Pop-up Headlights

[MikeB]

My cleaner swears blind that she has seen the same black Audi sportscar with pop-up led headlights running round the M25 in the UK. I've shown her the R8, but she says its not that. I keep thinking of McNeish's LMS version from the V10 launch at Silverstone, but she says it was all black. Any ideas or is she entirely mad?

[Davey_Dee]

Maybe it wasn't an Audi I haven't seen a car with pop-up lights in ages, do they still make them

[MikeB]

Maybe it wasn't an Audi I haven't seen a car with pop-up lights in ages, do they still make them

She swears it had the 4 ring insignia and led headlights.

[ianerrid]

Entirely mad ;-)

[frog]

I don't think it was a fashion reason that you don't see pop-up lights in new cars, I think pop-up lights were banned due to the danger they could pose to any pedestrians hit while they were up.

[Davey_Dee]

I don't think it was a fashion reason that you don't see pop-up lights in new cars, I think pop-up lights were banned due to the danger they could pose to any pedestrians hit while they were up.

So that's the reason!

[Streetrod]

"Pop ups" are now effectively illegal under EU law due to pedestrian impart rules and have been for a number of years now

[Davey_Dee]

Right so, the cars that have them (Ferrari F40 is one of them?) are allowed to be driven but the pop up headlights aren't allowed to be used? Or is it illegal to make them but not illegal to use them on cars that have them?

[jy7785a]

there may have been a legal issue why they stopped, but it was a legal reason why they started doing the popup headlights in the first place. By law...sometime before i was born, headlights legally had to be perfectly square or rectangle, or round(porsche). Designers, so that that could keep the fronts of the cars looking "pretty" and sloping on sports cars, decided if they hide the headlights by making them popups, it would satisfy the restrictions.

[ianerrid]

jy7785a, you don't say where you are (tut tut) but in the nany state that is the EU, more and more dumb regulation is being added on car designers adding weight and adding doubtful benefits - you can see it most in that nearly all front engined cars have had their bonnet line raised to adapt to the pedestrian protection regs - you either have to raise the bonnet line or add those stupid, weighty, complex and expensive pyrotechnic bonnet hinges - madness...