Buyer's Guide - Rally Motorsport

From the very highest levels of both professional track and rally motorsport, there’s growing recognition of the superior lighting performance, design, reliability, and functionality of Lazer Lamps’ products, that brings tangible competitive advantage. With the recent launch of lightweight Glass & Carbon-fibre composite Bonnet and Corner Rally Lamp pods, we’ve furthered our appeal and relevance to the rally sector. In this piece, we’ll guide you through the options for achieving the perfect rally lighting setup.

 

Bonnet Pod

Providing maximum long-range visibility, with a spread of light in the mid to long-range that gives drivers the confidence to drive faster and safer, we can now propose two options for bonnet mounted lights.

Our 4-Way Rally Lamp Pod incorporates 2x Carbon-6 Spot and 2x Carbon-6 Drive spotlights to give that perfect balance of distance and spread, combined with the option for additional lighting functionality enabled through a Dashboard Controller (see section below). Through ground-breaking advances in the material solutions used in the manufacture of our lights the complete pod weighs just 3kg, significantly less than comparable systems on the market. Like all Lazer products, nothing has been left to chance or compromised in the pursuit of maximum performance, from the electrical design to careful selection of the LEDs (where the colour temperature maximises sharpness and definition of the road ahead). By selecting highly efficient LEDs the pod produces just over 27,000 raw lumens, for only 276W. Fine adjustment mechanisms allow for precise aiming of each light to match each driver’s preference.

The 2-Way Rally Lamp Pod includes 2x Triple-R 1000 Elite3. From 184W the system generates 18,000 raw lumens, propelling the 1lux line past 950m. This makes the 2-lamp pod at least comparable to traditional 4-lamp bonnet pods, and superior even to many 6-lamp pods, where the distance and spread of light, combined with the high CRI makes low-level light and night driving a safer experience. Similar to the 4-Way pod, fine adjustment mechanisms allow for precise aiming of each light to match each driver’s preference.

The above systems are optimised for the Ford Fiesta, but with vehicle modification/spacer kits in development for other vehicles including Skoda, Citroen, VW Polo, Peugeot 208, and Hyundai. Where the ‘Carbon’ pods are not suitable we can propose our Boomer Single quick fit and release mounting system optimised for the Triple-R 1000 Elite3.

 

4-Way Rally Lamp Pod – Dashboard Controller

The Carbon-6 spotlights contained within the 4-Way Bonnet pod all include software, alongside an LED arrangement, which allows them to function in a variety of different modes, all controlled via a touchscreen Dashboard Controller, which can be positioned at the driver’s convenience. Without the Dashboard Controller, the lamps operate at 100% operated by a standard on/off switch, while the addition of the controller substituted into the 4-lamp ‘Carbon’ wiring loom (see Electrical & Wiring section below), permits operation of the following lighting modes:

  • E-mark Compliant Mode – enables the customer to operate the lamp in compliance with EU road-legal requirements (required by most FIA regulated series).
  • E-Boost Mode – increases the intensity of light for maximum visibility.
  • Adaptive Mode – utilising an accelerometer, the system provides a secondary beam of light under heavy braking, from the Carbon-6 ‘Spot’ lights, to compensate for the downward pitch of the car, plus an additional beam of light which activates during acceleration from the Carbon-6 ‘Drive’ lights.
  • Fog Mode – provides superior levels of short-range illumination, ideal in more extreme weather conditions such as fog (Carbon-6 ‘Drive’ lights only).
  • Corner Pods – independent operation of the corner pod lighting system, that might otherwise be activated on a separate switch.

 

Corner Lighting

Both the bonnet pod systems prescribed above allow for the light distribution to be modified by adjustment of the angle of the lights (< +/- 5 degrees), or by the addition of Reeded Lenses. Still for superior short-range corner lighting, it is recommended to fit dedicated corner lights.

Like the bonnet pods, our LH/RH Corner Rally pods are constructed from lightweight Glass & Carbon-fibre composite material for an aerodynamic solution that utilises our Linear-6 Elite LED spotlights. Selected as much for their low-profile design, the lights give unrivalled lighting performance considering their diminutive proportions. The colour temperature of the light is identical to the bonnet pods ensuring a perfectly homogenous light distribution between both systems, while the left-right spread of light from the Linear leaves little to the imagination on all but the tightest hairpins.

Similarly optimised for the Ford Fiesta, we are reviewing the possibility for crossover of the corner pods for other makes of rally car but expect less commonality. In these instances, our Universal Single Lamp Mount or Side Mounting Brackets are recommended alternatives. So long as the lights are mounted in a horizontal orientation, we would recommend the Linear-6 Elite for corner lighting, however where it is necessary to mount the lights in a vertical orientation, we would recommend adopting our ST4 Evolution spotlights.

 

Electrical & Wiring

Our Carbon-6 spotlights come supplied with Deutsch DT04-3P connectors, while our Triple-R and Linear spotlights all come supplied with male/female 2-pin TE Superseal connectors. To facilitate ‘plug & play’ installation of the 4-Way Rally Lamp Pod, our Four-lamp ‘Carbon’ Wiring Kit is available, and which can have the on/off switch easily substituted for the Dashboard Controller connection, when this option is selected.

Both the 2-Way Rally Lamp Pod or LH/RH Corner Pods can be connected using a Two-Lamp Wiring Kit with Switch, with this loom easily connected into the aforementioned Four-Lamp ‘Carbon’ Wiring Kit, when the corner lights are used in conjunction with the 4-Way Pod and Dashboard Controller. Where both 2-Way Rally Lamp Pod and Corner Pods are in use together, we recommend our Four-Lamp Wiring Kit with Switch.

 

Regulations

In most categories of racing, the FIA simply states that a maximum of six additional headlights, are permitted provided that they are accepted by the laws of the country. In most European countries an E-mark should be printed on the lens of the product, for it to be classified road-legal, and therefore 'accepted by the laws of the country'. The E-mark signifies compliance with European driving light test standards.

For this reason, all the lamps adopted within our Rally Pods carry the E-Mark logo, and are certified road-legal. For the Carbon-6 ‘Spot’ and Triple-R 1000 Elite3 the higher intensity lighting only falls within the road-legal regulations thanks to dual-output functionality operated either by the Dashboard Controller (in the case of the Carbon-6 ‘Spot’) or supplied E-Boost cap on the Triple-R.

Utilising the Adaptive mode on the 4-Way Rally Lamp Pod will be dependent on specific regulations allowing an accelerometer function. Typically, the FIA does not currently permit this for most R5 series for example.

The construction of lamp pods from a composite Glass and Carbon-fibre materials has been specifically designed and engineered to fall within current FIA regulations.

 

Summary

TOP SPEC : 4-Way Rally Lamp pod with LH/RH Corner Pods (Linear-6 Elite)

  • £5,560 ex vat (excl Wiring / Dashboard Controller)
  • Total weight - 4.2kg

 

TOP SPEC (Alternative considering Corner Pod package limitations) : 4-Way Rally Lamp pod with ST4 corner lights (using Side Brackets – 1118K)

  • £4,802 ex vat (excl Wiring / Dashboard Controller)
  • Total weight - 4.8kg

 

MID SPEC : 2-Way Rally Lamp Pod with LH/RH Corner Pods (Linear-6 Elite)

  • £2,960 ex vat (excl Wiring)
  • Total weight - 5.6kg

 

MID SPEC (Alternative considering Corner Pod package limitations) : 2-Way Rally Lamp pod with ST4 corner lights (using Side Brackets – 1118K)

  • £2,202 ex vat (excl Wiring)
  • Total weight – 6.1kg

 

MID SPEC (Alternative considering Bonnet/Corner Pod package limitations): Single Boomer with Triple-R 1000 Elite3 with Linear-6 Elite corner lights (using Side Brackets – 1118K)

  • £1,404 ex vat (excl Wiring)
  • Total weight – 5.8kg