please tell me about lights? (Page 1 of 2)

Good discussion about lights came up for last year's ECR 24 and the previous year's overnight events in Louisiana and the West region. Here's your reading list to start off discussion, then we'll move on to specifics...
http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewtopic.php?id=9969
http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewt … p?id=14592
and a third thread http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewtopic.php?id=9274

Initial thoughts on your questions:
e30 lamps -- maybe
masking tape -- do you mean the clear tape over lenses? No, it doesn't melt.
wiring - run new lines w/relays; your alternator will probably be OK if your car originally had A/C
quantity - we fit 6 driving lights & 2 fogs onto a Neon. 4 driving lights & 2 fogs onto a 944.
aiming - read those threads for confusion quantities of aiming advice. I do initial aiming with a folding table set on its side in front of the car, then refine aiming at the track with an empty spot of paddock.

I have the high-beam headlight assemblies from my parting-out-a-Lexus-on-eBay project (they didn't sell on eBay after several attempts) and I'll bring them to Summit Point if anybody wants them. They're just regular halogen lights, but fairly compact for the amount of light they produce.

They're the little lights inside the main headlights. They could be ziptied into the grille of a hooptie Lemons car.

The price on LED bars is plummeting because of the Chinese knock-offs, which appear to be nearly as good as name brand stuff. That being said, I'm not a fan of the color and light output of the LEDs in road racing. Black pavement seems to absorb the light. Our 4 100 watt IPF Halogens are far more effective than the 10" LED bar we also have, contrary to what the Lumen rating would have us believe. The LEDs also produce incredible glare:

Hong Norrth showed up to the 2011 Cain't Git Bayou with these junkyard HID lights (I think they're from an early-2000s Chevy truck) mounted on the hood. It was a cheap and effective setup. They won the race, so the lights must have been good enough.

Hella 500s are less than $70 a pair on Amazon. I'll reiterate the price to usefulness ratio on these, I've used them as supplemental high-beams a lot on street cars (although I have Cibie Oscar+ lights for my DD now). Four of those and some sort of low/cornering beams ought not to suck too bad for Lemons duty.

Haven't done a night race, but have done late night TSD rallies and such. Anything non-OEM that's cheaper than the Hellas tend to only produce glare.

This.  If you search hard enough on local craigslist and eBay, you can find the 500's cheaper.  The problem with Craiglist searches for "hella" or "cibie" or <insert name brand lighting here> is that when you go look at the things, it turns out to be some Chinese made 5w backup light.  Night racing is hard enough but when you can't see, it's just plain miserable.  Our first time with cheap lighting, I clock watched a ton just waiting for stints to end.  I drove off course at full throttle a couple times without any clue that I was headed off into Robin Hood's merry forest.  You will regret it if you don't go name brand or OEM.

If you pull a relay and it has terminals marked "30", "85", "86" & "87", it's a pocket relay. (if it also has an 87a, that's ok).

The relays that Toyota put in LS400s and SC400s are of very high quality. They don't have the standard Bosch terminal numbers, but they do have handy diagrams molded into the casings. If you prefer the Bosch relays and you're junkyard shopping, 80s BMWs always have a bunch.

By the way, what color should we paint the car to be most visible in the dark?

We still run the weather-stained stock red and I am looking for a reason to make the car acid-green or something.

I'm going to put this out here because maybe it will help someone:

Since most teams seem to just bolt lights to the hood or on the bumper - they are in other-than-stock locations.

Be careful not to block air flow to something.  We mounted our light bar to the very end of the hood on our Turbo -FC.

You wouldn't think so by looking at the install - but the light bar seriously increased our intake air temps by blocking some of the inlet to our top mounted intercooler:

I can see some teams blocking air flow to their radiator or oil cooler or whatever cooler through poor light placement.

My team is patiently waiting for this to become publicly available:

http://www.lumilor.com/

A flat surface and a wall, with room to roll the car back about 25 feet.

Driving lights should be aimed more or less straight ahead, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 ft down the road.  If you know how far above the road they are, you can aim them with the aforementioned flat surface and wall and a little pencil-and-paper arithmetic.  Beware changes in the car's fore and aft ride height when actually driving.  You may want to angle a drive light a little to the outside on the dominant side of the track (LHS for MSRH CW) to pick up turn-in points.  This is more important when there are brake markers.

Apex lights kinda depend on the track.  I'd guesstimate maybe a 30 degree angle to the outside, similar or slightly lower length to the driving lights.

Or self-tapping screws and a set of reflectors.

We ran 4 new Hella 500 driving lights in the Chump race this past April at Buttonwilow...and they were terrifyingly poor. When/if we do another 24-hour race, I plan to have some properly designed HID lighting on the car.

Coincidentally, if you are looking for a pair (or maybe all four) of good used Hella 500 driving lights, send me a message. All four were purchased from Amazon; two were used for only one race and the other two were used for two races. Cheap...