Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

[NewcastleFalcon]

Bromley's finest
[quote]www.gracesguide.co.uk

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Over at www.oldclassiccar.co.uk one of these is their POTD. Nice enough lights to make it into this thread.


1963 Alvis TE21 7965621618
Steve Glover [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Regards Neil

[van ordinaire]

One of the very few British cars (if not the only one) to adopt stacked headlights.

[white exec]

Good old 5¾" round!
Triumph Vitesse went in for an "angled stack"...

[NewcastleFalcon]

One from the USA

1963 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible G'wich Concours
Mr.choppers [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons

Regards Neil

[white exec]

One or two British cars successfully mixed 7" and 5¾" round.
Can't remember which, off hand.

VW Golf Mk1 GTi did...

...and was a good scrap source of the excellent Hella units.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

superb lights layout on the Golf, really works. Never been a VW fan a lovely bit of design, that.

Not fond of the 'separately located' Brake Lights on the Mini, just seems fussy and confusing.

[NewcastleFalcon]

and also from the Germans, those ain't fishbowls they're stacks!


1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE (W 108) sedan (2015-07-09) 01
OSX [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Heres a big one, and not just ordinary yellow but "Selective Yellow". This being the French Car Forum, the French always had a penchant for the yellow headlight.....but is this being confined to history and nostalgia in the modern world. Maybe we will get some first hand reporting from our continental correspondants


Corning Conaphore y
Scheinwerfermann at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Interesting the glass is made by Corning... Better known for 'Pyrex' type borosilicate glass... Did those lights run very hot?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Interesting the glass is made by Corning... Better known for 'Pyrex' type borosilicate glass... Did those lights run very hot?

Right now...I don't know, just came across it on an image list, and it led to a Wiki page on "Selective Yellow".

Very significant for French Automobiles for generations, but as I understand it now a relic, and speculation that it may just have been a touch of total BS why they persisted with it for so many years

Have to say I have no first hand knowledge of the pros-and-cons but this piece gives some of the background according to this particular author.

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tec ... color.html
What is "selective yellow" light?

It is a particular kind of yellow light that was required from all road illumination lamps on vehicles in France for many years. Light appears (more or less) white when it contains a mix of all the colours—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. By removing (filtering) the blue, indigo, and violet out of white light, we get selective yellow light. It is not the same as the more orange colour called "yellow" or "amber" used for vehicle turn signals, side marker lights, and (in some countries) clearance and front position or "parking" lights.

Why and when did France require selective yellow light?

A number of folk explanations have long been in circulation for the French yellow-lights requirement that started in the mid-1930s. Some say it was a tactical decision at the urging of the military, to facilitate identification of the nationality of a vehicle at night, useful during the war. Some say it was because French road pavement had peculiar reflective properties. Some say it was nothing but market protectionism. And a particularly persistent myth holds that yellow light "penetrates fog better" because blue light scatters more, as evidenced by the sky being blue............

Maybe others can shed further light on the matter...(boom! boom!)

Regards Neil

[white exec]

For a really good read, look at Wikipedia "Headlamp".
Lots of detail and photos, including the background to Selective Yellow.
And what the Yanks were up to - or not, as was the case.

[van ordinaire]

Whatever the reason, any white (exterior) lights were interdit en France for decades (i.e. including sidelights AND reversing lamps) &, to this day,they seem to prefer yellow foglights. Most of the reasons suggested can't be the explanation - because all visiting vehicles were required to comply!

I think Pontiac started the stacked headlight thing, Cadillac adopted them in '66 & Ford Galaxies (that's real ones, not rebadged VW Sharans) sported them around that time. Buick came up with the canted arrangement (far more extreme than the Vitesse - which was probably just a device to fit twin headlights to a car that wasn't really wide enough) R-R/Bentley flirted with the arrangement with the so-called "Chinese eye" Cloud III/S3.

Not sure the "inners" on that Golf ARE headlights but rather, integral driving lights, like the ltd edition (German) "Nordic" Visa - & the aftermarket kits for VIsas (with square inner lights), E21 BMW 3-series & even the original Mini.

That Mercs an NAS car, as the "goldfish bowls" wouldn't comply with the still mandatory sealed beams.

Only British car I can think of with odd headlights was the SE5(?) Scimitar.

Finally, back to France, because I'm sure there was a Facel Vega with stacked 5 3/4 & 7" lights.

Here endeth the headlamp trivia lesson.

[NewcastleFalcon]

These are nice

https://www.flickr.com/photos/liamch/48 ... rw-cQdho5/

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

A couple from the USA making it into the lights thread from cars in Anglia Car Auctions January 25th Sale at Kings Lynn.

1965 Buick Riviera Est £14,000 to £16,000


1962 Chrysler 300H Est £14,000 to £16,000


Regards Neil