No problem - this bar locates the lights in front of the bumper, not in front of the opening. It's one of the things I like about it, though it does place the lighting in a somewhat precarious position when parallel parked.

As or the Alta and other bars that block the opening, I don't see that as a problem either. At low speed there's plenty of room for airflow (just what the fans bring in) and at higher speeds the air pressure should take care of it. I say "should" since I left my full-size wind tunnel somewhere and can't seem to find it to do some testing. Until I can find it, all we'll have is real-world experience from owners... anyone?

 

i put mine there and have not noticed anything so i am going to say that is a line of crap!

 

I agree, i think it would only make a difference if youre really pushing the car and reving high rpms.

 

Actually, that is one of the reasons I am holding off. Wagonbat shared my worst fear. Someone backed into his MINI and took out, not only his 4-fog lightbar, but his radiator too. Kinda why I am also designing some bull bars as well.

Glad to hear that. Convincing too!

Even better point!!

 

Well I run my car fairly hard on a daily basis and go on weekly "spirited" drives and haven't noticed noticed anything yet.

 

With respect, it's great that nobody's seen any negative experiences with having the lights down low, but "not seeing any problems" is a different answer from "well, on a 90 degree day without the lights my aftermarket, calibrated temp gauge read 218, and with the lights on it read 220, so I'm not worried". While I'm not worried (given things like available surface area, speed, pressure, and other variables), the long-term affects are untested. I also live in Pittsburgh, and the likelihood of me getting stuck in a 115 degree traffic jam is pretty low.

w/r/t/ lights being taken out while parallel parking, I also realize my parking spot selection process will have to change with the lights on - or I'll have to use my car toolkit wrench and remove them (2 bolts, one plug once I've got 'em on) if I'm forced to park in a less-than-optimal area.

Every change has a tradeoff associated with it... let's face it, when we got our minis we gave up the ability to haul a 4x8 sheet of plywood... just make the judgement if the tradeoff is in your advantage or one you're willing to live with! I'm just imagining being able to throw 310 watts of illumination about 3/4 of a mile down the road. I want that! I want the ability to see in very heavy snow rather than having these properly-aimed Xenons creating glare. I'm willing to carefully choose parking spaces and hang 4 lights off the front to get that. Now. 2 bolts and a plug, and the tradeoff is gone...

 

Great point!

 

With mine on while snowing here it is like driving with your high beams on, it just blinds you even worse.

 

I may need another of these lightbars, they will work on my Honda Odyssey!

midMOmini - try this simple mod to reduce the Xenon glare: 5 minutes with vinyl and a scissors, it's not super noticeable, and cuts the glare quite a bit. I'm going to redo it with black, then cover with the silver - to cut light transmission even more and maintain a somewhat stealthy appearance. Reflective silver vinyl would do the same thing - it's opaque where the plain silver allows some light pass through. I don't necessarily want them to look like eyelids, these have the function of cutting the glare from the two "cooling port" looking openings on top of the light:

 

I was talking about the fog/driving lights on the bar making it worse. I don't currently have xenons in my car.

 

(oops)

 

Anyone know if lightbars like this one, and similar ones will fit with the cooper bumper.

 

I think this one the people are talking about that RedRockets makes does fit a standard cooper.

 

Just paid for mine yesterday. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it and seeing how it fits. Still don't have any lights for it though . Trying to decide if $500 a pop for 6" H.I.D. lights is worth it.

 

Is it possible to aim the lights down?

 

They were pointed down at the time and it just glared really bad on the snow. I have them aimed now for driving at night with the outside ones pointed a little out and down and the middle 2 pointed straight out and up the road.

 

In snow or fog any white light will glare, that's why your fogs are more yellow. Kill the driving lights and your headlights and only run fogs for the best glare free visibility. The down side is you are harder to see. I plan on doing the 2 driving and 2 yellow fogs myself. Not as cool looking but more functional, and the 2 6inch plus yellow fogs should help me see and be seen in bad weather with my xenons off.

 

Allblack05S: I already have the yellow 500's and just picked up white 500 driving lights for the inners - we'll be twins (unless you pop the $ for HIDs...). I'm going to run 100W driving lamps, have had great experience with those, can't imagine really needing much more light than that!

NOTE: Our WalMart carries Hella 500 driving lamps. Some of the boxes were of German manufacture, some Asian. The German-made ones had noticeably clearer lenses with very tight, crisp flutes, where the Asian ones seemed to be made with worn-out lens tooling - the flute edges were more rounded. Strange. I bought the German ones. Unfortunately my lens covers won't match - ah well.

 

I'll swap the positions so we don't look like we copied each other . Once I get my cosmetics done nobody will think we are twins, siblings maybe.

You can get the clear or white stone guards at rallylights.com and they'll all match. I may check the local Wal-Mart now since I can be instantly gratified if they carry them. Thanks for the heads up. I'm of Scottish ancestry I won't be spending $1000 on H.I.D.'s I'm too cheap.

 

WalMart round Hella500 driving lamps ~$60, round Hella500FF (the freeform reflector with a clear lens) at ~$65, includes the wiring harness, relay, switch, covers, and 55W bulbs. I think they also carry 100W bulbs at like $5 each. I was amazed. I did NOT see Hella 500 fogs (clear or amber) in any of the dozen or so WalMarts I've been through in the last year, so sourced them separately.

Including the light bar at ~$50, you can have a nice 4-lamp all-Hella setup at $170 + tax and shipping.

BTW, I can't see how ALTA/IPF can claim to have a hybrid lamp that is both a fog and a driving light, they have mutually-exclusive lighting properties! If a lamp is going to throw a beam far enough down the road to be a driving light, it WILL glare in heavy fog/snow. If a lamp needs to throw light low-and-away, it will NOT have much range. Period! While they will certainly supply a lot of light, it's a disservice to say "A unique dual-purpose reflector enables these lamps to emit a combination Driving and Fog Beam - making them incredibly versatile and effective for all applications.". Cannot be.

General functional rule: Driving lights up and centered, fogs low and away...

 

Well... good reading here. I'm a big fan of the 4 bar light, but like you guys, I'm not interested in spending big bucks if I can help it, especially for mounts.

To answer the airflow question... Randy Webb had posted on his site that the Alta kit didn't seem to disrupt anything on track, so I don't have much fear of that myself.

I like the mounting position that puts the lights between the 2 grills, or at lowest, at the top portion of the lower grill, so it can sit back as far as possible.

I LOVE the idea of setting this up so the lamps were quick disconnect so I can pull them off for autocross... major benefit there. Lamp wise, I am kind of digging on these new Hella Black Magic lamps that look all black in the lens when off. I'd also like some quality yellow fogs.

Sooo... any suggestions on what to do here? I'm fairly retarded when it comes to these type of lights, and could use some advice on how to go about this cheaper bar business.

 

Got mine, haven't installed it yet. Top quality workmanship. Now I need to get the bulbs.

I too like the Black Magic but the Hella 500 FreeForm are more than half the price and supposedly put out more light.

Check out www.rallylights.com they seem to have pretty good prices and sell things like the clear stone guards other places don't.

Actually this is AllBlack05S posting. (forgot to check who I was logged in as )

 

check out the light bar i make and list in ebay, i cut it back about 1/2" so its a little closer to bumper let me know if it will work.......

 

here is the R56 solution we got from www.vipcustomparts.com

these are Hella 500s