Matt H

See ICESHARK's response. The reason this is illegal is that 99% of foglights (certainly any that are worth a crap) are far too low to the ground. There is a minimum height that the lights have to be.
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adrian_jaye

fog lights are generally to be used WHEN its Foggy !

Charlotte944

Driving lights will have clear lenses (you can see the lamp) that focus the light into a tight beam as opposed to fog lights which are designed to spread the light in a broad flat beam.

Driving lights will be brighter than fogs, and are typically used with high beams.

Given the US penchant for restricting everything, I seriously doubt that driving lights are legal.

IceShark

Cliff, driving lights are legal in the USA but you need to use them like main/high beams. Don't light them up when other vehicles are on the roadway.

However, 951 and S2 owners with the euro dual fog and driving lenses do have a legal problem in the USA. Neither Bosch or Porsche ever had the driving light side certified to DOT specs. That is why the USA driving side is blocked off and inoperable. And no wiring. And why Porsche won't sell fully functional lights to you. They are afraid of being sued.

So, you have to buy the gray market illegal lenses. Any LEO could nail you for that if she wanted to, though I doubt any would have a clue in the first place as to certification.

Unless they are a Rennlister reading this thread. But in that case they would probably cut you a bunch of slack anyway.

schumi

in many states it is a traffic violation to drive with foglights on unless there is fog or it is raining.

Fishey

Whenever a motor vehicle equipped with headlamps as herein required is also equipped with any auxiliary driving lamps or a spot lamp or any other lamp on the front thereof projecting a beam of intensity greater than three hundred (300) candlepower, not more than a total of four of any such lamps on the front of a vehicle shall be lighted at any one time when upon a highway.

Maybe that will help (from OK revised code)

IceShark

Well, IF we assume they mean Mean Spherical Candela, which I think they do, then we divide by 4 pi. A good 55w H3 would be around 1450 +/- 15% lumens. 1450 / 12.57 = 115.5 MCSD. Ok there. 100 watt H3 would be 3000/12.57 = 238.7 MSCD. Those figures are at 13.2 volts and can be poped up with better wiring.

But I can tell you 100 watt H3 bulbs in either the driving or fog will blow old ladies totally off the road and get young men (with guns) mad at you.

Oklahoma revised code on lighting needs to be revised again. Or people can start mounting aircraft landing lights on their cars.

Fishey

lol

joseph mitro

hmm, interesting. so that means foglights are legal to use in addition to headlights?

where did you find that? i looked on the DMV website briefly but didn't see anything relevant.

oh well, it may be irrelevant anyways since i have a pair of brake ducts that are going in the foglight holes pretty soon.

IceShark

I was just talking to Daniel Stern and he told me the candela figures cited in USA state laws usually mean candles out of the lens, not bulb. Well, this changes things all around because the lens concentrates and focuses the light. You can get a good driving lens to hit 50 or 60,000 candles in the central hot spot with a 100 watt H3 bulb fairly easy. Fogs in 55 watt have to be up in the thousands also. So that 300 candlepower limit in OK is probably pretty restrictive if they mean the focused beam. We are talking turnsignal lights.

Jamie944

I have been pulled over on more than once by Oklahoma's finest. OHP Seem's like it is the same trooper everytime. Usually he just tells me to turn off the fogs but he has given me a ticket once. Clocked me at 93 on I-44 running with my fogs on around midnight. He told me unless there is inclement weather out that Oklahoma law forbids the use of these lights. I told him Almost every car I see on the road has fog lights on also. But I continue to run with them on anyway.