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Weird Lucas Headlight

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Rob Glasgow

Rob Glasgow

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A few years ago I purchased 2 used Lucas Headlights to use on my BT7. Although I know there are better, brighter and safer alternatives than the original bulbs, I just like the look of the Lucas logo up front. One of the bulbs I purchased was a match to an original in pattern and marking. The horizontal lens lines were straight across the surface and the lens had a large "2" at the top. The other bulb was different. The lens lines "stepped up" across the face of the bulb and instead of a "2" at the top, it had an arrow pointing right. There were some other numbers on the front. JC 10170 S13 and 73. Anyone know if this might have been an English or European version? I just purchased another 'standard' Lucas bulb to give me two matching bulbs, but was just wondering if anyone has any ideas. This is certainly digging deep in the weeds when it comes to important issues of our time......
The bulb on the left is the 'standard' and the one one the right has the "stepped" pattern.
 

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Rob, I really don't know anything for sure but I also have an unusual specification in my headlight bulbs. I have had the these same headlights on the car for over 20 years and they were on the car when I bought it. The owner I bought the car from said that he had driven the car in Europe. The low beam of my bulbs angles to the left instead of to the right as most American bulbs.
I wonder if the arrow on your one bulb means that is the direction of the beam when on its low beam. If the arrow is pointing right that would mean it is pointing towards the curb when driven in a country that drives on the right side of the road. Just my guess.
 
Rob,
I can appreciate the 'cool factor' of the Lucas center logo. The diagonal pattern is for right hand drive areas and therefore 'dips' appropriately. I ended up with several NOS of these and checked out what they would actually do when switching from main to low beam. My crude garage-wall test showed they would aim the low-beam into the oncoming lane if used in left-hand traffic. Incandescent bulbs are pretty dim by today's headlight standards, so I doubt if anyone would even notice they were 'dipping' at them.

I ended up selling them to someone in Australia, where they could be used as intended. Maybe someone with a RHD car would want them for that final concours touch.

Jeff

P1090023.jpgP1090024.jpg
 
Jeff, you are right that the low intensity of these bulbs does not seem to concern the American drivers. I have been driving my Healey with the Euro beam for almost 20 years and I have never had anyone flick their lights at me because of the direction of the beam. I was concerned about that in the beginning but it has been a non-issue.
 
Yeah, halogen, LED, and probably laser beam bulbs next. There is a 'vertical dip' bulb mentioned in some Lucas parts books; I wonder if that was to permit use between RHD Britain and LHD on the Continent...
 
I thought the lamps were designed to accomodate left hand and right hand drive countries???
 
Back in the day! (Hrmph) we used to put a fancy profiled sticker on our headlamps when we drove in a foreign country to account for the difference in the left and right hand dipping. I think that we still have to but i have not been driving a British car on that side of the water for a long long time.

:cheers:

Bob
 
Summary:
The British Government refused to give up their left-hand driving ways, and in 1773 introduced the General Highways Act, which encouraged driving on the left. This was later made law thanks to The Highway Act of 1835. Meanwhile post-revolution France, under their left-handed ruler ​
Napoleon
, embraced a permanent move to the right side of the road. Amidst all this driving confusion, the British and the French were yielding their power across the globe, and as part of their rapid colonization they insisted that the countries they occupied drove on the same side of the road. This explains why former British colonies such as Australia, New Zealand, and India drive on the left, while former French colonies like Algeria, Ivory Coast, and Senegal drive on the right.​
 
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