Drove home in thick fog last night, made me wonder about the fog lights on the GT, do they work in the fog? Has anyone been in the fog with their GT yet? Old school thinking was that fog lights should be under the bumper and they should be yellow. If I remember right the fog lights in the 65-66 era had to be disconnected because they we not adjustable to aim the light beam for inspection.

Any help of cutting through my foggy world would help, Thanks!

 

Never heard the 65-66 disconnect story. I'm pretty sure there is room for adjustment on them too. I think it has less to do with the placement, and more to do with the angle. The extra lights on the GT would probably be more accurately described as "driving" lights, as they provide extra lighting, but not necessarily for fog.

 

I have found that in light to moderate fog the lights make it easier to see the road directly ahead. The other night we had very thick fog and IMO the lights caused too much reflection and I could see better with them off. Luckily, fog isn't something I deal with often, maybe half a dozen times a year.

 

I live in the San Joaquin Valley of California, fog is a problem for much of the winter months. I've had mine in some pretty heavy fog and they do help. Like any lights if the visability is low you will get some reflection. All in all they are better than the old yellow lamps from the past.

 

Good question - living in the mountains, we get it so thick you can cut it with a knife in the Spring and Fall. You are right that true fog lights should be low.

 

When first seeing the images of the car and then in person my first thought was "So it's got four headlights eh?" I would likely never use the center lights unless I'm on a dark stretch of road or on a trip with low traffic.

I've heard stories of people getting brights flashed at them because they had the "Fogs" on.

IMO the "fogs" are a waste.

 

Funny you ask, I just drove through some very thick fog last night. I noticed that the fog lights illuminate the road directly infront of the car, like 3 to 4 feet, but actually cause longer distances to be less visible. I believe this has to do with them being so high off the ground. So, I had to turn the fog lights off. All that being said, the regular lights did just fine. So, I only use my "fog" lights when there is no fog.

 

Whether they work in the fog or not, I think if I saw them in my rearview mirror, I'd probably get out of the way. They just look mean!

 

The fogs work great, they actually work better in fog then my Grand Prix does which has them placed below the headlights.

 

nothing will help you see much better in thick fog cause then it's to a point where light can't get through it

 

I think you have discovered their TRUE purpose.

I had the very same thoughts when I first saw pics of this car. Will these really help in the fog? Then I saw a pic in the dark with all the lights on. It does look mean!

Just look at my icon.

 

I think you have discovered their TRUE purpose.

I had the very same thoughts when I first saw pics of this car. Will these really help in the fog? Then I saw a pic in the dark with all the lights on. It does look mean!

Just look at my icon.
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drove through heavy heavy fog a week ago, i drove with just the fog lights on, I could see perfectly, regular headlights, coulnd't see anything.......they really do work

 

From sombody wit mor book lernin than me <---attempt at humor

There is no good reason why fog lights are yellow. Here is an
excellent explanation provided by Professor Craig Bohren of Penn State
University:


"First I'll give you the wrong explanation, which you can find here and
there. It goes something like this. As everyone knows, scattering (by
anything!) is always greater at the shortwavelength end of the visible
spectrum than at the longwavelength end. Lord Rayleigh showed this, didn't
he? Thus to obtain the greatest penentration of light through fog, you
should use the longest wavelength possible. Red is obviously unsuitable
because it is used for stop lights. So you compromise and use yellow
instead.


This explanation is flawed for more than one reason. Fog droplets are, on
average, smaller than cloud droplets, but they still are huge compared with
the wavelengths of visible light. Thus scattering of such light by fog is
essentially wavelength independent. Unfortunately, many people learn
(without caveats) Rayleigh's scattering law and then assume that it applies
to everything. They did not learn that this law is limited to scatterers
small compared with the wavelength and at wavelengths far from strong
absorption.


The second flaw is that in order to get yellow light in the first place you
need a filter. Note that yellow fog lights were in use when the only
available headlights were incandescent lamps. If you place a filter over a
white headlight, you get less transmitted light, and there goes your
increased penetration down the drain.


There are two possible explanations for yellow fog lights. One is that the
first designers of such lights were mislead because they did not understand
the limitations of Rayleigh's scattering law and did not know the size
distribution of fog droplets. The other explanation is that someone deemed
it desirable to make fog lights yellow as a way of signalling to other
drivers that visibility is poor and thus caution is in order.


Designers of headlights have known for a long time that there is no magic
color that gives great penetration. I have an article from the Journal of
Scientific Instruments published in October 1938 (Vol. XV, pp. 317-322).
The article is by J. H. Nelson and is entitled "Optics of headlights". The
penultimate section in this paper is on "fog lamps". Nelson notes that
"there is almost complete agreement among designers of fog lamps, and this
agreement is in most cases extended to the colour of the light to be used.
Although there are still many lamps on the road using yellow light, it
seems to be becoming recognized that there is no filter, which, when placed
in front of a lamp, will improve the penetration power of that lamp."


This was written 61 years ago. Its author uses a few words ("seem",
"becoming recognized") indicating that perhaps at one time lamp designers
thought that yellow lights had greater penetrating power. And it may be
that because of this the first fog lamps were yellow. Once the practice of
making such lamps yellow began it just continued because of custom."


Also, take a look at the following web site:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF5/593.html

Dr. Lawrence D. Woolf
General Atomics

 

And as far as mounting low goes this is from a web site about setting up Rally cars for Racing.

Mounting
After you have the right kind of fog light with the right pattern, next is how to mount it to get maximum benefit and this depends on what your goals are for your fog lights. For really severe weather, mounting the lights lower is better.

But the lower the lights are mounted, the more vulnerable they are to impacts from stones and other various objects. The lower mountings also decrease how far forward the light will go (thanks to hills and the like). And the lower they're mounted, the more the shadowy effect from from rises and depressions in the road increases, which I find irritating.

Mounting the lights low on the vehicle is useful only for pea-soup fog, snow squalls, etc. -- 20 mph driving conditions -- which I encounter very infrequently. So for the majority of the time, I feel I am better off with fog lights mounted on top of the bumper -- for greater distance and more visibility overall in less severe conditions. I'm still retaining the option of aiming them lower for extreme conditions (I can get out a wrench and point them at the ground 10 feet in front of the bumper when the weather is really bad).

I also drive with my fog lights on in clear weather as cornering lights and for seeing animals and other things off on the side of the road waiting to attack my vehicle.

Another important consideration when mounting fog lights is that they be mounted rigidly, so the beam stays pointed the way it's aimed, as opposed to dancing over tar strips on the road and the like. Dancing light beams will prove to be very irritating and, if they're dancing up and hitting those droplets of water, you're still going to have glare.

 

The fogs are marginal at best. See my sig for my fog lamp mod.

 

Thanks Ed,

I love uncovered old wives tales.

 

I love my fog lights...whether they work not efficiently...dunno!

 

They work great for me, especially in thick fog the other night. Some people do flash me their brights, but I just flash them my real brights right back to show them that the fogs aren't my brights. I think the fogs are fine for regular driving, they aren't too bright...Not blinding anyway.