WRC style Bonnet Light pods on a GC8 Impreza?

[Lefty]

What sayeth PH?

[acf8181]

On a proer rally car = cool

On a road car = a touch sad

IMO of course

[HoggyR32]

Cool!

[Lefty]

Thing is, the headlights on my p1 are shocking, even with +120% brightness bulbs. The driving lights improve things a bit, they have a separate switch but still only come on with main beam.

I quite like the idea if additional lights but they do look a bit odd on a road car.

[ScoobieWRX]

On a competition rally car i think it's essential and does look the biz but then they are meant to be functional and in their rightful setting nothing looks better. However, on a road car for normal road use....I don't think so.

Maybe a couple of decent sized cibbies in the original fog light placements would look very cool but any more would start to make it look a bit Halfords. Those 120% extreme bulbs are much better than your standard Halogen (which i still have on my bugeye and can see the road ahead just fine) and IMHO i think very good for the road. Anything more powerful just pisses other road users including myself right off!!

With the greatest respect you don't need rally lamps to see where you are going, even on the darkest UK country road. If you genuinely do then you are blind and shouldn't be on the road in the first place.

[Lefty]

I just sold a golf r32 and the difference between the HID lights on that and the main beam of my p1 is, excuse the pun, night and day.

If I was to fit them I'd get them wired up with similar controls to the current driving lights (note, not fog lights), that only operate when main beam is on.

Cheers

Edited by Lefty on Tuesday 1st January 14:18

[Lefty]

Interestingly, contrary to your findings scoobiewrx, I haven't found the 120% bright halfords bulbs to be that much brighter than the ones that were in it before. And, as I said, an awful lot less effective than the HID lights on the golf. I think the AIM is ok but might get my local tame mot man to have a shufti at them for me.

Cheers.


Edited for autocorrect bd

Edited by Lefty on Wednesday 2nd January 08:37

[ScoobieWRX]

Lefty said:

Interestingly, contrary to your findings scoobiewrx, I haven't found the 120% bright halfords bulbs to be that much brighter than the ones that were in it before. And, as I said, an awful lot less effective than the HID lights on the golf. I think the sum is ok but might get my local tame mot man to have a shufti at them for me.

Cheers.

I've got the Extreme's fitted to my Toyota Surf and the difference between these and the original Halogen lights is night and day.

Not only are they visually brighter from behind the wheel but the whiter light itself seems to penetrate much further into the dark. Suffice to say i rarely use high beam as dip beam does the job 99% of the time.

I get the odd flash from oncoming drivers too no doubt telling me to dip my headlights even though they already are. I never got that with the old Halogen lights.

I could have bought Halford's own 80/100 Off-Road Only H4's but i decided against. I've no doubt they would be considerably brighter than the original 55/65 Halogen and the Extreme's but you still get the same colour Halogen glow and i would definitely be pissing off a lot of oncoming drivers for sure.

I'm confident that fitting Extremes to my bugeye would have a similar effect and will be more than sufficient to do the job. Huge spot/fog lights aren't necessary on UK roads however you have them wired or functioning, when factory fog/spot lights do the job just fine.

Let's be honest now, what you have in mind is more a bit of bling/fashion accessory for your car rather than a requirement.

[Lefty]

ScoobieWRX said:

Let's be honest now, what you have in mind is more a bit of bling/fashion accessory for your car rather than a requirement.

It's really not.

HID driving lights are another (cheaper) alternative that I'm going to look into too.

[ScoobieWRX]

Lefty said:

ScoobieWRX said:

Let's be honest now, what you have in mind is more a bit of bling/fashion accessory for your car rather than a requirement.

It's really not.

HID driving lights are another (cheaper) alternative that I'm going to look into too.

What you proposed in your first post relating to the photo of the rally car with light pods and humongous spot lights but on a road only car is nothing but bling/show. Let's face it, there's really no genuine requirement for that kind of setup on UK roads is there?

That's what i'm commenting on.

As for HID main lights, sure why not.

[HoggyR32]

My father in law had a blob eye shape impreza when they first came out. He wasn't all that impressed with the lights either so he made fitted hid lights where the fog light covers were. Took the STI covers of and butchered a set of fog light housings from the wrx. They're big powerfull buggers! Infact, I'm sure I've still got them tucked away somewhere from when he sold the car. Hmm, eBay beckons!

[Lefty]

ScoobieWRX said:

Lefty said:

ScoobieWRX said:

Let's be honest now, what you have in mind is more a bit of bling/fashion accessory for your car rather than a requirement.

It's really not.

HID driving lights are another (cheaper) alternative that I'm going to look into too.

What you proposed in your first post relating to the photo of the rally car with light pods and humongous spot lights but on a road only car is nothing but bling/show. Let's face it, there's really no genuine requirement for that kind of setup on UK roads is there?

That's what i'm commenting on.

As for HID main lights, sure why not.

No offence taken, don't worry. What prompted my thought was that an HID headlight replacement is a pretty expensive modification, certainly a lot more expensive than a bonnet pod and 4 additional driving lights.

The aim is just to improve the lights, there are a few ways of doing it and I'm interested to see what people think of the options.

Cheers
Lefty

[ScoobieWRX]

No worries

[RB Will]

Think it would need a full rally rep look to go with it, so the stickers, mudflaps etc but yeah do it.

[jfbrin]

I had PIAA bulbs in my 2000 classic and went for the PIAA foglight conversion to spot lights. So on full beam the reflection off motorway signs in Wales was blinding. Still left me with the problem of poor dipped beam even with the PIA bulbs.

Others have gone for the morettes conversion like ths:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-Morette-Headligh...

Thereafter, there may be hid kits but i believe the MOT requires self leveling adjusters to be fitted also?

JB