Extra Light

TL;DR Adding weight and complexity

To quote Ben Jabituya in Short Circuit : "You know what many people are liking at night ? Headlights." Confession time. I'm one of those people he was talking about.

Since the Vosges trip in August and the driving-mountain-roads-at-night-under-the-rain that came with it, I've been on the lookout for additional front lights for the 170. The issue comes from the void created near field when the main beams are switched on.

With the original halogen headlights, you can hold the flasher button down to force both beams to illuminate at the same time. Replacement LED H4 bulbs didn't allow for that, but the illumination remained satisfactory. The proper LED headlights on the other hand alternate between two sharply defined beams that don't really crossover.

The only Caterham with additional lights I know about is from Gilles in France. He lives and drives in the mountains all year round and got a pair of VisionX fitted under the indicator pods.

With the usual goal of keeping my car looking as stock as possible, my prerequisite is that they have to be hidden somehow.

Anyone with a limited interest in the history of the Seven will see me coming, with an inspiration from the Lotus Mk II, Mk IV and early Mk VIs. (There's no mark V, and let's forget about the Mk III headlights, shall we?) Why not put additional lights in the nosecone, hidden deep behind the grille ?

For a while, Hella Black Magic kits were on my radar, but I wasn't sold on their design. A recent rewatch of a few segments of the Top Gear North Pole Special provided me with what I was looking for : their red Hilux was fitted with PIAA fog lights.

Looking at the PIAA catalogue, their LPW530 product line seemed the most appropriate. They are high quality, compact and have a design that is very similar to the standard LED Caterham headlights. As they would be tucked behind the grille, there would be no need for the branded cover.

One issue was the abundance of choice, as they offer four options of the LPW530 : white drive light, white fog light, yellow fog light, or a dual beam version that combines white drive and yellow fog. See the picture that looks like an ad below.

It took a few YouTube videos, most from people with motorcycles in Asia, to determine that the fog lights had beams so wide that they wouldn't work well hidden as deep as possible under the nosecone. The "white drive" kit has the ECE certification working in its favour. With only 10€ extra to pay, I went for the dual beams. A choice guided by various experiences of hitting a while wall of fog each and everytime we crossed anything a bit serious.

Another video that tickled my fancy was about the Suzuki Yoshimura SERT Motul that's equipped with LPW530 headlights, filmed at Spa-Francorchamps. What's not to like in that sentence ? 

I bought a kit from Lights and Styling in the Netherlands early on New Year' Eve, wary of a price or VAT increase possibly coming with the new year. I found their shop via Bol.com (the dutch Amazon that's active in Belgium too), and opted to pay 1.50€ extra when buying from their website with a 2-day delivery rather than having the confidence of Bol but a slower free shipping.

Anyway, the kit looks plug and play (see picture above), with even the zip-ties provided. All I will need is a pair of brackets to insert between the top of the radiator brackets and their fixings.

From the pictures of the car (I got it kindly stored for the winter holidays, and have no access to it for two weeks...), it seems that the center of PIAA should be aligned with the center of the front anti-roll bar, and I would have them cover the front of the radiator as little as possible.

Height shouldn't be much of a concern although I'd need them to cover the void left by the main beams when in "drive" mode. Laterally, I would need the yellow beam to light the road in front of me more than the interior of the nosecone, maybe I'll have to cross the beams to get the best illumination.

We'll see.