limit....had I been going any slower I might have hit the deer
with the nose of the truck an who knows what that might have meant.  I went
back and saw the deer get up, and hobble off the road and into the bushes...
doe, I think, and a pretty good sized one at that.  
 
Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Justusson [mailto:qshipq at aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 12:17 PM
To: rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net; chance9121 at gmail.com
Cc: dsaad at icehouse.net; v8 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V8] ... subject: closer to Audi content, and....



On ur chebby
I was just at the yards here in Chicago yesterday.  I bet you could put
together the 200mm front end conversion for under 100bux, and be choosy
about the condition of the trim.

On Cibie
The 200mm class retro-aux lighting should include the Rally 2000, and the
Bosch Motorsport 200's.  I own several sets of the latter 2. For the Cibies,
the more compact 190 (Oscar +) has the same driving light range and pattern
as it's big brother, and what I ran on my Scirocco rally car (2 drivings x
100w and 1 pencil x 100w).  In the 200mm class, 100w bulbs are best kept for
the driving, in pencils they are so good, they are useless (reflecting
signs, dipping to low beam too far from oncoming traffic, highly sensitive
to humidity conditions)

On Aux lighting and cops.  
On one of my treks back from Michigan to Chicago in the rally car (also my
daily driver) back in 1985, someone flashed high beams at me a half mile
out, when I had just the low beams (euros) on.  I did a quick flash back
with my quad4 high beams only: H4 (55/100) and H1 highs (100w).  To this the
oncoming driver turned on his high beams and left them on...  Ok here...  I
reached over and hit the switches for the 3x100w Oscar+ relays, and then
fully engaged the high beam switch controlling 700w of light, to find myself
lighting up a local sheriff patrol car in full glory.  He shielded his eyes,
pulled to the side of the road, and switched on his gumballs.  But he just
sat there, so I kept driving with my eyes glued to the rear view mirror.  He
certainly had me dead to rights on the "operational forward facing light
law" in Michigan (=6 btw), but maybe he figured it would be hard to explain
exactly why he chose draw first blood with the extended tazer coming at me.
I thought for sure I was going to jail that night

On Audi Content:  
I remember sitting at the awards banquet after POR back in the early 80's,
and one infamous Audi driver John Buffum, already well celebrated in
champagne (usually before I was even done driving the last stages), decided
to lament the fact that he was running Bosch 200 lights, instead of the
Rallye 2000 he much preferred.  A rather lengthy rant until thankfully,
Grimshaw managed to pull away the microphone, since a lot of Bosch execs
were in attendance at the time.  True story!

Cheers

Scott J
Bosch, Cibie, and Hella ordinance aplenty


-----Original Message-----
From: Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net>
To: 'Scott Justusson' <qshipq at aol.com>; chance9121 <chance9121 at gmail.com>
Cc: dsaad <dsaad at icehouse.net>; v8 <v8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Tue, Jan 3, 2012 8:33 am
Subject: RE: [V8] WAAAAAAAY off subject: NAC! not even close to Audi
content, but....


Scott's right about the reflectors....in lighting size does matter as a
general statement.  There really is no substitute for a great big reflector
that is deep and preferably regular in pattern. Perhaps the best of the best
are the Cibie Super Oscar, which are an enormous round driving or fog lamp.
That particular lamp uses the venerable H1 bulb in a very deep perfectly
round reflector and will push enough lumens more than a mile down the road
to read a newspaper with.  Enormously expensive, too. Cibie also makes a
Bi-Oscar which uses an H4 bulb and gives both high and low beams in one
housing...again: enormously expensive.
 
I think I have come to a decision about the Chebbie truck.  Rooting around
in the back of the barn I came across a new in the box pair of Hella Optilux
1900 driving lights.  I had completely forgotten I had bought them, oh, six
or seven years ago.  They are big round and deep lamps with a single H3
bulb. Big chrome/metal housings and, now I remember:  I bought them because
of the size and rubber isolation supplied with the mounting.  I think I
bought these for my first GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 pickup and decided there was no
good way to mount them since I was using a Fisher Minute Mount plow system
at that time.  Anyway, on the Chebbie these will work just perfectly.
 
I will replace the oem polycarbonate headlight units with new, aftermarket
lamps, take power to the auxilliary lamps from the high beam side of them,
and relay through a dash mounted switch so I will have high beams, or high
beams with auxilliary lamps as required or as driving conditions
allow...don't want to blind some State Trooper!  (Been there done that!  Lit
up the inside of a trooper one night years ago in a Porsche 912 that had two
Cibie 45 (7" round flat driving lights), QI headlights and some sort of
flood lights down low...forgotten which ones.  Anyway, the Porsche WAS going
warp nine, trying to make up time on a night rallye, and the cop was just
sitting still when I careened aroudn the road to light him up broadside.  He
could do nothing except yell a lot, and that he did...chewed my ass good,
and made us TWENTY minutes late on the leg!  That was on Cape Cod and trust
me: you can't even THINK about doing that down there today.).
...

 
Without doubt the BEST installation would be the installation of the
rectangular 200mm European headlamps (Hella or Cibie).  But that is also far
and away the most complicated and expensive, as it will require replacing
the grille, the headlamp mounting brackets and all the assorted adjustment
gizzies, either form a junk yard or from GM direct.  It would make this
entire project approach four hundred bucks if I source new parts.  IF I was
driving this truck all the time as my only vehicle and I was doing a LOT of
night driving, it might be the best solution, but I'll start by using what
is in hand.  
 


 
Roger