RE: You're-a-peein' lights?

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

The main difference between euro and US headlamps is that on euro
headlamps all the light is directed right where you need it - onto the
road. On US headlamps, depending on car brand/model, usually some of the
light is wasted on illuminating peaks of the trees (and blinding
oncoming drivers as a side effect). The bulb wattage only tells you how
much power it draws, which doesn't have direct conversion to brightness
(only a fraction of this energy is converted into light, the rest is
wasted as heat) For example, Philips has recently introduced a new H4
bulb that is promised to be 20% or so more bright while still having the
same wattage (55/60W) as conventional ones. I don't have any
comparisions between H4 and US bulbs of the same wattage, though.

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	enzeder@ix.netcom.com [SMTP:enzeder@ix.netcom.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, October 21, 1997 9:53 AM
> To:	quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> Subject:	You're-a-peein'  lights?
> 
> Well, I've read all the propaganda, and for the most part believe 
> it, but was trying to explain to my Dad why I wanted to spend 20% of 
> the purchase price of my car to get "brighter" lights, and he just 
> asked me for numbers, ie: some objective data, and I couldn't give 
> him any.  Does anyone have this data?  Has anyone used a light meter 
> for example to actually measure how much brighter they are?  Dad's 
> giving me the 65w is 65w line, and why would DOT-spec be any worse 
> than E-spec, they're both government specifications.
> 
> Any ammo would be welcome.
> 
> Arryn.