Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 21:57:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>
Subject: Re[2]: [alfa] Mods to sell in USA : Was - 164 Euro Tail Lights
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.
>
That's an interesting point. Can anyone shed some light on this? I
know USA-spec Volvos had amber turn signals in the '70s when the
Alfetta was designed with amber in Europe and red in the USA. I was
fairly certain that Alfa felt the red looked better, but European
laws required amber. But something made them stop doing this when
they designed the taillights for the GTV-6 and the first few years of
the Milano, reverting to red on USA models for later Milanos and the
164. The 164 I'm pretty sure about--Pininfarina's design called for
very little taillignt area, so American style turn signals were used
on USA cars to meet area requirements. I know boattail Spiders had
red turn signals in the USA and amber in Europe--what about later
Spiders--they were red in the USA, weren't they? GTV's? I know they
were amber in Europe. What about other makes? I know Volvos had
amber in the early '70s, I think the Fiat X1/9 did, too. But the
Fiat 850 had red, right? > 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.
It wasn't something that just happened, either. We might still be
stuck with sealed beams today if it weren't for Ford's lobbying
efforts. Why they didn't legalize modern beam patterns at the same
time is still a mystery.
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.
And the lenses are horrible, offering little improvement over
'60s-era sealed beams.
richard
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Richard Welty rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking 518-573-7592
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