Series 1 DRL

[eUKenGB]

By which I mean Daytime Running Lights. It looks to me like the Series 2 cars have LEDs in the front side intake (or am I wrong), but does the Series 1 have any DRL at all. Or is it just lights off, or sidelights, or headlights?

Sorry to be so ignorant, but not got an Evora yet and cannot just dash over to Bell and Colville to have a look (if they had a S1 which they don't).

[Bibs]

There's a connector under the glovebox that is disconnected on UK cars that once connected turns the dip beam on/off with the ignition. 

[eUKenGB]

Ok, good to know, thanks, but I would never want dip beam on permanently. I was thinking more along the lines of an LED or 2. From what you say though I guess that the S1 has no provision for any additional DRL, so that'll be something to look into if I decide it's something I want. Realistically unlikely, but just expanding my knowledge of the Evora and considering options.

[Bibs]

I've done this to my car, anything that increases visibility to other road users is a good idea IMO, the Evora is still relatively small and low compared to a lot of other cars.

Some people have fitted LED strips a la 400 but they look a little aftermarket in my opinion. 

[eUKenGB]

Where did you put your LEDs?

[Bibs]

8 hours ago, Bibs said:

Some people have fitted LED strips a la 400 but they look a little aftermarket in my opinion. 

I'm not sure which part of that means I've fitted them, because I haven't mate, I'm not a fan! As I mentioned above, I've just made the connection with the unplugged connectors so my sidelights come on with the ignition for safety.  

[PaulCP]

This was my attempt 4 years ago, not a job I’d want to do again

[Bibs]

Now they do look good down there! 👍

The ones I'd seen before were at the top of the radiator air intake and looked very precarious! 

[eUKenGB]

7 minutes ago, PaulCP said:

This was my attempt 4 years ago, not a job I’d want to do again...

I rather like that. Food for thought.

[jep]

What is the difficulty in putting on your side lights or head lights when using the car? Surely enough for others to see you and hardly a chore to press two buttons. 

I have to say I loath cars doing things on auto. I even hate rain sensitive wiper systems. 

Justin 

[2011 Chrome Orange]

Several owners over here mounted them in the same location...

[eUKenGB]

Ok, exposing more Evora ignorance. How do the lights work?

By which I mean:-

1. Does the switch have an OFF, sidelights and headlights, i.e. 3 positions?
2. Is the switch on a stalk, or (rotary?) on the dash somewhere? Or individual dash buttons?
3. When connecting under the dash, does that mean sidelights always on, or headlights always on?
4. Where are the sidelights at the front?

So if connected as in 3. and assuming 1. does that simply mean that the OFF and Sidelight positions do the same thing?

The answer to 4. is quite important as if the sidelights are an LED strip at the bottom of the headlamp cluster (as it looks in one of the above pictures), than IMO it doesn't need anything else.

To be honest, I'm not a lover of headlights on all the time. Quite the opposite in fact. When I can see a car before I can tell whether the lights are on or not, then having the lights on is completely redundant and truth is, I find it irritating that others feel the need to turn lights on when the sun even just goes behind a cloud as to me it indicates they are unable to determine what actually is important for safety and what is not. Which to my mind means their skills as a driver on the road are lacking. I even try to avoid having headlights on all the time when riding a motorcycle.

However, I quite like the look of a nice LED DRL, so am happy to compromise. My problem when thinking about the Evora (lots of time to think these days) is I have no direct experience and therefore knowledge of many specifics of the car. As in this case. I think there is a main beam unit and a dipped beam unit within the cluster, but not sure about any sidelights.

I hope you all don't mind such questions and are happy to divulge your superior knowledge of the Evora.

[Bibs]

Driving with lights on during the day is proven to reduce accidents, that's an indisputable fact mate. In my opinion, riding a motorcycle with using headlights is not far off suicidal due to the way our vision detects tall, thin, fast moving objects.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28306/why-you-dont-see-motorcycles-on-the-road/

There are 2 buttons on the Evora dash, sidelights and headlights. The sidelights are built into the headlight moulding as a ring of LED's.

. 

An oddity is when you finish your journey and turn the headlights off you then need to press the button to turn the sidelights off, or you can hold the headlight button down for a few seconds and they all turn off. 

[jep]

5 minutes ago, Bibs said:

An oddity is when you finish your journey and turn the headlights off you then need to press the button to turn the sidelights off, or you can hold the headlight button down for a few seconds and they all turn off.

Touching the exquisite early Evora stainless steel (?) buttons for a tad longer is indeed no hardship. 

I always drive with my headlights on in any Lotus, though perhaps not the Excel in daylight as the pop-ups might slow me down. 😀

Justin

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Back in the 1980s my brother and I would entertain ourselves by shouting “your lights are on!” at passing Volvo and Saab drivers. This was in the days before PlayStations.

[TomE]

I always drive with my headlights on, as others have said it's an extra way of making yourself visible.  When one of my front indicators failed recently, I was doing some sleuthing and came across these ancillary DRLs which can also be used as indicators.  Not sure if that's legal in the UK as I can only find a US supplier, but using them as DRLs would be OK.

[eUKenGB]

4 hours ago, Bibs said:

Driving with lights on during the day is proven to reduce accidents, that's an indisputable fact mate. In my opinion, riding a motorcycle with using headlights is not far off suicidal due to the way our vision detects tall, thin, fast moving objects.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28306/why-you-dont-see-motorcycles-on-the-road/

Well the stats are undoubtedly questionable and I don't believe anything has been proven. As I said, if you can see the car before being able to tell if the lights are on, then it cannot possibly help. Neither can it help when the other road user simply does not look.

Regarding the difficulty of spotting motorcycles, it's due to something known as 'looming', where the brain ignores something that doesn't seem to move and just gets bigger. That's why it's good practice to move sideways across the field of vision of someone you want to see you. But again, I don't believe there's any proven case that having lights on necessarily helps.

I'm sure lots of car drivers are convinced that ABS has reduced accidents and they'd be wrong too.

All too often unsubstantiated claims are made and then sometimes taken as gospel and statistics as we know can be made to prove anything. 😉

But anyway, the efficacy of always driving with headlights on is not something I wish to argue about here. We're all grown up enough to make our own decisions.

[C8RKH]

16 minutes ago, eUKenGB said:

Well the stats are undoubtedly questionable and I don't believe anything has been proven

As ever stats only ever support/present the argument someone wants to make disprove.  For instance, the EU forced all cars to have day time running lights. So, the manufacturers made them so.

How many times do you now come across a driver at night who has "forgotten" to switch on their lights as the DRL's are on and the dash is all lit up like a christmas tree so they "assume" their headlights are on!  So one good thing results in something that I would argue is much worse and more dangermouse! The rule of unintended consequences is one that always amazes me.

[EGTE]

The British Army researched using lights as camouflage. It could pretty much make AFVs disappear at a distance when they were sky-lined.