Headlight colours.

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Fri 9 Nov 2001 03:15
Headlight colours. - dan
There's been a few threads regarding new brighter headlights etc, but l haven't seen any mention of the perculiar colours new car headlamps seem to be chucking out.

I was under the impression that lamps had to be white to yellow. Now many new cars (and those owned by grill fiddling boy racers) appear to have some tasteful hue added in for good measure.

Green is the most interesting to catch out of the corner of the eye, but blue is still the favourite and the one most likely to distract you. Police? Ambulance? Oh no, just a white transit van with blue light refracting out of its clunky light clusters.

How long will these new light/old cover combinations last before they get banned?

Or is it just me?
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 09:01
Re: Headlight colours. - John Slaughter
Dan

I'd agree that there does appear to be a fashion in a few cars around to use blue tinted bulbs which I assume are intended to mimic the Xenon discharge lamps.

The other colours, bright blue, red etc seem to be a design issue, resulting from the current trend to use small lamps containing substantial convex lenses. My friends Alfa 146 was one such. The lens clearly acted as a prism and the edges of the beam were split by refraction into its constituent colours, of which blue and red seemed predominant.

The result was that if his car approached, as the beam moved about and you saw the edges you were subject to seeing flashes of these colours, and he's convinced that it made other road users think it was a Police car. Having been followed along the road a few times, I can assure you the effect was quite marked.

Not all cars seem to produce this effect though - despite the substantial bulls-eye lens, 3 series lamps don't seem to be anywhere near so bad.

Regards

John
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 09:31
Re: Headlight colours. - Peter Mason
Please excuse slight diversion-My son recently showed me a key fob with a high intensity blue LED (bought in the USA, but available over here)which he has found useful on the motorway when stuck behind outside lane hoggers doing 60. He directs the beam forwards and flashes it a few times..usually with instant response from hogger, who pulls over into middle or inside lane.
I know,..one day he'll do it to a plod 'Q car..!)
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 09:46
Re: Headlight colours. - John Slaughter
Peter

Wonderful!

Unfortunately it shows these selfish individuals know that they are driving inconsiderately, which makes re-education more difficult.

Regards

JS
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 11:48
Re: Headlight colours. - David W
Peter,

Sure it's not one of those small lasers that nicely take out the "opponents" eyeballs.

David
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 22:41
Re: Headlight colours. - Peter M
David,-
No, definitely a L.E.D. with a very efficient lens.
Peter.
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Fri 9 Nov 2001 09:50
Re: Headlight colours. - Brill
Tempting to have a similar remote in the back window to warn off tailgaters with a couple of blue flashes. It would make them think at least.
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Mon 12 Nov 2001 03:50
Re: Headlight colours. - ROBIN
Pity.
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