Hella 160 Fog/Driving lights

Still looking at lights. I came across some Hella 160's imported from England, I think. These are all chrome with flat glass faces and are correct for at least British sports cars of the 50's and 60's. Look to be about 6" across and bumper or body mounted. There a couple of bracket setups for them, depending on how you want to mount them.

I swear I have seen them on speedies as well.

Anybody running these or have any pics of them on a speedster?

The kits, with two lights, bulbs, wiring, brackets and dash switch run $200.00, which, compared to originals, appears to be a pretty good price.

Appreciate any input or, if there is an all chrome option that I don't know of, let me know. I do want a period look.

Thanks,

Bob

6" is to large in my opinion.

Bill:

What are the ones in your picture?

Here's my IM with 160 Hella fogs. Too big....you decide.



I bought mine from Susquehanna MotorSports for $75.95 each.
http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=22

I've got 160s ready to mount. Honestly, I think the majority of the driving lights I've seen on speedsters are too small. To each his own.

Bob, $200 for a pair with all the fixens is pretty good.

Ron:

Beautiful car, idyllic location, great photo, and I think I am OK with the 160's based on how they look on your IM. Yours appear to be mounted on the bumper, not the bumper bracket, is that correct?

Stan:

Yeah, I thought the price was right for the kit, and like Ron, I saw them on the Susquehanna site.

Thanks for the input!!

Bob

This is the 6" Hellas driving/fog lights on my IM

..."Too big?"

Hey, driving lights are like smiles on faces.
Some show a lot of teeth, some don't...and yet they ALWAYS seem
just right for the face!...Don't they?

I think the most important question to ask is: "Do they light up the road or are they simply for show?"

Some of the lights I've seen on Speedsters, together, crank out about a single candlepower of light. You couldn't use them for driving in any weather (or in the dark) and expect them to provide any measurable increase in visibility. My Marchalls look great, but throw a ball of light that illuminates trees up to about 30 feet off the road. Great for spotting owls, but I want the light down the road - where the deer and critters are - not up in the trees.

Hella 160's throw a bright, disbursed fan of light roughly below 4 ft high. They light up the road and not the trees AND they don't cause light "bounce back" as a glare into oncoming rain/snow. Not bad, in my book, especially if you drive at night or in fog a lot.

The driving light version of the 160 is pretty cool, too, throwing a concentrated beam down the road for about 1/2 mile, very similar to Lucas Flame Throwers (my favorite).

All of those mentioned are about the same size (6-1/2" dia.) As a comparison, my Marchalls are something like 5" dia, and my old Cibie Oscars were 10-1/4" dia (but BOY!, Did they throw light!)

I would go for functionality and not looks if my life might depend on it at night.

Gordon:

You just confirmed my understanding as to the funtionality of the 160's. As Stan can attest, I need the functionality out here in the countryside of central Illinois, but if I can have the aesthetics as well (and the 160's provide what I am looking for)then all in all, this works.

I was concerned that 6" might look too large compared to the headlight size but I think they are probably right. The 160's seem to have been used mostly on British cars, the exception being a couple of Mercedes applications.

Now the issue is mounting. To the body, to the bumper bracket (which means I can easily remove them if I decide to change the look, or directly to the bumper. All seem to have one advantage or another.

Bob

Hey Ron, your car is looking great, heading over to the island any time in the summer?? let me know, maybe you me and Mango can go for a cruise.

Hey Ron, your car is looking great, heading over to the island any time in the summer?? let me know, maybe you me and Mango can go for a cruise.

Simon, we might be over this summer, looking for retirement property in the Cobble Hill area, but We'll probably take the Westy (and the dogs).
Bob, my lights are mounted to the bumper.
Ron

Alan and Ruby are IT, gentlemen. I saw this car on this site when it belonged to the previous owner, and aside from the color (gorgeous) I REALLY wanted those lights too. W/ the grilles on the main lamps. Spent a lot of time researching and discovered that these lights are exceedingly rare, as they are old. Also exceedingly expensive, if you can find them. Well, damn -- so much for that idea. Here is what I ended up with, supplied by JPS builder. These are Gordon's concept: i.e., function. They turn night into day, and that is the whole idea. Although I really wanted the look that Alan has . . . sigh . . .

The first two pics are before the grilles were installed

As to size?? They are what they are. Too big, too small, just right? I dunno -- I'm used to them now, and like I said, they work, so they are good enough for me. If you let me get too close while spinning down the road at night, these lamps will peel the paint off your bumper. And a**holes that drive w/ their high beams on in the oncoming lane will think again if they hit me with that.

That's a good point, although some of our local constabulary might disagree.......I think I would much rather have a slightly bigger light that actually lights up the road where you want it than a somewhat smaller one that doesn't. It's your life....

I used to have a Ford F250 with a pair of H4 conversions (95/115 watt) for the regular headlights, a pair of Cibie "Super Oscar" 10-1/2" driving lights above the bumper, and a pair of Hella 450 fog lights below the bumper. I used to drive into Vermont at night a lot and needed the light to see deer in the road up ahead.

The Cibies came on with high beam only, while the Hellas came on with low beam only, but cast a "fan" of light below 4 ft and out about 75 yards.

I stood in the street while my brother drove past with low, then high beam going to see what was what and the fogs didn't glare at oncoming drivers at all. This was back in the 1980's. They were bright, white light, but didn't glare because they were aimed and focused right for fog lights.

It was interesting to see how many drivers, when they saw those extra lights illuminated on low beam - even though they weren't glaring but were just lit - would flash me to dip my headlights. Usually, a really quick blip of the highs (they were unbelievably bright highs) was enough to satisfy them, but I got the occasional driver who would flash me again so I would ignore it. If he flashed me the third time I would burn the chrome off his grill and notice, as he drove past, that it was ALWAYS some old geriatric coot who just KNEW that you were only supposed to have two lights lit on low beam and I had to be in the wrong so he was letting me know.

Times have changed, and many, many cars now ride around with some sort of fog lights on with low beams (and some of them are actually effective), so people don't make much of a fuss over it anymore. Now the old coots just drive more erratically in general.

But, but Gordon... You ARE an old coot.

Kelly:

Beautiful car. Thanks!

Bob

Ron:

Thought they were bumper mounted. Thanks!


Bob

A bit off topic, but since I use my Hella fogs as daytime driving lights, and I want my little car to be a visible as possible, I replaced my clear bulbs with yellow ones.

Here are the lights on the front of my car. These are Marchal driving lights. I have no idea how good they are, but will find out soon. I hope they don't turn out to be more for decoration than for function.

As for Hella lights, I had a set of large Hellas on my old 740 wagon, and I have never, ever had better driving lights! It was like driving in the day.

And, as for Lucas Flamethrowers, Gordon, I have been collecting old Lucas driving and fog lights for years, and have a great assortment that I will probably never get around to using. Every British car flea market I go to seems to have someone selling some, and I usually walk away with one or two.

I'm saving most for my MGB rally/race project, but know that I can't possibly use them all.

Robert:

Those Marchals look great! They appear to be on brackets that connect to the bumper mounting brackets, I assume they clamp on to the bumper mounts. Am I correct?

Bob

Bob

Yes, they are mounted to the bumper brackets.

The car is still at IM in Vancouver, and I just had a day or two back in the Fall to drive it. I didn't get a chance to try out the lights, though, as I did not drive it at night.

I will know better this month, once the car is shipped here.

So, Kelly, can you elaborate any further as to size (6?) and manufacturer of your lights? Or, should I just contact JPS? I like the idea of bright lights. Function before form in this instance.

Al, ,I want the same set up as you have except, I will probably mount the fog lights on the bumper because the over riders are too expensive. I love the grills on both the head lights and the fog lights.... Once again your whole car is top notch!

Robert, I like your Marshals. If I had it to do over again (and I just might) I'd buy a set of Marshal fogs, with an amber bulb:
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 really like my Marshal's with amber bulbs.....

Rich:

From Kelly's pictures, I believe he's running Hella 500 lights. They tend to be around 6" diameter, have a flat lens, come in either fog or driving versions, and usually cost just North of $60 US, each. They're available all over the place (Autozone or Advance can get them for you) so you don't have to go to JPS and pay a mark-up. They don't have the period look of the Marchalls, but they throw a lot of light and will certainly do the job for you. I don't think I've ever seen amber lenses on 500's, nor can you use an amber bulb - just white Halogen - but they're H3 55W bulbs and do a great job. You'll have to fab up some sort of mounting device, depending on where you want to place them. Don't forget to get a 30 amp fog light relay to go along with them.

gn

I bought a set of Marchals, for the Silver Outlaw that I'm working on, from the eBay link that Ron posted above. You order either an amber bulb or a clear bulb, but the lenses are all clear. I got the amber.

I had to modify the housing so the mount would pivot to a horizontal position and I could mount it directly to the body.

Super sanitary fitment Troy. Well done! You putting this one on the block,or is it a keeper?

Yes, gorgeous car, Troy.

I wanted Henry to do something like that to my car, but he needed to start with a bare body shell, and mine had too many holes drilled in it to start with.

Ron:

I'll see if the Marchals work as well as they look.

Allan. I don't need more than one and I love my widebody. This one will be on eBay this month.

Troy:

So how did you modify the housing to get to horizontal?

Thanks,

Bob

A little hard to explain, but hacksaw! It's designed to mount on the bumper, so it can only swivel so far. I disassembled it and hacksawed out the space it swivels in to allow the mount to pivot to a horizontal position.

Troy:

Thanks, I can picture what you did. Makes sense. The lights look great, and the car, really well done!!