Yes, yes I did. Why? Because Hella offers the very same lamp and reflector with the bulb I used. There is no beam pattern to a spotlight, the lens is clear with no ribbing and the housing is circular. The beam pattern is a circle. An illegal product you say? Only if used on the road, and considering that desert racing takes place in well, the DESERT it is completely and absolutely legal. I'm well aware of all the issues created by using a plug and play kit on the road and in a conventional headlamp; they do not apply in this instance. (Beam pattern, cutoff, reflector/bowl shape)
Go do your typical trolling in another thread, you wont get anywhere here.
What I love about the typical poster here, is that they don't understand that there are some of us who need complete and utter saturation of light far out in front of us. That is why many racers use a pair of dim halogen lamps illuminate the foreground, and HID lamps to throw light far.
While they may work for you, I would have to say that a pencil beam light IS a beam pattern....as opposed to saying it doesn't have a beam pattern. (The reflector and emitter dictate the pattern as well as the glass or other lens/cover might)
IE: A Pencil Beam describes the beam shape...as shaped like a pencil.
So, if the reflector is set up to focus the light collected from an emitter at a particular depth in the reflector for example, moving the emitter to a different depth will change the pattern.
After that, its really about HOW it changed it. If the change is acceptable, sure, you can be happy with it. As a halogen and HID capsules tend to put the emission source in a different location, as they are shaped differently, typically at least in depth relative to the reflector bowl...the light will therefore be focused in a different pattern.
When I had an HID capsule swapped for a halogen in my headlights a while back...the HID capsule's depth change essentially flipped the beam upside down, and took away the sharp cut off....so that the edge lighting had more diffusion. (it was less focused)
Obviously, on a round beam, "flipping" in of itself would not be a problem. Of course, as the new depth for the capsule is random...the "flip" might not be a flip. It might just make the beam broader or tighter for example...and probably less focused, as the odds of the new depth being the same as the old (optimized) depth are slim.
So, most people are OK with a less focused spot beam, as a little circle of light way off in the distance is not as useful as a flood of light off in the distance.
For high speed driving...depending on the terrain...you might WANT close up light to see ruts, rocks, etc, better, and give reaction time to pick your lines, etc....and, you have to be going pretty damn fast to ONLY need to see details at spot beam distances. So, as some people DO go pretty dam fast, on terrain that only requires you to stay on the trail or road...and not need to plan whoop de doop approach/landings or obstacle avoidances, so sure....that's what works.
For most people, a wall of light that illuminates everything close up, to mid range, to long range is perfect....as you don't NEED night vision if the road is lit up....you can use day vision.
If you are driving so fast that the lights can't throw far enough to provide adequate reaction time...THEN you need night vision to try to see out that much farther.
At ~100 mph, to get~10 seconds of reaction time, you need to see things about ~500 yards away.
Most racers have a roughly 1/10 of a second reaction time, and a second is typically enough to for micro adjustments of brake/gas steering, etc. At 100 mph, that means that what they see 100 yards away is what they need to set up for to have time to set up for it...minimum.
Some rally drivers can do all that in half the time, etc, but, that's the general rule of thumb....the driver and equipment and terrain/course dictate the details.
The real benefit to long range lights is the ability to plan the entire line...so you don't accidentally run your self into a bad set of obstacles that would require slowing to navigate...and allow a fast sweep through the limiting factors with minimal adjustments, etc.
So while you might be able to initiate a reaction in a second or less as far as steering/brake input, etc...you might need to have the rig STOP if there's a unavoidable problem, like a bridge being out/blocked by a bull, etc.
So, you need to add the time to COMPLETE the avoidance maneuver to the line of sight....to allow execution of the resolution, etc. If that's ~ 10 seconds, then that's about another 500 yards at 100 mph, and so forth.
That's why ~1,000 yard beams are in demand typically for desert racing for example....that works out to a reasonable lead time for reactions at high speeds.
On the other hand, if you are traveling at 50 mph, you can get by with half the range...etc.
The advantage of the pencil is it can get the light down range further, but at the sacrifice in coverage. The floodier beams show more of the terrain at at time, and can warn of an impending path crossing by an animal better, etc.
If the HID capsule in a halogen reflector is a bit floodier due to a loss in focus...it can work better off road at intermediate speeds, but potentially worse at higher speeds.
So, if racing...probably better to just use high performance lights designed for what you need.
If just avoiding roos in a DD, it might not matter.
That's a generic version for anyone reading. If you find that HELLA offers an HID version of the lamp and they use the same HID capsule and the same Halogen in the same lamp...its possible that they worked the mount and/or choice of emitters to work within a particular range...but that's unusual, and I had not heard of that until this thread.
So you found that the HELLA 4000 lamp was designed to use either emitter?