24motorsport
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2016
- Messages
- 2
Hi guys,
New and very unknowledgeable member of the forum here.
I own a motor racing team based in the UK, I am looking for some help and advice in several areas of forward facing lighting. To give you a brief overview;
We have just finished building some very special race cars,the base model is series 1 Lotus motorsport Exige, however the only component that our cars share with the standard production model is the aluminium chassis tub its self.
We are going to be racing in a world wide 24hr championship called 24hr series, which will see us racing against factory devolved machines from Ferrari, Porsche, Aston martin, Audi etc etc, all of which will leave the factory with motor sport specific lights from the manufactures. As a small privateer team we simply don't have access to the budget or technology that they do, which puts us on a major back foot during the most testing part of a24hr race, when its dark.
Most of the other privateer teams tend to run touring based cars, BMW m3's and similar, and don't have anything like the meaningful aerodynamics that we do. So see no issue with nailing big lights and light barson the front. We would like a slightly more scientific approach to our lighting that doesn't rely pure grunt to light up the road.
Restraints we don't have are;
Any need for road compliance, whether it be compliance markings,maximum output power or road complying beam patterns
What we are allowed to have;
Up to six forward facing "pairs" of lights, no cap on power,(led lights are classed as one unit regardless of the of there size or number of emitters)
What we need to find solutions for;
1 pair of headlights (currently hella 90mm 55w halogen) (not massively impressive beam pattern)
1 pair of apex lights (positioned on an angle away from the centreline of the front body panel, to enable the drivers to spot the apex of a corner before they change the angle of the car)
1 Pair of long range spots (corners approach fairly rapidly at150mph)
Constraints we have;
We would like to keep the power consumption to a bare minimum possible (alternator is already fairly heavily loaded)
Form factor constraints (ill expand on this)
Light weight
Robust enough to bounce over kerbs at 100mph
Most of our competitors (privateer) tend to simply nail on these and call it problem solved. Although they are very good lights in how far they throw as spots, they are in no way something we can use due to them being a bar and therefore something we have no way of mounting without ruining aerodynamics (which we have spent two years developing)
We have space for
Headlights; max 130mm diameter circular (smaller if possible)
Long range spots; max 100mm diameter circle
Apex lights; max 100mm diameter either circle or oval
We have looked at most of the major manufactures of lights ,and nothing we have found seems to tick all the boxes. The biggest issue weseem to be having is with long range spots. We don't have a huge budget and cant buy lots of different lights to test.
But if any of you guys have any outside of the box ideas, i would very much appreciate a bit of input. Lighting knowledge is limited but wehave a full cnc engineering shop and we specialise in motorsport electronics soa bit of modifying isn't out of the question.
We are chasing massive lumens figures, we are more interested in the right beam pattern, colour and throw. Led's appear to be a very interesting concept for most of the above reasons.
I look forward to any input.
And i am sorry if i come across as slightly under informed.
Regards Chris
Ps, standard headlights aren't worth the materials they are made out of
New and very unknowledgeable member of the forum here.
I own a motor racing team based in the UK, I am looking for some help and advice in several areas of forward facing lighting. To give you a brief overview;
We have just finished building some very special race cars,the base model is series 1 Lotus motorsport Exige, however the only component that our cars share with the standard production model is the aluminium chassis tub its self.
We are going to be racing in a world wide 24hr championship called 24hr series, which will see us racing against factory devolved machines from Ferrari, Porsche, Aston martin, Audi etc etc, all of which will leave the factory with motor sport specific lights from the manufactures. As a small privateer team we simply don't have access to the budget or technology that they do, which puts us on a major back foot during the most testing part of a24hr race, when its dark.
Most of the other privateer teams tend to run touring based cars, BMW m3's and similar, and don't have anything like the meaningful aerodynamics that we do. So see no issue with nailing big lights and light barson the front. We would like a slightly more scientific approach to our lighting that doesn't rely pure grunt to light up the road.
Restraints we don't have are;
Any need for road compliance, whether it be compliance markings,maximum output power or road complying beam patterns
What we are allowed to have;
Up to six forward facing "pairs" of lights, no cap on power,(led lights are classed as one unit regardless of the of there size or number of emitters)
What we need to find solutions for;
1 pair of headlights (currently hella 90mm 55w halogen) (not massively impressive beam pattern)
1 pair of apex lights (positioned on an angle away from the centreline of the front body panel, to enable the drivers to spot the apex of a corner before they change the angle of the car)
1 Pair of long range spots (corners approach fairly rapidly at150mph)
Constraints we have;
We would like to keep the power consumption to a bare minimum possible (alternator is already fairly heavily loaded)
Form factor constraints (ill expand on this)
Light weight
Robust enough to bounce over kerbs at 100mph
Most of our competitors (privateer) tend to simply nail on these and call it problem solved. Although they are very good lights in how far they throw as spots, they are in no way something we can use due to them being a bar and therefore something we have no way of mounting without ruining aerodynamics (which we have spent two years developing)
We have space for
Headlights; max 130mm diameter circular (smaller if possible)
Long range spots; max 100mm diameter circle
Apex lights; max 100mm diameter either circle or oval
We have looked at most of the major manufactures of lights ,and nothing we have found seems to tick all the boxes. The biggest issue weseem to be having is with long range spots. We don't have a huge budget and cant buy lots of different lights to test.
But if any of you guys have any outside of the box ideas, i would very much appreciate a bit of input. Lighting knowledge is limited but wehave a full cnc engineering shop and we specialise in motorsport electronics soa bit of modifying isn't out of the question.
We are chasing massive lumens figures, we are more interested in the right beam pattern, colour and throw. Led's appear to be a very interesting concept for most of the above reasons.
I look forward to any input.
And i am sorry if i come across as slightly under informed.
Regards Chris
Ps, standard headlights aren't worth the materials they are made out of
Last edited by a moderator:
