Halogen Spots or LEDs // Night race lighting Advice

[xxdaix]

Hey,

I am racing in the CSCC night race at Brands Hatch (Indy) on 11/12th Nov and after some lighting advice.
I have read Daniel Rogers blog post about preparing his MX5. but struggling to find other thoughts regarding Halogen Spots v's LED strips.

I race a ford puma so have normal headlights but no fog light holes in the bumper so would mount the lights on the lower grill I think.

Don't have a massive budget for lights that will only be used for 1 x 40min race but need to ensure I can see around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

Anyone got any advice/thoughts??

Cheers Dai
Puma Cup #132

[Fishy Dave]

Hi Dai,

You'll love it, but look for a pair of spots, light bars aren't permitted.

regards, David

[88racing]

Rogue put four banks of LEDs on our GT86 for the Silverstone 24 last year, wired to the high beam setting of the headlights. Worked a treat.

[andy97]

I think only 2 additional lights to production spec are allowed, so to maximise your lighting you may need to fit fog lights where they should be in a production grill/ valance and have the 2 best spots or long range driving lights you can find.

And as Dave said, the LED light bars aren't permitted in this race.

[Wingo]

Have you done as much as you can with the standard headlamps?

Some decent bulbs, nightbreakers or the like can be a good upgrade. Then pay a bit of attention to where the headlamps are pointing.

You might manage OK no extra lights if you know the circuit reasonably well.


Wingo.

[Thurbs]

I was booked in for this weekend also but had to cancel sadly.

Just put some LEDs in mine to help flash back markers out of the way and they are so much brighter than halogen. Get ones with the highest lumens (not necessarily watts) and that should be good to see straight ahead. Then just fit some apex lights to help you find the turn in point.

[Chris Sideways]

I’ve done a few night races now and Brands is a great track to get used to it as it’s nowhere near as dark as somewhere like Snett which is genuinely pitch black out the back away from the pits, Brands is small enough that the light from pits/ conference rooms light up the track some what so takes the darkness away, we never bothered to up grade lights and as I remember we only went about 0.3 seconds slower than in the day light enjoy it it’s an amazing buzz unless it’s wet then it’s totally terrifying heres a few laps in the Lotus from a few years ago, fyi that’s now BTTC star Jack Goff going past at the very start of the Clip

https://youtu.be/ekvv1m87aAk

Edited by Chris Sideways on Wednesday 25th October 21:28

[Chris Sideways]

I’ve done a few night races now and Brands is a great track to get used to it as it’s nowhere near as dark as somewhere like Snett which is genuinely pitch black out the back away from the pits, Brands is small enough that the light from pits/ conference rooms light up the track some what so takes the darkness away, we never bothered to up grade lights and as I remember we only went about 0.3 seconds slower than in the day light enjoy it it’s an amazing buzz unless it’s wet then it’s totally terrifying heres a few laps in the Lotus from a few years ago, fyi that’s now BTTC star Jack Goff going past at the very start of the Clip

https://youtu.be/ekvv1m87aAk

Edited by Chris Sideways on Wednesday 25th October 22:37

[IanUAE]

We gutted the standard headlights of our endurance spec Honda DC5 and fitted 2 nos. 4*5*4 row LED lights in stead.

[McSam]

Wingo said:

Have you done as much as you can with the standard headlamps?

Some decent bulbs, nightbreakers or the like can be a good upgrade. Then pay a bit of attention to where the headlamps are pointing.

You might manage OK no extra lights if you know the circuit reasonably well.


Wingo.

Bit late to the party but yes, bulbs - you don't even need to use high-performance road-legal ones like Nightbreakers, as it's a race car you could put 100W bulbs designed for rallying in there instead. The wiring has stood up to this on every car I've tried it with (90s Fords included).

Going from 220W to 400W total output in the normal headlamps makes quite a difference. A couple of big spots in addition and you should be fine. As others have said, Brands is less challenging than most, and the car's not insanely fast so you don't need LMP1 vision range.