Omaha Vette Graveyard wrote:One could wire low-wattage, low-aiming auxiliary cornering lights so that each side would come on with the blinker (but non blinking, obviously), come on as a pair with the brights, and as a pair with a separate 'corner lights' switch.
This would be fairly simple to do, and would provide the extra cornering light at any time you'd need it. Most of the time you're turning sharply enough to want an extra light you'll have your blinker on, and curvy roads at night could be handled with either brights, which would include the cornering lights, or dims with the switch flipped on.
I guess the real question is how often you'd want a cornering light on for one direction, but could not also have it on for the other direction. If you have your brights on, you're just trying to put out as much light as you can and you're not really worried about getting it in other peoples' eyes; so, cornering lights could just be on. In the city, you'll have your blinker on for most turns out of the range of your headlights. I guess that leaves winding roads with traffic. How to solve that problem...
To solve this problem, you could have a 'couple/decouple' for your blinker switch. In position 1 your blinkers would be coupled to your cornering lights (when the headlights are on); in position 2 the blinker switch would not engage the blinkers but only the cornering lights.
Or, you could put left/right flappy paddles behind the steering wheel. Click for on, click for off. That actually might be fun to use on the right road, plus it would be fairly cheap and simple to try.
-Graveyard
Now that you mention it, I had a Ford Tbird that had sidel lights that would come on with the signal lights and light up the curb and then shut off about 10-15 seconds after you cancelled the signal lights. They were decently handy around town on unlit streets, but not so much on the highway. They weren't very powerful at all, but would light up a curb nicely. That car had a few features that were pretty nice that cars now don't have. It also had a switch so that the headlights and tail lights could be set to come on when you turned the key on, and there was an adjustable delay for them to turn off after you shut the key off. I could leave the lights on so I could see to walk to the house at night when I used to work night shift without leaving any yard lights on. And the seatbelt would stay a bit loose so it wasn't strangling you on long trips either. I kinda miss driving that car now. Kristian
The biggest issue with all of this is timing. You need to see the corner before you turn the steering wheel. Basically if your fixed lights aren't spread out enough to begin with, the moveable light won't help. You don't notice a whole lot on the road, but try some night time endurance racing at VIR or Nelson Ledges and it becomes colossally obvious.
Really wide driving light beams (from say a pair of projector style lamps) will do better for visibility around corners than a set of moving lamps. This is unless you are looking for curbs, street lines and stuff low to the ground. In that case low aimed flood lights is my suggestion. Something like fogs or aux driving lights but aimed equal to or below the highest driving light point and aimed out to the sides. This way visibility is high but you aren't dazzling oncoming traffic.
Also just a thought if you really want the moving lights you might check out some old police car spotlights. They are gear driven with a shafts that goes into the car. You could attach a pulley and cable system if you really wanted too. Might need some lathe work and cutting. And would have to aim them down or mask the half of the housing with a "squirrel catcher" (I think they are called) as they are spot lights made to throw long distances.
zetec7 wrote:Citroen did it, years ago, on the DS model. They eventually dropped the idea. I never drove one, so I don't know how well (or if) it worked.
I drove my parents Citroen DS 19 in the sixties. The car had an oleo-pneumatic suspension, therefore the headlights were quite stable and the swivelling headlights system quite functional for a daily driver. On some circumstances to have the headlights not pointing ahead of the car was a bit problematic. I remember rapid steering wheel motions on a parking lot for instance. On the Seven however I don't think that I would bother. There are too many other issues to address.
