Driving Light Conundrum...

So, I'm trying to decide what I want to do for driving lights on my '94 Roadmaster wagon, and I've narrowed it down to Super Oscars, a set of NOS Cibie 95 driving lamps, a set of NOS Cibie 275 driving lamps and the Hella 4000 euro-beam.

The good thing is, the Buick is a big car with a lot of room for driving lights, so I can always add more later.

Thoughts?

Great, big, damage-prone, un-aerodynamic lights that block airflow to the radiator and create grievous pedestrian hazards...why? This isn't 1978 (or even 1994, for that matter). You'd be much better off with one of these very good units made by JW Speaker and sold by Hella.

I've always been curious: I understand that auxiliary high beams/driving lights come in both the old-school, big round or rectangular reflector format like the Cibie's, as well as slim, modern, LED light bar format. Why are there no LED light bar equivalents of, say, a Cibie Booster Beam? Technically hard or impossible? Or just not marketable?

Naturally, I saw this about 20 minutes after I bought the Cibie 275 set... So, obviously I went ahead and bought the LED bar for the Buick, and I'm putting the Cibies on my eternally-in-progress Volvo 242 GT.

Nifty vintage lights on the nifty vintage car, and modern lighting on the one I have to live with, every day.

Next on the list, fabbing up a set of Morette clones for the Roadmaster. (Build thread will commence, once I have something to show other than a quickly draining wallet)

darksider415 said:

Naturally, I saw this about 20 minutes after I bought the Cibie 275 set... So, obviously I went ahead and bought the LED bar for the Buick, and I'm putting the Cibies on my eternally-in-progress Volvo 242 GT.

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That sounds like a much better car/lights match-up.

Next on the list, fabbing up a set of Morette clones for the Roadmaster. (Build thread will commence, once I have something to show other than a quickly draining wallet)

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If there's money left afterward, you did it wrong, LOL. What lamp units do you plan on using?

-Virgil- said:

That sounds like a much better car/lights match-up.

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Agreed. And that's the reason I ordered the bar.

-Virgil- said:

If there's money left afterward, you did it wrong, LOL. What lamp units do you plan on using?

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It depends purely on how much space I have to work with, when I do my mockups. If I can fit them, then I'm thinking 7" round Cibies with 5.75" round highs, because I have an extra pair of each lying around. If the 5.75" rounds fit, but the 7" don't, then I'll probably go JW Speaker lows with Cibie 5.75" highs, and if neither is short enough to fit, then 90mm Hella bi-xenon projectors paired with a set of the 90mm halogen highs. I /could/ dig out the old Cibie quad 146mm square setup I have in a box, but I really don't want to waste those on this, when I'm about to pick up a C20 that has the stacked quad squares.

If it's not obvious, I've been hoarding lights for a long time... It's also why I still have a spare set of brand-new OEM B13 Tsuru headlights in a closet, nearly ten years after selling my last B13 Sentra.

darksider415 said:

If I can fit them, then I'm thinking 7" round Cibies with 5.75" round highs

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I think you're going to be out of luck trying to fit even a 5.75" Cibie, let alone two of them, really let alone a 7". Ditto for the 165mm x 100mm rectangulars. 90mm Hella BiXenon: now you're talking!

-Virgil- said:

Great, big, damage-prone, un-aerodynamic lights that block airflow to the radiator and create grievous pedestrian hazards...why? This isn't 1978 (or even 1994, for that matter). You'd be much better off with one of these very good units made by JW Speaker and sold by Hella.

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While a much better light I agree, that would look absolutely horrid on that car. Totally different style of vehicle and lights. Putting that light on that car would be like putting braces on a duck. It just doesn't belong.