headlight/spotties advice

[sambb]

Ok good to know your reasoning re LEDs on the road versus LEDs on a tight circuit. I see where you are coming from now. No any lights that I run will only be for comps like this and i'll remove them for the road. There's only a couple of sections where you are braking hard after a long straight and only one of them is completely dark so depth penetration isn't the big priority. The main thing I'm looking for is a really good lateral spread so that I can see into/around the corners as much as possible. The other advantage of LEDs lighting bars is that they are light and low so hopefully I won't even need a nudge bar and will be able to mount them where the grill normally fits into the resin front apron/frame thingy.
Surely even just running a single centrally mounted spread beam IPF 900 or super Oscar (no pencil beam) would work really well though wouldn't it?

[Ozsko]

I would buy multiple cheaper end light bars, stack them together and see what happens. They consume so little power you could afford to run four. Being off road I would put them on the roof, the higher the better, get a roof rack and start adding lights would be my way and rip it off after the event at the track to avoid Trevor Plod handing out defects. No grills to worry about and no drilling the car etc.

[rgvlee]

See guys using curved LED bars on a roof rack for night time sprints
Apparently awesome - light and location.

[sambb]

well a mate has lent me 3 pretty old looking Hella rectangular 181's with 100W halogens. I can only run them once cos he'll need them himself at a later event. I figure though that I'd be mad not to try them because at least then i'll have a baseline to compare other lights to down the track. I also figured that step one was stripping back and polishing my yellow faded headlights. Got one done today - came up alright but what a freak'n hateful task that is. Next time round I think I'd nearly rather just buy a new set.

I've got a setup question for the spotties. If I want to see into corners a bit do you angle each of them outward slightly or do you cross the beams ie. right side lamp looks left and left side lamp looks right?

[Ozsko]

Don't angle them outward, cross them over. Have you got access to a roof rack?

[sambb]

Righto will do - Thanks. No I don't have roof racks.

[Walrus1948]

There is also a guy in Melbourne who has developed an ADR compliant spotlight mount for the Amarok. Absolutely solid and will support 110kg person standing on it, no light movement or vibration offroad. Not sure if it could be modified to fit a Golf or Touareg.

[sambb]

thanks. I f I go with big cibies or something like that then I would need a more stout bar like the one you're suggesting. My alloy one from repco whilst adr compliant (even though it hides the number plate beautifully) had a bit too much give even with relatively light rectangular spotties.

[Ozsko]

Have you run this event yet? I believe the next one is February, I might wander out and have a look as it looks like it might be fun.

[sambb]

Yeah I was a co driver at the December 15 one, and drove in round 3 last Thursday. Next round is Feb and the final one is in march. A mate is hopefully going to have a whole raft of new mods in place on his Clio RS. If he gets them done i'll co drive for him in feb. If not then i'll drive again. I won't do march though as I'll be doing the Mt Panorama hillclimb weekend at the start of that month and dropping $600 for that month in entry fees for both might just upset someone special.
If you want to come along or enter or co drive, PM me closer to the time and I can fill you in on the nitty gritty.

[Ozsko]

CAMS won't give me a competition license to drive these days due to health issues, does a co driver have to have license or medical?

How did the lights go?

[sambb]

The co driver needs a CAMS L2S same as the driver. The lights were a bit turd to be honest. I was out of money that month and managed to get these borrowed ones. They were a pair of crossed over 55W spread beams and a hella 181 100W pencil beam down the middle. I'll try to dig out a vid of how bad they were - a vid I should watch if ever I baulk at better lighting in the future. The hardest bit was rounding the bollards that sat on the apex of a few of the corners. Right as you were about to hit the apex they would just disappear from the light spread and you had no idea if you were about to loose a mirror.

[Ozsko]

A pencil beam in that event would be about as useful as .... on a bull, and it is way too low. If there is anything I have learned about lights it is the higher you can get them the better especially for short range stuff. You basically need flood lights for that sort of event which I reckon LED light bars would be good at, put 'em on the roof and you will love it.

[sambb]

yep. I couldn't fit it between the spreads on the top of the bar. I figured it was more important to get the spreads higher so ran it that way. Not good though. As soon as the nose dived under braking the beam was looking at the ground. The best non-permanent system I saw was a fiesta ST with a magnet mounted LED light bar - high, stiff and lightish. Most guys were using light bars to be honest so it seems like the way to go. Do you have an L2S license?

[Ozsko]

No, I haven't had a competition license for some years. I just had a look at the requirements and I doubt they would give me one on medical grounds, growing old is a bastard to tell the truth.