I loved the Marshal Amplilux headlight.

Hi everyone. New older guy here.

I really loved the Marchal Amplilux headlight. Unfortunately, I no longer own a vehicle that can use them. I had them when I lived in New Jersey and had to pass a visual inspection every year. I would use black tape on my white garage door every year, then install some regular headlights, get them aimed, and go get my windshield sticker. Then, go back to the garage to reinstall my Amplilux. They were, by far, better than anything I had ever used before, and probably the safest headlight on the road. That was in 1970 or '71. I can't say enough good about them. I now live outside of Tucson. Everywhere here, except Maricopa & Pima counties (Phoenix & Tucson), there are no inspections. If it has 2 headlights, 2 tailights, and they can find a place to put a license plate on it, you're good to go.

Peter Van Keuren

Moderator Edit
Removed your email address from your signature as spammers often crawl forums looking for email addresses

Also, fixed your thread title and the contents-- Ampilux is an antibiotic, Amplilux a lamp.
--Alaric D

:welcome:
As nice as those might have been, new LED headlamps for the sealed beam form factor can greatly outperform them (assuming you get real lamps from the likes of JW Speaker or Truck-Lite). And for that car to be old enough to use sealed beam lamps (modern Jeeps notwithstanding) means not having the performance and economy and reliability and safety of today's cars. Time marches on...

And at their age, it could be that the reflectors have started degrading enough to affect their performance, even if you can't see that degradation by looking at the reflector.

Hi, Pete.
I wish I knew about the Marshal headlights back in the 70's. My 69' 427 Corvette would have benefited from them. It was very easy to over drive the stock incandescent headlights. Even with the high beams on.

I would like to clarify your statement about Arizona's annual vehicle testing. (Pima & Maricopa only) Arizona's inspections only includes emissions compliance. Unlike N.J., AZ does not check anything else on the car after it was first regestered in the state. (Tires, brakes, glass, body, etc.) Emissions testing also does not include cars newer than 5 years old. So you will not be checked by the state. However, you could be stopped if your car is in violation of ADOT Regs by law-enforcement. Here is the state law for AZ testing.

https://www.dmv.com/az/arizona/emissions-testing

While I was living in Maryland I bought a beater car to drive to work in downtown Baltimore. I went to get it registered in my name. The body had a rust spot near the trunk. They failed the car stating that emissions gases could get into the vehicle and it was unsafe. They wouldn't register the car in my name until it was fixed. I told them I wasn't going to invest bodywork on a $500 car. They indicated to me that all I needed to do is put a piece of foil duct tape on the hole and it would be good. I complied with their wishes went back and they pasted the car. The duct tape didn't stay on more than a week. And I had to pay for inspection twice. I'm sure everyone failed the first time for some reason. Just so they could collect again.

Rick

Yes, the Marchal Amplilux is a fascinating 7" headlight. Two different bulbs, two reflectors, really a high beam and a low beam lamp all in one 7" round package.

I still have a set, unused except to light up in the shop for fun. I'm told that back in the day, some space limited racers took advantage of the fact you can adjust high beam elevation in relation to low, and they adjusted both beams to the same height and ran both beams with high output bulbs to put maximum light on the track from a pair of 7" lights.

The high beam seems something of a pencil beam, so one might want some additional spread coverage, but at least over lighting the foreground would not be an issue. Cool lights.

Hamilton Felix said:

Yes, the Marchal Amplilux is a fascinating 7" headlight. Two different bulbs, two reflectors, really a high beam and a low beam lamp all in one 7" round package.

Click to expand...

The reason for that was pretty straightforward: it took awhile for halogen bulb technology to be developed to where it was possible to have two filaments in one capsule. The first halogen headlight lamp, the H1, came out in the early '60s. The first 2-filament halogen headlight lamp, the H4, didn't come out until almost a decade later. So until then, the only way to provide low and high beam with halogen levels of light flux in a 2-headlamp car was to have 2 bulbs and 2 reflectors in 1 housing with 1 lens having separate zones for the low beam reflector and the high beam reflector. Lamps like this were made by, at least, Marchal, Cibie, Carello, Hella and Bosch.

The high beam seems something of a pencil beam

Click to expand...

That is definitely true on some versions of the Amplilux, and on some Cibie Biodes, and some of the similar lamps made by other makers. The intent was that (assuming the car had an adequate generator to support it) you would keep the low beam illuminated with the high beam.

With all that said, a good H4 7" round lamp might be less sexy and mysterious, but it out-performs these H1-H1, H1-H2, H1-H3 (etc) two-bulb/two-reflector/one-lens kinds of lamps.

Thank you. Interesting history. I only knew of Amplilux (believe mine are H1 low, H3 high) and Cibie Biode. It would be interesting to see those other variations.