jeffsf
Newly Enlightened
As a preface, I deal with lighting on vehicles so that I can see and not to impress others with how my car looks.
I'm presently running stock Xenon headlights in my 2006 Mini Cooper S and stock halogen headlights in my wife's 2006 Mini Cooper, both with Osram "Rallye" H7 bulbs fitted where used. We drive winding, unlit, mountain roads here on a regular basis and find that in bends, particularly when the road climbs ahead, there isn't good illumination out in front of the vehicle as the high beams are not pointed where the road is going, due to the bend. (Once you know the roads, they are 50 MPH+ in a Mini, if you have the visibility).
As the pattern and illumination of the stock lights' low beams are "reasonable", I was considering adding something to fill to the left and right of the stock high beams. I think they'd also be valuable for deer spotting (no, not a joke) and chicken spotting, before they cross the road.
One option is the Cibie 5 3/4" units in a suitable housing. I see that they are still available as E-Code units with either a flat or curved lens (Daniel Stern Lighting). I found a reference in this forum that suggested that there was a notable difference in the patterns, one being "wider" and the other being "longer", but it wasn't clear to me which was which.
Also, looking at the halogen-bulb auxiliary lights, it looks like mainly the same models and lens/reflector combinations from the 80s or early 90s. Not that they were "bad" then (though PIAA certainly has changed their market target since then!), but was wondering if two decades of advances in computer-aided optics design have brought in any new "contenders" in the driving-light market.
I'd like to keep the size "reasonable", below about 6" diameter or height/width so our every-day Minis don't attract too much attention. I'd also like to stay at or below the $200-300 per-pair (lights/housings only, harness excluded) price, as I'm not holding out much hope for being able to polish out the surface defects on my wife's headlamps and expect that budget will need to go for a couple Hella (halogen) replacements there as well.
Thanks!
I'm presently running stock Xenon headlights in my 2006 Mini Cooper S and stock halogen headlights in my wife's 2006 Mini Cooper, both with Osram "Rallye" H7 bulbs fitted where used. We drive winding, unlit, mountain roads here on a regular basis and find that in bends, particularly when the road climbs ahead, there isn't good illumination out in front of the vehicle as the high beams are not pointed where the road is going, due to the bend. (Once you know the roads, they are 50 MPH+ in a Mini, if you have the visibility).
As the pattern and illumination of the stock lights' low beams are "reasonable", I was considering adding something to fill to the left and right of the stock high beams. I think they'd also be valuable for deer spotting (no, not a joke) and chicken spotting, before they cross the road.
One option is the Cibie 5 3/4" units in a suitable housing. I see that they are still available as E-Code units with either a flat or curved lens (Daniel Stern Lighting). I found a reference in this forum that suggested that there was a notable difference in the patterns, one being "wider" and the other being "longer", but it wasn't clear to me which was which.
Edit: http://winktimber.com/vintagerally/gear/lights/cibie_catalog_1985.pdf on page 6 describes and illustrates, in old-school terms, the "Reflective Range" of the flat-lens, 5-3/4" units to be 6800' and the round-lens units to be 8600'. This is consistent with the table on page 22.
Also, looking at the halogen-bulb auxiliary lights, it looks like mainly the same models and lens/reflector combinations from the 80s or early 90s. Not that they were "bad" then (though PIAA certainly has changed their market target since then!), but was wondering if two decades of advances in computer-aided optics design have brought in any new "contenders" in the driving-light market.
I'd like to keep the size "reasonable", below about 6" diameter or height/width so our every-day Minis don't attract too much attention. I'd also like to stay at or below the $200-300 per-pair (lights/housings only, harness excluded) price, as I'm not holding out much hope for being able to polish out the surface defects on my wife's headlamps and expect that budget will need to go for a couple Hella (halogen) replacements there as well.
Thanks!
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