Stock Halogen Lighting vs. HID Lighting

[grumpyvette]

Both C4's and C5's come from the factory with halogen headlights(more info) and fog lights installed. Halogens were OK back in it's time, but now almost every car manufacturer out there is calling HID (more info) lighting the norm and is equipping their cars with HID's from the factory, due to their added safety benefits and multiple advantages over halogen lighting.

As many of us know, our stock Corvette lighting system is very underwhelming, and it can be downright dangerous to drive at night. Some of the benefits of HID over halogen are...

* Up to three times less wattage is used (HID = 35w, halogen = 55-100w)

* Up to four times more bright light produced (HID = 2400-3200lu, halogen = 800-1700lu)

* Up to ten times more intense light produced (HID = 202,500cd, halogen = 21,000cd)

* Up to six times longer lifespan (HID = 2500hr, halogen = 400hr)

* HID light contains less infrared and ultraviolet light, which fatigues the driver and surrounding motorists

* HID light illuminates the road with better contrast and more lifelike tones of color

* Halogen filaments naturally produce a color of 2300K to 4000K (2300K is yellowish, 4000K is whitish) Anything bluer requires the use of light-dimming color filters

* HID produces a natural color of 4100K to 6000K (4100K is daylight white, and 6000K is slightly bluish white) Anything bluer requires the use of light-dimming color filters

* HID lighting produces a wider and deeper beam pattern with razor sharp cut off lines

* HID has low lumen maintenance, meaning bulbs do not dim down as much towards the end of their lives

* HID has high flux properties, meaning light is very evenly distributed when installed properly

We are the first and only company that sells plug & play HID kits for the C4 that uses REAL projectors mounted inside the headlight bucket. We will not sell you HID bulbs for you to stick in your halogen headlights, because this is a dangerous practice and produces entirely too much glare for on-coming motorists, and is simply the wrong way to update your lights. Those kits can be found on eBay and are sold by the dozen.

Visit our site to learn more about the correct, safer way to update your Corvettes lighting system!

Educate yourself about HID's

HID Headlight Systems

HID Fog Light Systems


Stock lighting on the left, Our HID upgrade kit on the right.

 

[grumpyvette]

So the cheap kit from ebay wouldnt project as well? Do you think the cheap kit would be as powerfull?

Still trying to see the light here ( pardon the pun )



Here is a response I made to a potential customer from a few months ago, that I think should answer alot of your questions


How do your projectors differ from the ones found on ebay? (referring to the clear lens projectors available for the c4 corvette)



"The headlights you are talking about are similar to the below picture, which can be found on eBay:

First off I mean no disrespect to those who have this kit, before today this was your only option! As you can see by the picture, the "lens" is merely held in place in front of the bulb, and does not prevent the light from scattering around the lens and bouncing off of the reflective bowl housing. This will still produce tremendous light scatter and will be blinding to on coming motorists. Also, the lens has no shield which produces the razor sharp cutoff that is associated with HID headlights. Again, this will let the light scatter above the intended cut-off point and blind on coming motorists.

If you were to take the optically clear lens off of the projector kit that we sell, you will find this:

Here you can see the D2S bulb all the way in the back, encapsulated by a reflective bowl housing that directs the light toward the front of the projector (the lens). Once the lens is on the front of the projector, light can not escape anywhere but through our 2.5" diameter lens. The metal shield that you see in the picture creates the sharp cut-off line. This cut-off is essential because it limits how high up the light can travel. Typically when aiming HID lights, this cut-off will be below an on coming cars windshield, as to not blind the driver.

The final piece of the picture is the square attached to the bottom of the shield. This is the solenoid that controls the movement of the shield. When the high beams are activated, it moves the shield out of the way allowing the light to escape above this cut-off line. This movable shield is what makes these projectors known as bi-xenon."