Driving light placement?

[Gasoline Fumes]

Will driving lights on top of a bumper create a significant amount of drag? I'd like to put a pair of relatively small lights (Hella FF50) on a 1991 Civic Wagon, but I'm concerned about them affecting airflow over the hood. I could mount them in lower grill, but they'd be less effective down there.

[gone-ot]

...in the grill is less problematic; it's already an eddy location.

...with "fog" (yellow) lamps, you want them as close to the ground as possible, but up enough to keep them out of harms' way.

...with "driving" (white) lamps, you actually want them as high off the ground as possible, so as to illuminate further down the road, assuming they're powerful enough to reach that far (look at where they're located on endurance Rally race cars).

...otherwise, they're basically just "illuminated" bling.

[Jethro]

Mount them behind the grill! then get a hole saw and modify the grill to clear em.

I had some 130W air craft landing lights behind the grill on my Ram (Par36) wired in as my highs. AWESOME and the grill wasn't even clearanced for em

[gone-ot]

...I, too, replaced the original "12V Fog Lamps" on my AAR 'Cuda with aircraft landing lamps...and had to install a separate relay to handle their higher current loads.

...how many people are aware that the decal lettering "LOAD AMPS" is easily changed to "ROAD LAMPS" by simple cut-n-pasting!?!?

[Gasoline Fumes]

I think the grill is just too close to the ground for driving lights.

Maybe I'll try taping some faux lights to the car and see if I can measure any increase in drag.

[winkosmosis]

If they're that small I bet it doesn't matter.




Look at the headlights on the Pagani Zonda

[Gasoline Fumes]

They're on. I have no idea what they're doing aerodynamically, but they're bright!

[AeroModder]

I have mine in the lower grille. They light up where the headlights don't, and work perfectly for me, especially pointing some light around sharp corners.