Chris_924s

This has been a favorite rant of mine for some time...

Who frigging bright are the high beams of a Lexus SUV. Or MB. Oreven POrsche Cayenne FOR THAT MATTER.

Ice shark- anyone?


Is there a level of lightness from say my yellowish 7" sylvania halogens

No I dont want the candlepower numbers. .. I want an actual light meter graph for amount of light produced by the new HID bulbs.

I can swear when I look in the mirror when one is behind me I can see the back of my skull back through my own eyes.

Makes me want to get the hatch tinted. for NIGHT driving. Its rediculous.

a fair number of you know how many days in a row, or how many miles i travel frigging annually in my Porsche.

.. But many of you dont. I drive through snow, rain, mountains, hills, vistas.
and I do it year round in my car. so see if you can guess.

I'll give you one answer.

everyday. and a lot of miles.

and through most weather it's an awesome vehicle- better in snow now with new tires..

Oh, and it's real popular here in Cincitucky to drive around with every lamop lit including high beams.

So- Bling bling to the pearl white esky with an additional 6 light setup...

makes me want to mount a flip up mirror under thr chin of the 924s. see what I see?? nothing for a few seconds..

Oh, and for christmas I want (1) 5" 1,000,000 candlepower aircraft landing light to mount in my hatch backwards at a sign that says "TURN YOURE FRIGGING BRITES OFF *** CLOWN. Or you'll buy me a new Porsche."

<rant mode off>

Man coffee sure tastes good on a Saturday morning. a little too early for a bloody mary.

ErichCS

Nice Rant! I agree with you about other cars headlights, however since i got my windows tinted to 30%(legal limit in CT) they don't bother me anymore. From the rear i mean...

Now the oncoming traffic thats a different story! I'm just glad i can shoot back with my IceShark headlights!

Maybe we should all throw on some rally inspired round driving lights in between the headlights to really flash morons

Later!
Erich

turbo944

Get you one of those million candlepower landing lights and mount it on your A-pillar police style so you can point and shoot

Probably also keep the people wanting to race down..... "is that an undercover cop? Driving a Porsche?"

With some of those it makes you wonder why we even worry about mounting up E-code H lights like Icesharks and getting in trouble over it. Those things are bright! I think rather, intense is the proper word.

My hatch is tinted and it does really cut down on it from behind. As someone else has done as well as myself....if someone brights you from behind, (be careful doing this and watch the road!), use your rear view to reflect their own light back at them (very nice to have a passenger doing this!). This usually gets most people's attention and they turn off their brights......and they often back wayyyyyyy off.

Dave

It's never to early for a Bloody Mary!






Vodka, it isn't just for breakfast anymore

ErichCS

I like that idea...watch out people driving with your brights on!

Chris_924s

almost worth mounting a dashboard mounted rear view.. ala 356..

zehnd

I think it has to do with how low our cars are. My hatch is tinted so I don't notice it from the rear, but when I meet 1/2 trucks it's bad or me.

turbo944

The mirror "trick" is easiest with a passenger as at that range the reflected light in a dark vehicle is almost like aiming a laser pointer.....you just move the mirror shaped light you can see in their car up to where it points in their face. They usually won't even notice what's going on until the beam nails them in the eyes....

Funny watching their faces when they get hit with their own annoying brights.....

IceShark

Yup, those USA HIDs are a real pain in the butt .... err, eyes.

The Feds have already held hearings on how those lights are blinding people and sending old ladies off the side of the road into trees and small children. I don't know what will ever come of the hearings since this is the Federal Government running things.

There are a few problems with them. They are a DOT beam pattern so they don't have the sharp horizontal cutoff of light. Second, they throw off 2600 to 3200 lumens, that is a lot. A standard legal halogen headlight is lucky to throw out 1000 lumens. Our old cars in stock form with the sealed beams are now probably throwing out 500 lumens, if they are lucky.

The other problems are they get aimed too high and don't have the self adjusting leveler (for trunk loads, full tank of gas, etc.) that is required in Europe. And a lot of these vehicles ride pretty high which is an additional problem for another driver in a low slung car.

What to do about it? Write your congressman or go out and buy a ship's spotlight like they use on big ships and tow boats. Now that is some serious lighting, though you will probably need to build yourself a trailer and generator to power the light.

iloveporsches

what exactly makes the e-codes you sell illegal?

Manning

Nothing. They're not legal. You install them at your discretion. If your local DOT/DMV has vehicle inspections that include your headlight, your car can fail because of E code headlights. Frankly I don't give a damn since I don't have to undergo vehicle inspections of that nature, and even if I did I would merely swap lights before the inspection.

Techno Duck

I have been doing the mirror aiming trick for a a few months now. I have the worse time with Hummer H2's, Chevy Tahoes and GMC panel deliery vans...in particular the white color. I always find these 3 to be the most blinding. I bought a 2 million candlepower battery powered handheld spotlight to fight back...but then i thought about the consequences of actually using it.

IceShark

Brandon, they are E-Code beam pattern. They are legal in most of the rest of the world, including Canada.

But they have never been approved by USA DOT. The main reason is DOT wants a lot of light thrown up high to light up bridge overpass signs. The E-Codes don't meet their target specifications for light up high so end of story as far as DOT is concerned.

I've talked to DOT about this and at least a few guys there think it is a bunch of crap and even run E-Codes themselves. Talk to people that have installed E-Code lenses. No one seem to have any problem seeing overhead signs and are damn glad they have more light on the road to see where they are going rather than wasting it shining up at the stars.

It is this so much light aimed up high that is bothering drivers with the advent of HID arc lighting in a DOT lens. And why I tell people that they can't run overwatt halogen bulbs in a DOT lens - they will just **** other drivers off and not see all that much better compared to going with a quality E-Code lens.

PorscheDoc

Hey, its the price you pay by driving a low vehicle, you are in line directly with their headlights. When i had my bronco, low cars would always flash me even when i had low beams on, so i would just turn on the 4 100w KC lights on the bumpers and the 2 55w... Most had to pull over to the side of the road. Oh and fellas...your in a porsche, just leave them in the dust LOL

Friendan

Yeah I was gonna say what Karl said; for me it's not so much that the HID lights are bright, but they are installed in luxury SUV's, and I'm in my 944, so the annoying blue lights in the BMW X5's blind me.
I'm gonna tint my hatch at some point, would be practical for that reason plus it makes a black car look really nice.