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I've been contemplating some driving lights for my Speedster. These look nice. Anyone have any experience with this type of light and this vendor? http://www.ebay.com/itm/670-680-5-75-inch-Marchal-Fog-Light-Ferrari-Porsche-New-w-Amber-bulbs-/260894694968?_trksid=p5197.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26itu%3DI%252BUA%26otn%3D12%26pmod%3D320805552979%26po%3DLWI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D4735439981781371071

Crash Test Dummy Guy

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I've been contemplating some driving lights for my Speedster. These look nice. Anyone have any experience with this type of light and this vendor? http://www.ebay.com/itm/670-680-5-75-inch-Marchal-Fog-Light-Ferrari-Porsche-New-w-Amber-bulbs-/260894694968?_trksid=p5197.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%26itu%3DI%252BUA%26otn%3D12%26pmod%3D320805552979%26po%3DLWI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D4735439981781371071
I bought 2 pair of fogs lights from that Ebay seller 3 years ago. They are excellent quality. I have had 1 pair mounted on my car since 2008 and they have not gotten rusty and work fine. There are "fog lights" with lenses that are patterned and "driving lights' with clear lenses. I have the fogs, and they are very bright.
After reading up on these things, I guess there is definitely a difference between "driving" and "fog" lights. Problem is the info is all a little confusing. "Driving" lights should project a long, higher beam. "Fog" lights project a lower wider beam and generally use an amber bulb to help with the glareback. I get that. I'm looking to improve my nighttime illumination and figured I needed a driving light which would project a brighter light forward. Am I to then presume that the lens of a "driving" light WILL NOT HAVE the faceted prism type lens and be clear? Or are there some driving lights with faceted lenses? Allan Shapiro noted to me that "driving" lights only go on in conjunction with one's bright lights...makes sense to me. I'm just confused by lens and bulb type.
Lane:

There are sooooooo many things about my car that are on the edge of the vehicle code, that I'll not be worried about the low-beams/driving light rule, as it makes no sense whatsoever.

I've got mine wired the opposite, so that when I have them on-- they only work with the brights. That way, I can hit the dimmer when there is an approaching car and kill not only the brights, but the driving lights as well.

This way makes sense. The other way doesn't.
I TOTALLY agree with Stan. I've been using driving lights since the 60's when I had a pair of Cibie's in my 66 Mustang. Almost everything I've driven since has had non-faceted-lens driving lights. I haven't had a whole lot of fog lights, simply because 95% of them simply don't work worth a damn. Either they are simply not bright enough or they project the beam higher than the nose of the car and then become useless as the light reflects from the oncoming fog, rain or snow up into your eyes.

Also, MOST STATES DO NOT ALLOW DRIVING LIGHTS TO BE ON WITH LOW BEAM REGULAR LIGHTS. That's the opposite to what Lane stated. MOST STATES DO ALLOW FOG LIGHTS TO BE ILLUMINATED WITH YOUR REGULAR LOW BEAMS. That's why, on my F250 pickup, my factory fog lights come on at low beam and my factory driving lights come on with high beam. If you have a car that has an auxiliary light that illuminates with low beam (even if it has a non-faceted lens) it is considered a fog light.

Good fog lights need not be amber to work well (or faceted, either). All they need is a cut-off line in the lens structure such that they project LOWER than 4' high at 50 feet out (this, of course, depends on the height off the ground at which they're mounted). If they project higher than that they will reflect off of the precipitation into your eyes causing glare. Good fog lights will totally light up your lane to a height of about 6 feet at 100 yards. They are useless beyond that with one exception: Per Lux louvered fog lights will work well out to about 1/4 mile but they are hard to find and look like trucker lights. Anyone who has Per Lux lights will not part with them.

Driving lights are designed to project a beam of light as far as possible down the center of the road (or the lane you are in). The best ones I've found are the Hella 500/700, Cibie Oscars or Super Oscars or, my all time favorite, Lucas Flame Throwers. Flame Throwers will light up your entire lane to a height of about 20' at over 1/2 mile - just far enough to see something and bring you to a panic stop from about 80 mph.

The discourse above also tells you which "regular" lights they should be paired with. If you pair fog lights with high beams, you're defeating the purpose, since the high beams will reflect the precipitation back at you anyway (which is why you've already found it useless to use your high beams in the rain or snow, right?) So you pair fog lights with Low beam. Driving lights, on the other hand, are supposed to work way out there, just like your high beams do, so you have them come on with your highs.

I do not have any additional switches for my auxiliary lights - I don't want to have to think about whether they're on or off; The driving lights come on automatically with the high beams, and the fog lights come on automatically with the low beams. No thinking involved, they just work.

Hope this helps. More info here: http://www.grote.com/prodcat/perlux/

Oh, and if you're now wondering what type of factory light you're illuminating in YOUR car when you flip the switch, if it lights up the road about 50 feet in front of you AND the curbs on both sides, it's a fog light. If it lights up the road 200+ yards in front of you and not so much the curbs on both sides up close, it's probably a driving light. Many people confuse the two. Look here> http://www.andysautosport.com/driving_lights/porsche_boxster.html
AIMING AUXILIARY LIGHTS

Fog Lights:

1. Park the car on a level surface about 30-50 feet from a building wall.
2. Turn on regular low beams
3. Note the height of the light pattern. It should not exceed the height of the center of the headlight at 30 feet (this is a general guideline and depends on how high your lights/car is).
4. Turn on the fog light(s) and adjust such that the light pattern is NO HIGHER than the regular low beam pattern top. Left-to-right is not very adjustable in fog lights. They will probably "wash" the road out to 200 feet or so. If they're American fog lights they will be useless beyond about 100 feet.

Driving lights:

1. Park the car in the center of your lane on a little used back road in the dark which provides a level surface for about 1/2 mile.
2. Illuminate your driving lights.
3. Stand in front of one light to block it's beam, and adjust the other light to cast it's beam in the center of your lane. At 1/2 mile it will probably illuminate the top of a 50 foot tree.
4. Adjust up and down to "wash" the lane as far out as possible and keep the beam below 30-50 feet as far out as possible.
5. Adjust left-to-right to center the beam in your lane.
6. Move to block the light you just adjusted and repeat 3-5 above for the second light.
Gordon-

I also have no aux switch for the driving lights, but I can run without driving lights if I choose. I've got a "normal" 3-position headlight switch: off/parking-lights/headlights. I think driving with parking lights only is useless, so I've got the lights wired "headlight only" in this position. In the "normal" headlight position, the driving lights are on, but only when the brights are energized.

In any event, good driving lights properly aimed are probably WAY illegal anyhow, because when they work right, they light up everything way-the-heck down the road.

I just bought a set of Hella 160s-- they are the chrome-backed version of the 500s I love so much. Get 'em while you can-- when they're gone, they're gone.
Rich,
I went a different route.
I picked up a set of old Unity fog lights on Ebay for under $20. They came with bumper brackets that I modified to fit. I had a pair Eagle Eyes fog lights that were $30 new and used the modern internals. I decided to paint the bodies the same color as my car.
Fifty bucks, a little modification and paint...at least there's one thing on the car that's truly vintage. ;-)

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