Cabin interior accented lights - work in progress
Discussion
Last year, I had various projects under work and one of them was to see what could be done with accented
lighting. The idea of the work was to investigate a better style of lighting on the interior cabin that was
more modern and more in tune with "luxury" sports cars.
The template for the work came primary from my Lotus Evora which has a very nice system installed and
other examples I have seen over the years.
This project is still in progress and whilst most of the work has been completed, there are a few things to
do before it is fully finished.
The idea of this project is not to solve a practical issue - so don't expect any answers to "why?" type
questions - it was simply an interesting idea I wanted to play with, nothing more.
This is what is in the Lotus...
After working with various people on this project - including Russ, Brendan and Dave - lights were
added to various parts of the interior...
light pollution from other sources, but you can get some idea of how it looks. It does show up much
better in the dark though.
Added to these will also be some illuminated door sills that Skip will be fitting to complete the effect.
Once it is all done and dusted it should look quite good. The photos do not do it full justice, but at least
they give it some idea of what it looks like.
lighting. The idea of the work was to investigate a better style of lighting on the interior cabin that was
more modern and more in tune with "luxury" sports cars.
The template for the work came primary from my Lotus Evora which has a very nice system installed and
other examples I have seen over the years.
This project is still in progress and whilst most of the work has been completed, there are a few things to
do before it is fully finished.
The idea of this project is not to solve a practical issue - so don't expect any answers to "why?" type
questions - it was simply an interesting idea I wanted to play with, nothing more.
This is what is in the Lotus...
After working with various people on this project - including Russ, Brendan and Dave - lights were
added to various parts of the interior...
- LED pool lights were added to the passenger and drivers footwell
- Small pool lights were added to the underside of the doors
- A small pool light was also added to the top of the "cubby-hole" (aka under the radio nr. the ashtray)
- Optical strips were added to the door gaps and console upper/lower gap on the passenger side
- The lights where slaved off the interior light with a timer relay added
- Making the room on the doors for the strips - solved by Brendan and Dave. This also needed to overcome any possible issues with expansion of the trim/door fibreglass.
- Light balance - the initial work using strip LEDs had some issues with consistency of light delivery and being just slightly too powerful. Part of this was due to the trimming material on the door cards and some due to using LEDs
- Consistency of light levels - a mixture of the two above which was solved by using optical strips from the Evora and laying reflective channels into the door trim which the strips would lay.
- Trigger the lights to come on when the engine is switched off
- Time the lights to slowly fade away when the doors are closed and the car is left
- Photocell-sensor(s) to control the light level intensity based on levels on ambient light or have a dimmer control of some kind.
light pollution from other sources, but you can get some idea of how it looks. It does show up much
better in the dark though.
Added to these will also be some illuminated door sills that Skip will be fitting to complete the effect.
Once it is all done and dusted it should look quite good. The photos do not do it full justice, but at least
they give it some idea of what it looks like.
Christ Alex, I swear you post this stuff just to wind me up!
Tell ya what.... I have a mate who needs his night club and his Hummer blinging, neon-ing and pimping out. I'll put you guys in touch. FFS, you must have been watching too much Fast & Furious II and Tokyo Drift. Play with the Lotus as much as you want, but please, please put the Sagaris down and step away. Not kidding mate, go buy a Nissan GT-R and feck around with that to your hearts (and boxer shorts) content.
On reflection (and after a levelling double Highland Park), hell, it's your car and you are at liberty to do what you like to it. Just remember this, the last thing on the minds of the designers was.... "luxury" sports car!
If you were doing this to a GT-R or RX-7 (or even a Noble for that matter, coz in truth Noble's need their interiors making less boring) and sticking it in the "souped up" forum, I'd get it. In fact, I'd probably even join my 17 year old son and read it with interest. But seriously.... on this (for the most part) 'purist' TVR T-Car forum???? Give me a break, I need to get my BP down to a manageable level!
I know you've got the bug for track days now Alex. Perhaps we should try to arrange a night one. All that neon should look wonderful on camera with a slow shutter speed!
Tell ya what.... I have a mate who needs his night club and his Hummer blinging, neon-ing and pimping out. I'll put you guys in touch. FFS, you must have been watching too much Fast & Furious II and Tokyo Drift. Play with the Lotus as much as you want, but please, please put the Sagaris down and step away. Not kidding mate, go buy a Nissan GT-R and feck around with that to your hearts (and boxer shorts) content.
On reflection (and after a levelling double Highland Park), hell, it's your car and you are at liberty to do what you like to it. Just remember this, the last thing on the minds of the designers was.... "luxury" sports car!
If you were doing this to a GT-R or RX-7 (or even a Noble for that matter, coz in truth Noble's need their interiors making less boring) and sticking it in the "souped up" forum, I'd get it. In fact, I'd probably even join my 17 year old son and read it with interest. But seriously.... on this (for the most part) 'purist' TVR T-Car forum???? Give me a break, I need to get my BP down to a manageable level!
I know you've got the bug for track days now Alex. Perhaps we should try to arrange a night one. All that neon should look wonderful on camera with a slow shutter speed!
ChrisPap said:
I think this looks really nice. I would be investigating this if I get a re-trim.
YRRunner- shame on you!
Shame on ME, really? It's a question of taste I guess, but to me it's all a bit too chavvy. Bentley, McLaren as original factory fitted equipment... fine. A TVR Sagaris road/track car.... it's a no from me. YRRunner- shame on you!
Well it was quite the tirade wasn't it? The guy has updated his car in quite a tasteful way, especially if you consider it from the relms of McLaren and Bentley. It's not exactly Bling chrome wheels and under floor neons is it.
Fair enough if you have a go at that steering wheel, but cabin lighting didn't deserve that.
I think that you're a bit off base to consider a Sagaris a sports track car. It has carpets, a stereo and A/C for a start, not to mention a fuel tank totally unsuited to cornering. Surely you're thinking of a Lotus exige or a caterham as a sports/track car. A Sag is a crazy looking sports car, and one not too well spec'ed or finished due to budgets and development costs. If an owner wants to smarten it up fair play. Would you have a go for fitting cruise or traction control, or decent speakers for a motorway journey. What about heated seats for winter use? Interior lights must be in this vein, rather than weird graphics or bazooka exhausts (which a Sag has as standard).
Chill out man and let the guy enjoy his car whatever way works!
Fair enough if you have a go at that steering wheel, but cabin lighting didn't deserve that.
I think that you're a bit off base to consider a Sagaris a sports track car. It has carpets, a stereo and A/C for a start, not to mention a fuel tank totally unsuited to cornering. Surely you're thinking of a Lotus exige or a caterham as a sports/track car. A Sag is a crazy looking sports car, and one not too well spec'ed or finished due to budgets and development costs. If an owner wants to smarten it up fair play. Would you have a go for fitting cruise or traction control, or decent speakers for a motorway journey. What about heated seats for winter use? Interior lights must be in this vein, rather than weird graphics or bazooka exhausts (which a Sag has as standard).
Chill out man and let the guy enjoy his car whatever way works!
Alex, have you heard of the Arduino? It may be the answer to your control customisation plan. It's basically a simple chip that you can program with commands (I believe very similar to C) and it's got a bunch of Input and output pins with some including PWM so with a bit of IT knowledge (which I suspect you may have based on you profile occupation) it might suit your purpose.
I've started looking at it to perform a few control functions on my car, but haven't done more than look yet.......
I've started looking at it to perform a few control functions on my car, but haven't done more than look yet.......
YRRunner said:
Christ Alex, I swear you post this stuff just to wind me up!
Tell ya what.... I have a mate who needs his night club and his Hummer blinging, neon-ing and pimping out. I'll put you guys in touch. FFS, you must have been watching too much Fast & Furious II and Tokyo Drift. Play with the Lotus as much as you want, but please, please put the Sagaris down and step away. Not kidding mate, go buy a Nissan GT-R and feck around with that to your hearts (and boxer shorts) content.
On reflection (and after a levelling double Highland Park), hell, it's your car and you are at liberty to do what you like to it. Just remember this, the last thing on the minds of the designers was.... "luxury" sports car!
If you were doing this to a GT-R or RX-7 (or even a Noble for that matter, coz in truth Noble's need their interiors making less boring) and sticking it in the "souped up" forum, I'd get it. In fact, I'd probably even join my 17 year old son and read it with interest. But seriously.... on this (for the most part) 'purist' TVR T-Car forum???? Give me a break, I need to get my BP down to a manageable level!
I know you've got the bug for track days now Alex. Perhaps we should try to arrange a night one. All that neon should look wonderful on camera with a slow shutter speed!
It's my purpose in life, mate! Tell ya what.... I have a mate who needs his night club and his Hummer blinging, neon-ing and pimping out. I'll put you guys in touch. FFS, you must have been watching too much Fast & Furious II and Tokyo Drift. Play with the Lotus as much as you want, but please, please put the Sagaris down and step away. Not kidding mate, go buy a Nissan GT-R and feck around with that to your hearts (and boxer shorts) content.
On reflection (and after a levelling double Highland Park), hell, it's your car and you are at liberty to do what you like to it. Just remember this, the last thing on the minds of the designers was.... "luxury" sports car!
If you were doing this to a GT-R or RX-7 (or even a Noble for that matter, coz in truth Noble's need their interiors making less boring) and sticking it in the "souped up" forum, I'd get it. In fact, I'd probably even join my 17 year old son and read it with interest. But seriously.... on this (for the most part) 'purist' TVR T-Car forum???? Give me a break, I need to get my BP down to a manageable level!
I know you've got the bug for track days now Alex. Perhaps we should try to arrange a night one. All that neon should look wonderful on camera with a slow shutter speed!
I think of these things just to send your hair white 
Don't worry, I know it's not to your tastes, but I'm sure I'll survive without your approval somehow
mr shifty said:
Great idea - done subtly it'll bring the interior of what is still an ultra-modern looking car bang up to date. Looking forward to seeing pictures of it in the dark.
Thanks!The Lotus Evora pulls it off quite nicely, but it is difficult to capture the effect in a good fashion i find.
The photos above of the lotus for example show it stronger than it is in reality due to the shutter speed, necessary for dark shots. I'll play around with some different shutter options and see if I can get something that looks better sometime.
The point is a lot of sports cars (not primarily track cars) have these options now days, so why not do something similar?
Not like it is rocket science to achieve...
YRRunner said:
ChrisPap said:
I think this looks really nice. I would be investigating this if I get a re-trim.
YRRunner- shame on you!
Shame on ME, really? It's a question of taste I guess, but to me it's all a bit too chavvy. Bentley, McLaren as original factory fitted equipment... fine. A TVR Sagaris road/track car.... it's a no from me. YRRunner- shame on you!
Some will like it, some will not. I'm just sharing what I've done for others to be either interested or not as they will. No skin off my nose either way
ChrisPap said:
Alex, have you heard of the Arduino? It may be the answer to your control customisation plan. It's basically a simple chip that you can program with commands (I believe very similar to C) and it's got a bunch of Input and output pins with some including PWM so with a bit of IT knowledge (which I suspect you may have based on you profile occupation) it might suit your purpose.
I've started looking at it to perform a few control functions on my car, but haven't done more than look yet.......
Hey Chris, that's a very interesting idea. I've done some microcode/chip design in the past, but mostly dealing with enterprise database and solution ware now, so behind the times in this area now. I know C very well, so if it is possible to create a program for a chip based on that would be ideal.I've started looking at it to perform a few control functions on my car, but haven't done more than look yet.......
I'll look into it. There are a few applications I can think of where it might be useful. Talked over some ideas with Skip at Bespoke and he has some great ideas as well for how some things can be achieved. A couple of project ideas I discussed with him got both of us thinking. I'll send you some details of one I'm looking into which I think will interest you. I discussed it originally with SimonP and a few others and if we can pull it off would be very useful.
(And yes, the inspiration came from the Nissan GTR - a Japanese car, but the concept is very generic and not surprisingly is now featured in higher end cars as well)
Of all your mods Alex/Tim, I like the actuators on the bonnet flaps best - totally Saggy Whacky - and practical !!! Did you say there was only one of the kits produced so on-one else can have it done now ??? 
Second is the carbon brakes, but so far I find the original TVR/AP brakes very well up to spec on track.
Second is the carbon brakes, but so far I find the original TVR/AP brakes very well up to spec on track.
Each to their own
I had a quick few minutes tonight to put together a quick movie of what the Lotus system looks like.
As you can see from the video, the lighting level is fairly sedate. It is slightly brighter than comes
across in the video, but gives a better idea than the photos. The light level is enough to see within
the car, but much less than the main interior light.
So, for those interested, the video is here...
http://youtu.be/zDgWyJa6oQw
...or...
http://youtu.be/pFooOlp0gkI
If I get a chance, I'll do something similar of the system in the Sagaris, but they look pretty much
the same as the Sag system is simply the Lotus system with a few adaptations.
I had a quick few minutes tonight to put together a quick movie of what the Lotus system looks like.
As you can see from the video, the lighting level is fairly sedate. It is slightly brighter than comes
across in the video, but gives a better idea than the photos. The light level is enough to see within
the car, but much less than the main interior light.
So, for those interested, the video is here...
http://youtu.be/zDgWyJa6oQw
...or...
http://youtu.be/pFooOlp0gkI
If I get a chance, I'll do something similar of the system in the Sagaris, but they look pretty much
the same as the Sag system is simply the Lotus system with a few adaptations.
Edited by alex_gray255 on Monday 28th January 22:45
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