Wednesday 30th October 2002

Seeing around Corners

Will the fog lights come on as well...?

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[Captain Muppet]

Wow, what an original idea!

...or were Citroen doing this forty years ago?

[jmorgan]

Didn't someone here mention Tucker recently?

[dennisthemenace]

Good idea but Citroen was there first ,Anyway its still not a good enough reason to buy a vauxhall , reps will love it another gadget to play with , just think how jelous mundaneo driving reps will be

[marki]

the march of progress , suprised no one else took this idea up after Citroen untill now

[Fourwheeldrift]

Excellent, Vectraman will be able to blind us from all directions now!!!!

[Captain Muppet]

How long till Ford bring out the same system but with added GPS controlled vertical adjustment for hills?

Edited to say arse - there goes my chance of a patent.

>> Edited by Captain Muppet on Wednesday 30th October 10:23

[jeremyc]

Doesn't help you to see where you're going during your opposite lock drifts though, does it.

Oh, wait a minute, it's a Vectra isn't it.....no problem then.

[Captain Muppet]

How about a system for Porsche to turn on the reverse lamps after the ESP has given up - so you can see the hedge you're about to go through?

Might be a good idea on the new Smart as well...

[Dazren]

jeremyc said: Doesn't help you to see where you're going during your opposite lock drifts though, does it.

It does if you get your arse out properly.

DAZ

>> Edited by Dazren on Wednesday 30th October 10:47

[Fatboy]

What in a vextra?

The boffins at Opel hope that the new lighting system will go some way to improving the lot of the late night motorists.

They could have done that by not fitting the things with foglamps....
And not another bloody car with those bloody blinding xenon lights They should not be allowed for dipped bean - driving (i.e. full beam) lamps only...

>> Edited by Fatboy on Wednesday 30th October 13:11

[CB-Dave]

Diesse diesse, where for art thou diesse :P

[bryanlister]

OK. But will Vectra man be LOOKING around the corner he is going to turn into? Most Vectra drivers don't seem to look where they are going in daylight.

[stevenrt]

TAKE A BOW, PRESTON TUCKER!

[prelude4ws]

And not another bloody car with those bloody blinding xenon lights They should not be allowed for dipped bean - driving (i.e. full beam) lamps only...

Those "blinding headlamps" are not actually blinding at all. Car Headlights are very tightly governed by legal requeirments. They are actually only about 35 watts in power compared to the 55/60 watts of a normall lamp, but the xenons emit a purer and whiter light that the human eye is more sensative to, thus a car is more visable (when are they going to fit these to bikes?) and also its driver can see further and clearer.

[craigalsop]

Loads of Jap import cars have had these for years already - I've seen 'em on MR2s & Legacies.

[c14ppy]

I like the way car companys are recycling their tech'. Like using a system off a 30 year old citroen DS.

Wonder what else they can return from the tech grave.

how about dodgy vinyl roofs off a capri or mk 3 cortina

[Fatboy]

Those "blinding headlamps" are not actually blinding at all. Car Headlights are very tightly governed by legal requeirments. They are actually only about 35 watts in power compared to the 55/60 watts of a normall lamp, but the xenons emit a purer and whiter light that the human eye is more sensative to, thus a car is more visable (when are they going to fit these to bikes?) and also its driver can see further and clearer.

I know they're legal - but they're still far more dazzling than regular halogen bulbs. I don't object to them on full beam where there's no other driver to be blinded, but on low beam thay are nearly as dazzling as full beam halogens, which is not a good thing.

[kevinday]

Fatboy, correctly aligned dip beams should not dazzle at all unless you are lying down in the road. Being dazzled by dip beam means the car needs some adjustment, it is not a fault of the type of light.

[pistol pete]

Fatboy said:
I know they're legal - but they're still far more dazzling than regular halogen bulbs. I don't object to them on full beam where there's no other driver to be blinded, but on low beam thay are nearly as dazzling as full beam halogens, which is not a good thing.

Maybe its just me, I'm not sure, but my impression of driving cars fitted with xenon bulbs is that they are deffinatly brighter, but that, im my experiance they seem to point far more at the ground immediatly infront of the car rather than where you are actually going -thus, in the crest of a hill, or when in a hevily loaded car oncoming drivers get blinded, and, in my experiance visabliity of the road ahead is actually not as good as with (old style??) halogen headlight.

Personnaly, I'd much rather have halogen lights, and having just aquired a Mk3 Golf, I am somewhat puzzled by the fassion amongst GTI enthusiasts (/boy racers/whatever) of fitting "Mk4 style xenon headlights" to older cars -Why??

Fog lights, dont get me started on that one right now......

Pete.

[Fatboy]

Fatboy, correctly aligned dip beams should not dazzle at all unless you are lying down in the road. Being dazzled by dip beam means the car needs some adjustment, it is not a fault of the type of light.

It's just that I've noticed a lot of different types of cars with xenon headlamps tend to be pretty dazzling - due to the blue-white light they have - or maybe there's just a lot of new cars out there with incorrectly aligned headlamps - quite possible I suppose...