In addition to being a
requirement of travelling in the dark, Crystal Clear, glittering headlights are
the most prominent component of persona of a contemporary car today. They add
looks and emotions to the ride as a headlight can easily make any car look
happy, angry or gloomy. People even use to call certain popular models of
Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Chevrolet as snake, dolphin or cat all due to
their facade. Since my childhood, I personally feel attracted most towards cars
with the smartest headlights and I wonder how cars would look if they don’t
have the headlights.
Why do all classic cars have round headlights
and why do modern cars have more architecturally designed headlines? These
question creep to my mind when I was rubbing the wax out of my 2012 Corolla GLI
headlights today. Was it style, choice or other techno limitations?
I then also remember my
father’s saying, “They are the eyes of my car,” he once uttered these words to
me when he was polishing his early Mazda 929 headlights. Indeed, they look like
the eyes of a car! But it wasn’t just a styling choice or technological
limitation rather it was the law.
The story trace its
origin back to 1940 when the motor vehicle administrations of several states in
USA came up with the idea of uniform standard of seven inches sealed-beam
headlamps for all the vehicles throughout country. These one-piece lights
combined the filament, reflector, housing, and lens. They were supposed to
improve reliability as the chances of dirt and dead bugs finding its way into
the lamp, possibly causing hot spots and early burnout were nearly impossible.
The standard was adopted by the government and remained into effect for the
next 40 years known as a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108. USA being the large market for cars in
those days compelled the Japanese and European manufacturers also to adopt the
same standard for all their productions.
