If you want a slightly better light than the Hella 500, go for the newer FF 500 or FF 700, which are newer lights of about the same (or slightly larger) size, using free form technology. That means they use the shape of the reflector, rather than fluting on the lens, to shape the beam – the lens is just a clear piece of glass. Having seen the output of the Hella 500 and the same size Hella 160, they are very much like a spot (pencil) beam in shape – very narrow. They provide plenty of light, but don't illuminate the sides of the road (and off the road) enough for me.
To illuminate the sides of the road better, if you spend a bit more, and get a slightly larger light, the Hella Rallye 1000 or newer Rallye FF 1000, in driving beam form (not pencil beam) provides a beam length around the same or slightly better than the 500 or 160, but with much better width. If your roads have corners, they are the ones to go for. The even better Rallye FF 4000 Compact is also a free form light of around the same size, but the light casing is much stronger, and in driving beam form, provides a similar beam to the Rallye 1000 – nice and wide. The older Rallye 1000 does have the misfortune of using the halogen H2 globe, so suffers the problems of short globe life, and the globe holder springs getting hot and losing their tension, that many H2 lights suffer. So the Rallye FF 1000 or FF 4000 Compact (both H1 bulbs) are probably the best of the compact larger size Hella lights, without going to the size of the Rallye 2000, 4000 or Cibie Super Oscar. The Rallye 4000 Compact does need a relatively sturdy bar to support it, as the metal is quite thick, and it weighs close to 2 kg per light.
And as Scheinwerfermann said (he knows the subject well), you shouldn't be running fog lights and driving lights at the same time. Fog lights produce such a short beam, that at anything over 40 km/h (25 mph), you'll be out driving them. They are only for fog, and shouldn't be used anywhere else. Unfortunately plenty of Australians still drive around with their fog lights on all the time, despite the fact that Australia joined Europe and NZ and made it illegal a few months ago to use them in anything other than fog, in all states and territories.
If you want to get some beam width, see my recommendations above. Other lights to go for with good beam width are the driving beam type Cibie Oscar or Oscar Plus (much wider beam than the Oscar, but it uses H2 bulbs). The much newer free form Cibie, the Oscar SC is excellent. The Oscar SC comes in two forms – a cornering light, which has an incredibly wide beam, but still plenty of range, and the driving beam, which still produces a nice wide beam, but outdistances even the spot (pencil) beam Oscar. The SC costs more, but is the one to go for:thumbsup:, if you can afford it – I prefer nice wide beams, so would go for one cornering beam, and one driving beam, to get both range and width for the hairpin bends near where I live. (I currently have Oscar Plus, and Hella 4000 Compact lights, both in driving beam - not both on the same car.)
Since I notice there has been some comment about yellow or clear fog lights, Hella Australia (Hella's second oldest factory) say that yellow (or amber) fog lights aren't as efficient in light output as clear ones, due to the yellow filter. The yellow colouring absorbs about 20% of the light, according to them. They have a comprehensive test laboratory, and supply diagrams which give an idea of beam length and width, in their online catalogue, at
http://db.hella.com.au/cgi-bin/catalogue.pl?flcmd=showsection&flrecsection=Auxiliary – just click on the part number, and see more info about it. Note that the 500 FF and 700 FF aren't sold in Australia at the moment, so there is no info about them.
As you should have the headlights, fog lights and driving lights on their own separate circuits, you will be quite OK running two 55W fog lights, or two 55W driving lights, at the same time as the headlights. (Modern car alternators should handle ALL the lights at the same time, unless you have a large high power - several hundred watts - aftermarket stereo to run.) The alternator should easily have enough capacity to handle the lights. Use separate fuses (about 20 or 30A for two 55W globes), as close to the battery as possible, for each two lights, and use a relay for each two lights. Switch the driving light relay on from one of the high beam wires, and the fog lights from one of the park lights or low beam headlights, depending on the local laws where you are (some jurisdictions won't allow fog lights to operate with just park lights, and no headlights). Also use separate interior switches to switch the fog and driving lights off – it's law here in Australia that an interior switch is needed to switch fog and driving lights off (you can't just run the driving light relay straight off the high beam wire - it most go via a switch), and may be where you are, too. There are also laws about how many lights can be run at the same time on the road, so check that with your local traffic authorities.
