Kelly.s

I've been doing the scca track nights. Early and late season in the pacific nw the last run group is sometimes in the dark. I've found it to be very character building to run a 130mph car with 80 mph headlights. I need more light. On our tracks no track lighting. Will the led conversion help and if so which one? I run a c5 vert with a roll bar I could run temp driving lights mounted to the bar but I want a more perminate fix first. Thanks in advance.

Bill Dearborn

I take it the high beams don't throw enough light far enough down the track. What ever lights you use you will be aiming a lot of light energy down the track and drivers in front of you could have a problem. LEDs may be an easy way to package a set of lights to do that but you will still have the problem of how much light you are throwing down the track.

I think I would try and aim the stock high beam setup to see if I could live with that. If you can take the car out on a dark lonely, straight, level road and aim the lights so you can see far enough in front of the car. You don't need wide, you need distance. Wide lights make you think you can see better because the side of the road is lit better but at 130 mph you will travel about 191 ft /sec and with a half second reaction time you would travel about 95 ft before you reacted to anything you saw. Which means if you are trying to avoid something that you see 191 ft down the track at 130 mph you are more than likely going to hit it with only 100 ft to get the car stopped or turned.

If you decide to go with halogens or leds make sure you choose the proper kelvin range. You want a day time light which means the kelvin rating is somewhere in the 4600 to 6500 range. I would stick in the 4600 to 5000 range as the 6K range or above light gets too harsh and tends toward blue which blinds other drivers while not letting you see any better.

Bill

Kelly.s

All good points. But there are usually only a few of us fools in the dark and seldom anyone in front of me. Besides if I have someone in front it's low beams and I can get them to show me the corners.

Kelly.s

Will the led lights draw less current than halogen or stock bulbs?

FAUEE

Your stock bulbs are halogens.

​​​​​​LEDs will draw less current, but it's inconsequential in anything that' not battery operated.

I have LED replacement bulbs in my Colorado. They claim 16000 lumens, which is grossly over rated. If they do half of that I'd be surprised. Still, they're brighter than the older worn out halogens bulbs from 2010, would they be brighter than brand new halogens, maybe.

I replaced the sealed beams from my C4 with LEDS as well, they were far brighter, though the beam pattern is less than ideal. Since I got inexpensive ones, they have very much of a spotlight beam pattern, the high dollar sets are better in that regard.

I would first start with new bulbs. Bulbs degrade in output over time, after about a year or two they'e dropped off a good bit. If you'e never replaced them, they're likely way degraded.

I can't comment on the led replacements for the c5 that are fixed instead of.pop ups. Based on looking at them visually, I would not expect them to have a very good beam pattern, as they lack any sort of focusing or lensing, just a bunch of LEDs, like the cheapo in my C4.

Personally, I would replace the bulbs with some new oem bulbs. If that' still not enough light, try the led replacement bulbs. Heck, it wouldn' hurt to start with those honestly.

crimlwC6

Led bar on roll bar with a switch makes the most sense to me.
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