LED Rear Lights?

Has anyone managed to source a good set of LED rear lights for a GT40 yet? I'd really like to get some bright LED rear lights.

Also wondering what can be done with the headlights and sidelights?

 

[Bill Musarra]

Mark,
Just do a Google search for LEDs You will find all sorts of kits that will work, or you can construct one for yourself if you know what you are doing. You have to take in several considerations when doing something like this. The LEDs use a tiny fraction of the power that incandescent does. That is good. What is bad is that several flashers setups won't draw enough power to activate the flasher unit. Making the flashers useless. Or in another scenario, it will cause the flasher to hyper flash(flash 20-50 times as fast as normal). In these cases you have to put a resistor in parallel with the LED to let it take up some of the energy to function well. There is also the issue of running lites and stop lites. Some LEDs are two level lights and some are single level, meaning that you would have to put in two different lites in one spot. Read all the supporting info on the LED web sites before you order them.
Here is a good site with many choices.
Super Bright LEDs - Miniature Wedge Base Bulbs
Be careful about where you want the lites to be. Some will fail if around high temps like the headlites. I am using the LEDs for foot lighting and for the dome, engine, and rear tag lighting.

Bill

 

Magic Bill, that's a good start. Making my own was discussed last night over a few beers, so your advice is very helpful.

I did see these units (link below), but I'm not too sure how good they would be....Check out P/No 550LED it looks viable, but I dont want the lenses clear when the lights are off. I think that would spoil the look of the car at the back.

Stafford Vehicle Components - Rear Lights

 

[Terry Oxandale]

The Hoffman Group offers flashers and LED set-ups with the above mentioned issues resolved.

 

[Darrell]

Mark I have Britax LED lamps on the rear of my car. I think they look the part.
http://www.gt40s.com/forum/drb-gt40s/27217-drb-46-now-road.html
Part number L14-00-12VL

Darrell DRB#46
LS1 G50

 

[Anthony]

I was thinking Hella mix and match. Stop/Tail outer with indicator inner. But i think we in the UK need rear reflectors as well and not sure these units are reflectors as well so would have to bolt on another set of somethings.

Really should buy an IVA manual now getting close to having to make decisions with IVA in mind.

 

Thanks Daz.....you are right, they do look good on the car, so I've just ordered a set through my local dealer to get a look at them. I like the fact that they are still coloured when not illuminated. Are they bright when lit up?

Anthony.....yeah, I looked at them, but I wasn't too sure they would be the right size, and some of them seemed to be cleared lenses.

I'll let you know how I get on, they should be here by Wednesday.

Now, what about LED front side lights? My current ones are the 'festoon' type landrover lights. Not very bright and prone to bulb not making good connection.

 

[Anthony]

Not sure (no IVA Manual yet...) but i think new cars require front side lights to be on all the time now.

have you noticed all the new BMW/Porsche/Audi/Discovery 4/Merc have them on all the time like Volvo used to do way back?

Sorry if thread hijack but you mentioned front side lights, which are getting close to the top of my list of bits to get

 

Hey no problem, it's all good discussion!

Yeah, I saw a lot of cars at the weekend with the LED lights on all the time. It's a good idea, but not if you've got festoon bulbs! I got pulled over by the traffics a few weeks back and they did a light check (just being nosey I think) and the front off-side sidelight wasn't working. I knew it should be, as I literally checked it before I went - I even took the cover off, stripped the light and put a cable tie around the arms that hold the bulb in. But there it was......10 miles after doing this and the light was out again. I walked around to the front of the car, banged on the front corner and the light came on. It seemed to keep plod happy, but it was then I decided I needed some better lighting solutions!

I recently bought LED rear number plate lights and they are brilliant. There must be something similar, a marker light or similar that we could use?

I'm gonna start digging.......

 

[Tony Hunt]

Hi Mark,
I've used LED rear tail and stop lights from Paul Goff for over 5 years - they're brilliant (in both senses).
You have to create a load if you use them in the indicators as LEDs don't have the current drain that bulbs do and will make the system flash as if the bulb had blown.
Tony

 

[Brett James-McCall]

Hi Mark,

You have to create a load if you use them in the indicators as LEDs don't have the current drain that bulbs do and will make the system flash as if the bulb had blown.

or you can replace the relay with an electronic one that will also do the job, I believe.

Thanks for the link Tony. Do you know if you can use them for IVA?

 

[Darrell]

Mark yes they are bright (they have passed our design rules in Oz) and the indicators are very crisp going on/off. Something I did not mention is that they are a bit deeper than the normal light so you will have to deepen the housing about 40/50mm, not a very big task. You may wish to fit some resisters to the circuit to get them to flash correctly you should be able to get them from any automotive electrical supplier, they are about $9 each here.

Darrell DRB#46
LS1 G50

 

Thanks Daz....I have ordered the resistors as well to make sure I had everything I needed for a test.

Tony, that's a useful link. I'm going to get in touch and see if he has a solution for the front side lights. I'm sure something could de done to eliminate the dreaded festoon bulb!

 

[René]

I see a lot of sportcar makers and sportcars but also busses using the led lights from Hella...some Ultima GTR or Gumpert Apollo or Morgan or Ascari I believe, and Koenigsegg and many more

like here some, they have many posibilitys

Hella Tuning

but they have so many links...look what could fit you on their website here...

Drivers | Hella KGaA Hueck & Co.