> I thought sealed-beam halogens died a well-deserved death around 1980
> or so. The only advantage they have is they're brighter, which means
> inflicting oncoming drivers with more blinding glare because the
> crummy Coke-bottle lenses have no effective cutoff pattern.
David, I think you may be a touch confused. Sealed-beam simply means
that the bulb and lens/reflector are replaced as a single unit. The
halogen version has a halogen bulb inside. These are still readily
available as replacement items for cars orginally fitted with them.
In the US, bulbs like the H4 with seperate reflector/lens didn't really
take off until the federal regs changed, and you started seeing
'composite' headlamps on new cars. Cars like the MG with standard 7"
round lamps can be fitted with Cibie, Wipac, or other units with a bulb
of your choice. Or you just spend $7 on a new sealed beam halogen when
the existing ones burn out.
The lens pattern is more a result of federal regs than anything else, so
while a US-spec Cibie or Wipac will be an improvement over the standard
lamp, if you want a good pattern and cutoff, you need to get E-code
lights. They are, of course, technically not legal for road use in the
US, but given the fact that they won't dazzle other drivers, and there's
such a wide variety of headlights out there these days, it's unlikely to
cause any problems.
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