World Class Lighting

Taras · Post by **Taras** » May 21st, 2005, 1:08 am

Naaah, I can't resist showing you this guys. This is what the best of the best in HID produces. This is not my picture, just had to borrow from a guy on the other forum. On a Mercedes E320 with different projectors, so don't go running to buy MB headlights. OEM Xenon D2S 4100K colour temp bulbs and OEM ballasts, so nothing special. What is special, is the width these suckers produce - 6 lanes wide, and of course the uniformity of the beam......it's all in the optics.
Ready?.......

atlantamx3 · Post by **atlantamx3** » May 21st, 2005, 3:55 pm

Sweet! Now you blind up to 6 lanes of other drivers!

Damn-- those are pretty nice... Thats like 20 MX-3 lights all put together!

Taras · Post by **Taras** » May 21st, 2005, 5:04 pm

If they are aimed properly, you will not blind anyone. Notice a sharp cut-off.

ertaisi · Post by **ertaisi** » May 21st, 2005, 7:34 pm

Maybe I'm clueless, but I just don't see the point. Sure, the lighting is better, that's cool. But it's dangerous overkill for oncoming traffic. Every time I hear someone say 'yeah, but if they're aimed properly, there's no blinding' I want to scream. I don't know about where you guys live, but here our streets aren't all layed out on a perfectly horizontal plane. I'm blinded by these HIDs every time I come over a hill, they come over a hill, they hit a bump in the road, whatever.

/rant off

...But yeah, they look hella cool as long as you're behind 'em.

Chronicle-Rod · Post by **Chronicle-Rod** » May 21st, 2005, 7:44 pm

Yeah, every time the guy coming my way with HID's hits a bump, I want to jerk the wheel towards the light - because it's all I can see.

There's a limit on how far to go with them in terms of spread and intensity before you're just being a damn nuisance, and danger, to everyone ELSE on the road. Sure - you won't hit anything because you can see...but they can hit YOU, since they can't see crap.

Taras · Post by **Taras** » May 21st, 2005, 8:43 pm

And where were YOU when others were saying HID kits were cool.

For OEM, ever heard of adaptive lighting? May be should do a bit of research?
The ones in the picture are OEM lights and self-levelling as well.

Now compare to this:

That is probably what you see on the roads as well as the rest of the Halogens that blind you even on a straight road.

ertaisi · Post by **ertaisi** » May 22nd, 2005, 10:21 am

I don't know what adaptive lighting you're talking about. All searching I did on it didn't make sense in this context. What do you mean?

Taras · Post by **Taras** » May 22nd, 2005, 3:46 pm

http://www.hella.com/produktion/HellaCO ... dlamps.jsp

Watch a few MPEG videos they have there, they should give you a few ideas. Watch all of them, the Bi-Xenon video will also talk about the Dynamic Lighting that's been on cars from 2001. And although a fully automatic lighting (VARILIS - Bi-Xenon, bend lighitng, self level and variable focus) is a year or so away most HID equipped cars today have self-levelling and newer ones have the cornering and bend lighting.

The ones that are HID equipped and are horrible are the reflector based systems: earlier Acuras, (Navigators, Escalades especially) and some Lexii. And of course the out of aim and aftermarket HID kits in Halogen housings. In the world of horrible is also most ot the earlier North American (DOT) specification Halogen headlamps, beacuse by design they are meant to bleed light off to the upper parts of the beam for overhead signage. The worst are trucks, like F150, etc.

Of course there are other reasons why you get blinded on the road. There is no mandatory yearly inspections that include misalighned lights and also no mandatory headlamps levelling devices that will either manually or electronically will level the headlights based on the weight in the back if the vehicle. Try a big F250 with a camper or trailer hooked on the back. Europe had levelling requirements from the 70's and most people learn how to drive and are also taught how to align their lamps and change the lightbulbs (do you know how to align yours?). Ever driven in the fog and see people's lights point in all kinds of directions, or they drive with their high beams as if you need to see fog better.

Even the bodyshops or mechanics do not align your headlamps after repair or accidnet. Well, they are not required to do so and even it they wanted to they do not have the optical bench or equipement that you need to align DOT headlamps.

Europe also had and has mandatory headlight washer systems, beacuse dirty lights produce more glare. Almost all HID equipped cars in US/Canada have them too, although here it is not mandatory. Every time you pull to wash your windshield, your headlamps get washed too (at much higher pressure).

There are also way to many cheap aftermarket lights these days that look cool and do squat nothing in terms of making you see the road better. They also contribute their share to the glare on the roads, because most people use blue tinted bulbs or overwattage.

All these ("I hate the new lights....") were heard when Halogens were introduced in the 70's. Same with HID's. That's beacuse most people stare at the bloody things like a deer in the headlights. If you look at them, yes they will seem blinding.

So, go and revisit the picture that I posted earlier and see how much glare that Mercedes produces and then go park your car against a wall and see how much you have on yours. Yes on uphills any car will blind (unless it's got AFS) and HID by nature are brighter and yes they will reflect off the wet road more than halogens. But in most day to day conditions the light is much better controlled and is safer for the drivers and others on the road. Until you drive with HID for a while you will not understand. And no, I have never been flashed once, because I aim mine by European and not North American standards.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » May 23rd, 2005, 2:10 am

Taras wrote:Europe also had and has mandatory headlight washer systems, beacuse dirty lights produce more glare. Almost all HID equipped cars in US/Canada have them too, although here it is not mandatory. Every time you pull to wash your windshield, your headlamps get washed too (at much higher pressure).

RX8 has the headlight washer covered with a blanking plate for the same reasons you specified. Already designed, manufactured and integrated into Mazda's but not mandatory here (North America)...yet.

All these ("I hate the new lights....") were heard when Halogens were introduced in the 70's. Same with HID's. That's beacuse most people stare at the bloody things like a deer in the headlights. If you look at them, yes they will seem blinding.

So very true. Difficult for those to comprehend some of the differences between the different lighting systems. These are probably the same ones who buy the blue tinted bulbs in an effort to emulate the HID on Euro cars. I think I find myself very opinionated on these issues only because I've spent some time in Europe driving in places like France, Holland, Belguim, Norway, Germany and other places like Cyprus, Egypt, Israel and Jordan. In all of these places I've been able to realize the differences in quality and craftmanship of the various manufacturers from Europe and Japan without the incumberance and governmental obstacles the US and Canadian "safety regulatories" put into place. In other words...better quality cars..bar none. WRT lighting, the E-Spec has always amazed me. Always years ahead of us. Their funtionality, practicality and overall effectiveness is far superior to any lighting we are accustomed to. So of course there will be those who would look at a lighting system of this nature that can span up to six lanes, have a perfect cut-off point and scoff at it because perhaps in their mind if it doesn't illuminat a football field that it really isn't a good system. I mean lets face it, lighting of that caliber coming from a light unit whose lense is probably no more than about 3 inches in diameter is new stuff and will be a difficult realization to accept to those who are unable to think outside the box. I believe halogens as a stock lighting system on new cars will be a thing of the past within ten or 15 years or so, IMO.

Has anyone stopped to wonder why we (North America) never recieved the same front bumper as did the J-Spec, E-Spec and AU-Spec (integrated fog lights moulded in). Why would the manufacture not make them all the same unless one 1 ot 2 things came into play. 1 our front bumper is cheaper to produce because there is no fog light unit and or 2, the regulatory organizations in canada and the US deemed that it was not a requirement or necessity to have even if it was originally manufactured with them integrated. I know numerous people who were going to buy a E-Spec Mercedes, BMW, Volvo etc but were advised that because of certain regulatory requirements, they would have to make numerous modifications/equipment changes /replacements to meet NA codes. Because of all of those obstacles, they ended up buying a NA-Spec car that in many ways just seems to come up short. One of which was the lighting issues. IMO, a step backwards in our archaic approach to such matters. Change for those organizations, is a slow process, and unfortunately for us, we'll always be a step behind our non NA-Spec counterparts.

Taras · Post by **Taras** » May 23rd, 2005, 2:43 am

Yes, I agree, the cost of the Xenon technology is coming down pretty fast. They even have HID's from the factory now on Focus, Sienna, Altima. Mazda 3 and Mini. Wait till LED lights will come out.... people will be "how can little diodes light up the road?"