Topic: Light Height Rule Clarification

We're preparing for our first 24 hour event and I wanted clarification on this rule listed in the event page:

The center of all lights must be no higher than 6" above the car's hoodline; roof-mounted lights are not allowed.

Does this apply to all lights or just headlights (or any other forward facing light that is supposed to be throwing light on the track)?

Our car is a hatchback and has brake lights already mounted in the upper section of the rear hatch window.  We are also planning on adding some led strip lights to the car's roof line to help identify it at night from the paddock and just simply make it more visible to other cars.

Captain, For Parts Only (Team FPO)
#111 VW Golf - Currently Orange with tiger stripes (Calvin and Hobbes theme)

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

The rule is for headlights.

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

Damn, when I saw the topic title I was hoping it would be a spirited call for Lemons to clarify the lighting rules so that teams stop showing up with badly-aimed and overpowered LED light setups that blind everyone else on the track. Or maybe start instituting some kind of lighting inspection at night races...

My mistake, maybe I'll start my own thread.

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

Note on decorative lights, they are cool and make your car recognizable but must be static. There are some cool cheap LEDs out there that pulse and change colors but you can't run these as they can be confused with tow trucks etc.

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

Or maybe start instituting some kind of lighting inspection at night races...

The event pages does state that lights will be inspected during the tech inspection process.  Not sure how thorough that inspection process is though.


There are some cool cheap LEDs out there that pulse and change colors but you can't run these as they can be confused with tow trucks etc.

Yeah, we're looking at using static colors that match our theme.  Nothing fancy.

Captain, For Parts Only (Team FPO)
#111 VW Golf - Currently Orange with tiger stripes (Calvin and Hobbes theme)

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

I think all they did for inspections at MSR was ensure the lights weren't mounted too high per the rules. Not sure they asked anyone to turn them on, much less use an aiming board or anything.

Don't mind me, I'm just grousing. All I'll suggest is avoiding those cheap LED light bars. They are ultra bright and shine in a very wide cone (including every rear view mirror in a 3-mile radius).

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

They can pull you off the track if your lights are blinding people (like many of the cheap light bars tend to do) or you don't have enough working lights and force you to fix it before you get back out there.  So be sure to take a little time to aim you headlights and make sure your tail lights work and are fairly bright(don't rely on 30 year old bulbs, just go and buy some new cheap ones, or splurge and get some LED ones, not only are they brighter but since they use less power they will remove some of the draw from the alternator which will give you a tiny bit more power to use towards the wheels.)

Racing 4 Nickels - 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera
2011 SHOWROOM-SCHLOCK SHOOTOUT  IOE Winner
2012 The Chubba Cheddar Enduro Class C winner
Facebook Page

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

SpaceFrank wrote:

I think all they did for inspections at MSR was ensure the lights weren't mounted too high per the rules. Not sure they asked anyone to turn them on, much less use an aiming board or anything.

Don't mind me, I'm just grousing. All I'll suggest is avoiding those cheap LED light bars. They are ultra bright and shine in a very wide cone (including every rear view mirror in a 3-mile radius).

^ This is kind of an ongoing problem particularly when a region hasn't run a 24 in a while.  Prior to the 24s you always see posts about lighting with several of them telling people not to buy the cheap LEDs.  They buy them only to find that 1. They end up not being very effective for lighting what the slob behind the wheel is trying to see and 2. They piss everyone else off.   Yes, the rules say they will make you fix them but I think it requires a number of complaints about a car for them to do much about it.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

Choose a car with a nice wide grille and fit the lightbar behind the front lip of the hood so that the light from the lowest row of LEDs can't pass the hood lip in an upwards direction.

Might get cooked by the radiator though.

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

cheseroo wrote:
SpaceFrank wrote:

I think all they did for inspections at MSR was ensure the lights weren't mounted too high per the rules. Not sure they asked anyone to turn them on, much less use an aiming board or anything.

Don't mind me, I'm just grousing. All I'll suggest is avoiding those cheap LED light bars. They are ultra bright and shine in a very wide cone (including every rear view mirror in a 3-mile radius).

^ This is kind of an ongoing problem particularly when a region hasn't run a 24 in a while.  Prior to the 24s you always see posts about lighting with several of them telling people not to buy the cheap LEDs.  They buy them only to find that 1. They end up not being very effective for lighting what the slob behind the wheel is trying to see and 2. They piss everyone else off.   Yes, the rules say they will make you fix them but I think it requires a number of complaints about a car for them to do much about it.

Of course, complaining about a car is really easy when it's identifiable... Dude, there's this one car out there that is really blinding! Which one? The really bright one. They all look about equally bright from the tower, except for the ones with the dim stock lights.

That guy

11 (edited by VKZ24 2018-11-29 07:42 AM)

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

We have a light bar that I built about 8 years ago with (4) 6" Hella lights that I converted to HID.  It was mounted to the front bumper on a piece of 2" angle so it could be easily removed.  While I know that an HID conversion is frowned upon by some, we spent a lot of time (over an hour) aiming them on the street in front of my house.  We spent the extra time on aiming them so they wouldn't be blinding to our fellow drivers, and they worked pretty well.  I noticed them up in my attic just the other day, so I need to dig 'em out and build a mount for our current car so hopefully we won't have to buy headlights for the upcoming 24 in the spring.

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!

Re: Light Height Rule Clarification

The light bars are ok for apex lighting but you really need something that throws light a long distance.
This video very accurately represents the drivers view, it's fine in traffic but when I cleared the bunches it was downright frightening and this was after doing 3 hrs on the track in the daylight.

https://youtu.be/TR3MJ80mpT4

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019