Slowly getting there when real life allows. I think the H5001 retro kits will be the best solution. Here is H5001 halogen mockup. Don't ruin your panties just yet ladies, there is still wiring and fabbing the bracket.

 

Nice keep goin bro!


http://www.rallylights.com/hella-5-3...t-hl66021.html

 

found this in my pictures from Mid-Ohio 2015.

 

They will look like the early GT-1 headlights!

 

Hello Gentlemen,

I received an email from Rich seeing if I would be able to assist with this project you guys are brewing. I looked through the thread and various links related to the RSR style headlights and here are my initial thoughts, questions, etc....

I understand that the general goal is to retrofit "racecar" style lights into your road going 996s but what are your motives?
To have actual GT3 RSR lights?
To have the best lighting performance possible?
To have "race car" style lights which offer better performance than stock?
To hone-in on your individual goals here are some things to consider with a project like this:

*Disclaimer: I don't have any first hand experience with these RSR headlights I am making some assumptions based off of my general lighting knowledge*

1. Race cars and street legal cars have different laws and regulations to abide by, full GT3 RSR lights will likely not be road legal. The beam pattern is probably similar to a high beam all the time, aimed higher and also not very wide with more of the light output focused in a pencil beam for distance and high speed visibility). The type of performance racecar lights offer is good for racing, not necessarily street use, especially when there are other drivers on the road. As I am sure you know the factory 996 lights have HID projectors which are designed to have a dramatic cutoff in the output allowing light to illuminate the road but keep stray light from shining up into the eyes of oncoming traffic.

This is the biggest issue I would urge you guys to seriously consider. Retrofitting RSR style lights may make your 996 no better than that bro in the lifted truck with plug-n-play HID bulbs who is blinding any and all in his path and just because they are from a "race car" doesn't mean it will improve your visibility since the environment in which you will be driving (street vs track) is very different.

2. For those of you looking for absolute performance, retrofit an better HID projector and upgrade your HID bulb, the oem Hella HID ballasts which the 996 is equipped with is the best HID ballast ever produced (warm up time, output efficiency, and reliability) and as a kicker they can be BOOSTED, yes, the HID ballasts can be modded. By swapping transistors and adding a resistor the ballast efficiency jumps from 80% to 87% which means less stress and heat while operating and depending on what resistor is selected, the output jumps from 35w to 41w, 43w, 46w, 48w, 50w, or 55w.
Here is an example of stock 35w vs 55w:



Bi-Xenon HID projectors will offer the best road-legal performance, they offer excellent intensity, excellent light control, and at the flick of a stalk offer a high beam.

LEDs will surpass HID and be the new standard in automotive lighting but at this point in time the technology isn't quite there for mass produced vehicles, yes Mercedes has a new Multi-beam system which is pretty slick but most of the modern LED lights can't compete with the intensity of a proper HID setup. For a single emitted light source HID is still king. The JW Speaker and 7" round style LED replacement lights (the ones you see on Jeeps) are OK but still not up to par.

Retrofitting the RSR halogen light with a fluted lens will be a huge step in the wrong direction in terms of intensity and light control. Reflectors are actually very efficient at aiming light in distance applications which is why most trophy trucks run a full reflector setup, although they use 70w-100w HIDs and the lights have clear lenses.

3. The best bang for your buck for a unique look and improved output is a "normal" projector upgrade and a blacked out bezel which would look like this:


For those looking to have it all "race car" look but with better than stock output the best solution would be a HID projector upgrade, maybe retrofit an additional projector, and fabricate a custom mounting plate. Something like this:


Another thing to keep in mind is since race cars are so function>form the headlight housings with the RSRT components (or similar) would look very unfinished, you would likely be able to see the bare plastic of the housing instead of the aesthetically pleasing bezel which come from the factory to hide the wires, mounting points, and components.


Personally I am a function over form guy when it comes to car modifications and lighting upgrades, performance is so important (especially seeing at night) that is seems silly to throw it out the window to have your car look like a race car but I understand there are many many people who disagree with me, look at how many people buy widebody kits or a HUGE wing and have a stock motor. I don't get it but to each their own.

I would recommend being very critical of the internal components you choose for your lighting upgrades and make sure they functionally meet your goals, road regulations, etc. otherwise you're gonna have a bad time!

Does someone have any actual data on the RSR lights? Wattage output? Optical design?

Happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Also if someone sends me a 996 light I am happy to tinker and explore some mounting solutions.

I will be building a set of lights for a client with a 996T in May, we decided on a full black out and upgraded projector, I will create a thread so you guys can see the look and output of the final product.

Evan

 

Thanks Evan Very Much.


I think for me these would be the two primary goals:


To have the best lighting performance possible?
To have "race car" style lights which offer better performance than stock?


Everyone else can chime in too.


Regards Rich

 

I thought it was common sense. People here are trying to get worse light output by removing HID for halogen lamps .

Even if you wanted to do round LED retrofit, as stated above, LED tech is not there yet for quality light output.

 

Thanks Evan that's great info and I encourage anyone interested in HID retrofit to read about it.

Personally, I'll be using the OEM headlights mostly, but am also posting my progress here for making RSR-style lights. I usually don't post my diy projects on forums because there will always be douchbags.

I finally decided on a pair of round lights that will fit perfectly and use H4 LED Hi/Low beam bulbs. These don't emit in the IR or UV spectrum like a halogen and won't heat up the plastic lenses. They are very lightweight and may end up shaving a few pounds by shedding the ballasts from the HID.

 

I'm interested in what's considered a better HID bulb and more information on bumping the output of the stock ballasts although possibly not as high as 55W. I recall some discussions here about bulbs in the past but I've yet to make the jump. Perhaps a different thread would be best to discuss the upgrade? I'll be interested to hear how the RSR style work out but am thinking it's not for me right now...

 

55W and oem reflectors maybe overheating (from my experience the oem reflectors are at the edge at 35W and overheating with higher temp

RSR Style is a interesting project

 

Although I love the "Old School" look of RSR Le Mans style headlamps with fluted lenses etc.,


I have decided to give my headlamps to Evan to work his magic.
I will be replicating the headlamps from the Black H&R race car by adding a second HID lamp & possibly a yellow fluted fog lamp.
We will use the light weight FVD plastic lenses & delete the pop up washer system. The interior plastic housing will be painted seal grey to match my turbo paint.


Project to commence in May. Will update.






For those of u who want to see his capabilities check out this Panno headlamp upgrade project on Rennlist.com


http://rennlist.com/forums/panamera/...eadlights.html

 

Kerma996, good one!
"I usually don't post my diy projects on forums because there will always be douchbags".


Keep posting ur project. We are all interested.

 

I think this is a good direction, can't wait to see them finished.

 

Evan,

How do you think the Mini D2S 4.0's would compare to our stock setup? That's what I put in my tundra, the difference is night and day but the stock tundra headlights sucked donkey *****!

 

A "better" bulb would be one that is new and from a high quality oem supplier like Philips or Osram. HID bulbs fade over time considering the age of the 996 if it is still running original bulbs it might be able to increase light output by 30%-50% just by swapping in a fresh bulb, this is an extreme example but certainly possible.

Here is a very basic graph to use as a general guide on what to expect with the decline in HID bulb intensity.




HID bulbs have slowly evolved over time and there are now some bulbs which offer increased output but with a whiter color (kelvin rating). The Osram CBI is a great bulb that has a strong output, crisp white color, and reasonable price point. Some aftermarket bulbs like Morimoto perform well for what they are but don't use the same high quality salts like Philips and Osram. I recommend buying from The Retrofit Source as they stock only genuine products, HID bulb knock-offs run rampant on Amazon and eBay and most consumers don't know what to look for or have the means to test the bulbs so they still leave positive feedback.


As for the ballast "boosting" I attached a PDF guide I created on how to boost the Hella Gen 3 ballasts (oem equipment on 996). For those of you handy with a soldering iron you can increase output and efficiency with a couple hours of tinkering, think of it as upgrading the turbos on your HID ballasts.

Evan


To be honest I have never seen the output of the 996 in person but from the research I have done the Hella projector fitted to these headlights is probably similar to the "E55" projector which first appeared on the W211 AMG and has been fitted to other European vehicles in that era. The E55 is a decent projector with good on-center intensity aka "hotspot" and a nice high beam, the light distribution isn't the best and the beam pattern isn't particularly wide. The common shield design on the E55 is a huge ECE-style "slope" step which is a bit odd and excessively large IMO, not sure if the 996 has the same shield but instead of a quick abrupt step which is common for DOT-spec projectors the slope is more slanted and much much longer, for reference the D2S 4.0 has a DOT style step which is pretty vertical although I think the step is too tall on the D2S, it only needs to be about 1/2 the height to effectively serve it's purpose of keeping light out of the eyes of oncoming traffic. The reflective bowl on the E55 also deteriorates quicker over time from UV exposure relative to other projectors, this bowl wear in combination with an old HID bulb can REALLY limit light output.

The D2S 4.0 is better than the E55 in pretty much every way, the biggest strength of the 4.0 is the size of it's "hotspot" instead of being a small dot of intense light it is a triangle of intensity, roughly 4-5x larger than the E55. The D2S is also a little bit wider and has a more useful beam pattern of intense light in the middle that slowly and progressively tapers towards the edges. The cutoff is flatter too which I not only find aesthetically pleasing but also more functional as light at the top of the beam pattern near the cutoff is useful for distance vision (assuming it is intense enough). The downside of the 4.0 is the excessively large step and the disparity of height between the left and right side of the shield. You might have noticed this on your Tundra but with your headlights shining on a vehicle ~100ft away the step creates roughly a 4ft difference in output which is too much and limits what would be useful light on the left side while driving.

The point is to keep light out of the eyes of oncoming traffic so say your headlights are aimed properly and the right side of your output is illuminating just under the side view mirrors of cars while driving which means your headlight aim is correct but "maximized" where you couldn't aim them much higher without occasionally blinding people. If this is the situation then the D2S 4.0 projects light 4ft lower on the left side and 4ft below the bottom of side view mirrors on most cars (let's use mid sized sedans as the norm) would mean you are not illuminating any of their vehicle and even not illuminating some of the road just before their vehicle. This is why on most of my D2S 4.0 retrofits I shave down the shield bit (I did a little on the Panamera build linked above) roughly removing 1/2 of the height and the end result is your D2S projectors will now be illuminating the wheels or lower fascia of that oncoming vehicle. An added bonus of this modification is when the shield is shaved down it allows more intense light of the "hotspot" to pass through which is very helpful for distance vision, it's a win-win.

I don't want to convolute this thread too much with my HID stuff so I will share a link instead of posting pics but you can see output pics of the "E55" (that has been modded with a clear lens), the D2S 4.0, and many other projectors here to get an idea of the output.
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...l-beam-gallery

Evan