Rear Red/Amber Lens

Can anyone tell me if the red/amber lens are legal to use in the US?
That means that the running light will be ON as amber. Is this setup only in Euro specs?

Thanks.

I haven't seen anything saying it is illegal, nor have I had that sort of problem in the five years I've had mine on the car. The final answer lies with your local DMV I suspect.

Period-based cars sometimes slide on techno-issues.

I haven't had any problems either. As you say the amber & red lenses are European, except for the Italian versions in which those same colors are reversed so you get a red running light instead of amber.

Many states check for a DOT approval (or TUV/SAE) stamp on the lense. All the reproduction (on-SWF OEM German ones) only say "Made in TIAWAN" and would not pass in those states. I've avoided the $15-25 lenses from many of the Porsche parts places since they don't state if they are SWF -- has anyone ordered and can they verify if SWF? Even some of the old SWF lenses fade to near pinkish-clear which also will not pass some inspections.

My european lenses are SWF. I got them from Mid America Motor Works (formerly known as Tweeks). You might also like to check with Jim at Klasse 356.com.

I have wondered recently, if there wouldn't be a market for glass lenses. It just seems to me if the lense was twice the money, but glass a lot of people would be buying them instead of the plastic ones.

But if they were glass, they wouldn't develop the factory "sag" and everyone would be able to tell that it was a replica . . .

This varies from state to state because individual states MAY require items above and beyond regulations. Further muddying the issue is the registration date of the vehicles. In OR my car is registered as a 1955 and as such must meet the safety requirements in effect in 1955. Like basically nothing... Older vehicles get huge exemptions e.g. old suburbans were built with ONE center mounted tailamp. Those still surviviing are allowed to continue with that single lamp.

NHTSA regulations specifically DISALLOW amber running lights at the rear of the vehicle. Amber belongs on the front and red only at the rear (except that amber rear turn signals are allowed). This clearly indicates to all the mouth breathing bottom feeders that if the see RED it is the rear of the vehicle and if they see AMBER it is the front. This applies to commercial trucks, buses and all passenger vehicles. Rear side lamps must be red, front side lamps must be amber.

If your state requires your vehicle to meet these standards, then you cannot use amber rear running lamps.

The good news for most of us, is that very few people know what standards were in effect for the the vehicle were are driving that are registered as 1955-57, so rather than look foolish, they leave us alone.

State laws can be really weird. In OR, you MUST have windshield wipers probably because it rains 14 months a year. But the windshield is not required! angela

I think the way my IM is wired up if I swap to the red / amber lenses the amber comes on when I step on the brake. So I would have to do some rewiring to pass inspection.