Re[2]: [alfa] Mods to sell in USA : Was - 164 Euro Tail Lights

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 17:14:54 -0700 (PDT) James Montebello <jamesm@domain.elided> wrote:


> On Sat, 30 Aug 2003, Joe Elliott wrote:
> > In any case, there was never a law in the USA requiring 'American
> > style' turn signals.
> 
> I'm pretty sure just from anecdotal evidence that red tail lenses were
> required for both brake and turn signals at least into the late 70s.
> 
> The DOT was often funny that way.  When sealed beam headlights were
> mandated in 1968, only round 7" sealed-beam headlights were allowed at
> first, then a bit later the rectangular sealed beam units.  The often
> quite attractive light assemblies used in Europe were always replaced
> with usually much less attractive assemblies with the US mandated units.


because the DOT required sealed beam and the Europeans don't make sealed
beam units. the original logic was that early non-sealed headlights tended
develop rusty, ineffective reflectors over time. the Europeans dealt with
this with the rubber caps over the rear of the units.


> This state of affairs persisted until the US manufacturers started
> homologating other headlight shapes (if memory serves, this was roughly
> around the time of the first Taurus, so early to mid 80s).


the reason is that the DOT approved the 900x halogen bulbs with the rubber
o-rings around the base.


>  Within a few
> years, all cars, US and foreign, had drastically different headlights.
> The European cars usually just using the same assemblies they'd been
> using in Europe for some time.


no. the european assemblies in us model cars may look like the traditional
euro lights, but they take 900x bulbs, not H bulbs.


richard
-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
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