RE:All kinds of lights, KC....RE:Source for "affordable" euro lights ?

[Ron Wood <vw-audisport@worldnet.att.net>]

To steal a phrase from a current tire companies ad, "power without 
control is useless". Wattage alone is not a indication of a lights 
effectiveness, if anything, more watts in a poorly designed light is 
more a detriment than a help. A lights effectivenss is determined by the 
size of the reflector, it's design (parabolic, freeform or projector) 
and the lense design. From what I've seen of the less expensive lights
(ie: Pep Boys specials, KCs, etc) their lense design leaves a lot to be 
desired. A lense with very little or no fluting will have a very focused 
beam pattern-very bright in the center with very little spread 
horizontally. From lots of night Pro Rally experience, this type of 
light will actually work against you, your eyes will focus on the 
brightest spot & lose some periphery vision, not very good for corners, 
etc. Ideally, the light should be a wide spread to fully illuminate the 
road surface evenly across it's surface. Aftermarket lights like Hella 
or PIAA tend to be expensive but very efficient in their light 
distribution, most OE Euro lights do this as well. Adding high power 
bulbs to a poor light/lense design is a waste of money, and will most 
likely piss off the other drivers on the road. I think it is best to 
invest your money in a good pair of lights, either "euro" or 
aftermarket, be wary of the cheapies.  I think I remember that a lot of 
the sealed beam pencil lights were originally designed as landing lights 
for aircraft, not much good for our uses ??
Ron Wood-Audis a plenty