got another e-mail from Jeff

"Steve,
Nice the more the merrier. I have 6000K upgrades that day, if any of your guys want to upgrade their OEM HID to stage II. Our 996 Porsche has them preinstalled if you want to see them on Thursday Morning.
Thanks,
Jeff"

not too sure of the cost - but my guess is that it's around five bills for the high beem upgrade -

anyone want to cruise down with me on Thurday (Macgyver hint hint) to check them out

 

Depends on the weather, but yeah, I might go. I'm curious, though, to see what this "upgrade" does, if anything useful.

 

thinking about it dan and it's the low beam upgrade. I have read in consumer reports that out hids are the best out there so other than a blueish tint i'm not too sure it's worth the 250 asking price

 

i don't know if it's low beam, i've read a couple places about people rigging HID into the high beams which should, i think, turn night into day infront of our cars in the dark

 

Here's a contrarian thought:

HIDs usually take a little while to reach maximum brightness. The stock S2000 low beams seem to take about 30 seconds to get pretty close to maximum bightness.

The reason for this is that HIDs require a start-up circuit, just like fluorescent and other non-filament bulbs.

OTOH, simple filamant style incandescent halogen/xenon bulbs reach maximum brightness almost immediately.

When I am driving I don't usually have the opportunity to keep my high beams on for very long time intervals, as I frequently have to switch back to my low beams for the next oncoming car -- and then switch them back on again -- endlessly cycling them.

Accordingly, high beams are possibly not the best application for HIDs.

I would think that the HID start-up circuit could be designed to reach maximum brightness faster, but most probably at the expense of bulb life.

The concept of HID low beams with incadescent high beams is actually pretty sound.

Kind Regards, Chris

 

I agree with Chris... HID's in my opinion are not the best alternative for High Beams. Unless there is a new HID design that I

 

That makes three of us. I just did a simple upgrade on one of my trips up to Canada. They have higher watt high beam bulbs that fit the S fine, they do a great job and you do not have the delay for them to get to full strength. I'll look down in my basement to see if I still have the bulb case with there website on it. The bulbs can be ordered in different strengths that are above the legal US output. Nobody really knows though since it rare that they measure out put during vehicle inspections, the norm is to just to see if they work.

There are a couple threads on this subject that were done a while ago, hmmm maybe 1-2 years actually that covered this high beam upgrade from A to Z. If you are interested I would do the search, that is how I found out about Canadian standards were different from us here in the south.

 

I took a ride in a 911 Turbo at night once and besides other things I was really impressed with the head lights. Both High beam and Low beams were HID. The high beams didn't seem to have to warm up once turned on. They just turned the night into daylight. They were unreal. I drove in my car right after and the high beams really make a difference.

 

Once the bulb warms up, delay should be practically nil. Warmup should take less than 30 seconds, and it will take them several minutes to cool down, so turning them off for oncoming cars won't be a real issue. Once the lowbeams have been on for several minutes, the heat in the casing will warm the high beams nearly up to a point sufficient for near-instant turnon. Jump in yur car after it's been sitting all night and hit the highs and you'll see a quick warm up just like the low beams. While true full power may not be reached for 30 seconds, I think we would all agree our lowbeams are prectically full power (bright enough so no difference is noticeable) within 1-2 seconds.

 

I heard that best HID temp is 5200 K, cuz it won't reflect as much in fog, unless it is special made for the car... therefore, I think to keep the original HID is a better way to go... and for the high beam... I think our low beam and high beam is just about enough for almost all the condition... so, it is a waste to get the HID high beam especially you don't use it as often as regular low beam... ohh!! for ricers, it is another story...