FTO AUSTRALIA

Hi all, i am new to this board, just trying to find some infomation on some info on this rare beast(FTO), i am wondering if all FTO have projector headlights/black housing??? This include all the FTO around the world, not just the Australia one..........i am trying to find a set of projector headlight in Hong Kong, but i seem to have a hard time finding a set of projector one

if not, which year come with projector headlight? anyone selling a set ???

Thanks a lot


PS.

They all come with projector headlights, i think you might got confuse with HID kits...

If its HID kits, only GPvR comes standard with them.

I think only the GPvR Aero Series comes with HID headlights - one of the few differences between the AS and the standard vR.

Disclaimer - I am a bit of an FTO noob, so may be wrong

I don't know which ones mine are - they seem very blue on low beam, but normal on high beam. I'm pretty sure they're the normal projector ones. But then again its been so long since I saw my car, I'm struggling to remember what it looks like anyway

By the way, my panelbeater has told me that sourcing a brand new facelift FTO headlight for my car from Japan is costing in the region of $1500NZD - lucky I'm not paying...

incorrect with the first statement. =)

HID discharge headlights are standard with both forms of version R.

I thought aero series added visual styling features to the standand models, only thing that I could think of would of been the added side skirts.

Not sure about that part but regardless, HID appears on both version R models.

So far as I know, all FTO's have the black housing and projector headlights.

If anyone knows differently please correct me but my understanding is there are two types of headlights, projector and reflector.

Projector are those like the FTO has. They are totally clear and basically focus the beam, similar to some expensive torches like a "maglite". The beam typically has a well defined cut-off point.

Reflector are like those seen on most cars. The light passes through a "textured" glass or plastic cover that serves to break the light up and spread the light. The beam, whilst if set correctly does not blind drivers, typically has a blurry edge, or atleast lest well defined in comparison to the projector type.

HID (High Intensity Discharge) does not refer to the headlight assembly itself, it is simply the bulb (and associated hardware).

"Normal" bulbs throw a yellow-ish light, that is what you would be seeing on the high beam and is what most cars have.

You can buy specialised bulbs that throw a "white" light or even attempt to mimic HID colour. The latter of these is usually somewhat successful but the filtering of the light means less light is actually thrown out.

Then there is HID. These throw a very white light or even a bluish/purplish light and are very bright. They typically require a projector headlight assembly as reflector headlights with their blurry edges tend to blind oncoming drivers (there are of course exceptions to this).

So, in closing , if you had a bluish tinge to your lights before you would have had specialised bulbs or HID's fitted. If you had HID's fitted you would have to also have a ballast which you could look for to confirm this. There would be a box for both lights that the headlight wiring goes into. If there's no ballast, you probably just had normal lights with specialised bulbs in them.

Either way, brand new headlights are gonna be expensive

HiRAEdd wrote: Projector are those like the FTO has. They are totally clear and basically focus the beam, similar to some expensive torches like a "maglite". The beam typically has a well defined cut-off point.

Reflector are like those seen on most cars. The light passes through a "textured" glass or plastic cover that serves to break the light up and spread the light. The beam, whilst if set correctly does not blind drivers, typically has a blurry edge, or atleast lest well defined in comparison to the projector type.

Low beam on FTO are Projector type, & High beam are Reflector type, so if you want to get a better picture, just look at your own car or next time when you see one (if you don't own a FTO)

HID (High Intensity Discharge) does not refer to the headlight assembly itself, it is simply the bulb (and associated hardware).

Yep that is so true, but there are lots of ppl out there keep calling HID as Projector Lights

Anyway good stuff HiRaEdd.

I stand corrected - I just looked my headlight assembly up in CAPS, and it says that the low beam bulb is a 'discharge' type.

Thats what I get for believing everything I read on other FTO websites

That 'other' website also says that the Aero Series also gets twin airbags whereas the standard vR only has a drivers side one (as does my car). Maybe that's not correct either...

Hey don't forget Aero GPXs have HID headlights and dual-airbags as well!