Lights! (Interesting and Awful please)

[van ordinaire]

Driving home tonight under Northumberland's dark skies spotted up ahead this take on the "designer rear lights"

Whenever I come up behind one of those at night, I immediately think "'59 Impala!"

[NewcastleFalcon]

Nostalgic motoring accessories time.....Wipac hair raisers....Buckingham’s finest

Regards Neil

So what's the car the person is driving in the Wipac advert ?

Ford Escort RS 1800 MKII...Wipac wouldn't have chosen anything else-seeing as the December 1977 date of Motor Sport Magazine in which it was published would have been just after such a beast won the Lombard RAC Rally!

Of course others may not agree!

Regards Neil

[Timmo]

It can't be an escort! It's traveling in a straight line!

[CitroJim]

Nostalgic motoring accessories time.....Wipac hair raisers....Buckingham’s finest

One of Buckingham's only claims to fame... I remember well the Wipac factory but long gone now... As is so often the case the site is now occupied by a mega-sized supermarket - the name of which has the same number of letters as the former company...

[NewcastleFalcon]

the site is now occupied by a mega-sized supermarket - the name of which has the same number of letters as the former company...

Could well be the one of the big four which has felt the full force of my economic sanctions for a number of years now. No I like a supermarket which has its own lighthouse...as featured recently on POTD



Regards Neil

[old'uns]

i followed something in the dark through the M6 coventry roadworks the other night and couldn't stop smiling once i'd got it in my head what the lights looked like....i've scrubbed the DashCam footage so have had to search for what car it was, turns out it was one of these....



now imagine it's dark, the car is blue and the red strips stand out a lot more.
i imagined 2 young ladies either side

or for the PC version i saw 'Kilroy' or the small decals you see on the bottom of boot lids...

[CitroJim]

No I like a supermarket which has its own lighthouse...as featured recently on POTD



Regards Neil

Now that's different Neil... I like that...

Our local-est Tesco is built on the site of part of the old Wolverton Railway Works and was built to match the original buildings and to blend in...

Recently they've knocked up a kit-form Lidl and a MaccyDs on the same site as more of the old works is eroded. That former ethos has gone right out of the window sadly and the two new establishments are typical of their 'style' (term used reservedly) as seen everywhere... They stick out like the old proverbial whereas the Tesco beautifully blends in...

[NewcastleFalcon]

I described the Jaguar's take on the rear light display as a "squiggle" when I first noticed it.

PS on the drive home did notice the latest rear light offering from Jaguar. Its sort of a squiggle.

Another one to add to the spotting list when playing a bit of "I-spy tail lights" on nighttime drives!

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

I followed an Orange Mini clubman today, one of the new generation. in not what I would describe as broad daylight but not far off.

It had its rear cluster of lights illuminated all the time....er...is thats whats known as daytime running lights.....
but when the brakes were applied I expected the main cluster to fire up bright red but no the brake lights were lowish down separate from the main cluster and a high level light at the top of the rear window.

Wow fascinating or what!







Regards Neil

[Hell Razor5543]

I think they borrowed that idea from the original Land Rover Discovery!

[van ordinaire]

Discos (& a cuple of others) had to reconfigure their rear lights when it was realised that [in this country (EU?) at least] they eren't compliant with lighting regs when the rear door/tailgate was open - shades of DS Safari & original Mini rear No: plate/lamp arrangement!
If you were stuck behind it in traffic behind that "Mini" on a wet night, you might have cause to be grateful for that light placement, especially if it was an auto.

[bobins]

I remember reading a lonnnng time ago that it was supposed to be a requirement that an ordinary bod should be able to replace a car lamp with no specialist tools, but I've never found official documentation to back that up. Anyone able to comment ?

[EDC5]

Am I the only one that thinks the halogen dipped beams on the X7 are horrendous?

I have had to switch to main beams more than once in a sticky situation because of how poor they are. The main culprit to my eyes is the large non-reflective ring of steel that sits parallel to the bulb filament blocking 90% of the light out

I've tried those Philips super extra 1000% brighter bulbs as well as the Osram night breaker laser bulbs, but they seem to be 1% brighter lasting only 10% as long as normal.

[GiveMeABreak]

We were having a sort of discussion about headlight bulbs over here Elis:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=58673

[white exec]

RAV4 (series 2 to be precise) had a rear light obscuring problem, caused by the full-width rear door hinging outward to completely cover up the seat of rear lights on the r.h.s. Not too much of an issue when parked at night on the r.h.s. of a road, but park it on the left (as you might well do in the UK), and it could look like a parked bike! This was got over for RHD models not by having anything as sensible as additional tail-lights built into the door edge, but, would you believe, by shortening the rear door stay, so it would not open fully! This had the unfortunate effect of preventing large loads being put into the vehicle. Sales of full-length "LHD" stays became brisk.

The front foglights on the car - in the bumper surround, H7 51W - also has some kind of steel cap directly in front of the bulb (presumably to stop forward dazzle), which only served to keep most of the light inside the lamp. Effect on the road was about 20W, and hopeless. Removing the steel cap sorted the problem completely - two very capable fogs now, and no dazzle either.