Best head/tail light designs?
Discussion
In general, I'm a fan of round/oval headlights over square/rectangular but I appreciate that in the old days, these were often off-the-shelf units rather than "designed" specifically for that car. Nevertheless, I love a round headlight on a classic Alfa/Lancia/BMW/Golf, especially if they're double headlights and the outer pair are a bit larger than the inner pair.
I would have to say though that unlike many other aspects of car design, modern technology has allowed better and better head/tail light designs. The current 2 cars in the household fleet both have LED headlights (our first 2 vehicles to have them) and having used them both extensively for both dark morning and evening commutes on rural roads, I'm not sure if I could go back to halogens on a vehicle that I drive a lot in the dark. I've never owned/driven a car with Xenons at night but back in the day, if a car had Xenons, it was instantly cool in my book.
That's functionality not design per se though. Currently, I would have to say that the headlights on the 2nd gen Bentley Continental GT (pre-facelift) are probably my favourite. They remind me of very expensive cut glass tumblers!
And as for tail lights, although I'm not a huge fan of the design of the rest of the car, I love the LED taillights on the Nissan R35 GTR. So iconic!
As for older cars, the tail lights normally let them down, as they tend to be quite "boxy" and date the car more than the headlights but I do quite like the head/tail light combination on a BMW 2002 if we're talking about one car.
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/16464139
But the rear lights on the mk1 Ford/Lotus Cortina are probably cooler.
And although they're probably an off-the-shelf item, I did love the 4 round lights on the front of the mk3 Ford Capri and the fact that they were slightly hooded. That was the major stylistic difference between the mk2 and mk3 and that really went a long way to make the Capri a favourite for me.
So focussing on design rather than functionality, what are your favourite head/tail light designs?
I would have to say though that unlike many other aspects of car design, modern technology has allowed better and better head/tail light designs. The current 2 cars in the household fleet both have LED headlights (our first 2 vehicles to have them) and having used them both extensively for both dark morning and evening commutes on rural roads, I'm not sure if I could go back to halogens on a vehicle that I drive a lot in the dark. I've never owned/driven a car with Xenons at night but back in the day, if a car had Xenons, it was instantly cool in my book.
That's functionality not design per se though. Currently, I would have to say that the headlights on the 2nd gen Bentley Continental GT (pre-facelift) are probably my favourite. They remind me of very expensive cut glass tumblers!
And as for tail lights, although I'm not a huge fan of the design of the rest of the car, I love the LED taillights on the Nissan R35 GTR. So iconic!
As for older cars, the tail lights normally let them down, as they tend to be quite "boxy" and date the car more than the headlights but I do quite like the head/tail light combination on a BMW 2002 if we're talking about one car.
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/16464139
But the rear lights on the mk1 Ford/Lotus Cortina are probably cooler.
And although they're probably an off-the-shelf item, I did love the 4 round lights on the front of the mk3 Ford Capri and the fact that they were slightly hooded. That was the major stylistic difference between the mk2 and mk3 and that really went a long way to make the Capri a favourite for me.
So focussing on design rather than functionality, what are your favourite head/tail light designs?
Edited by white_goodman on Friday 23 May 16:20
Edited by white_goodman on Friday 23 May 16:21
andy43 said:
Pretty crap photo but the infinity tail lights on the LC500 are cool.
Bonus tail points to the TVR Griffith for making upside down Cavalier lamps look really quite swoopy.
Again, a crap photo
I love little details like that! Like I believe the door mirrors on my Corrado VR6 were also used on the McLaren F1?Bonus tail points to the TVR Griffith for making upside down Cavalier lamps look really quite swoopy.
Again, a crap photo
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff