quote:Originally posted by Kirk Evans:
Devin,
I believe Larry Wu works in the light industry and may be a real-deal engineer. The law is for conversion kits that get installed into non HID housing. The problem is the HID light wave is totally different in shape so the reflectors from non HID lights are simply not the correct shape to utilize the photons correctly. If you install HID bulbs into a non HID housing and do a side by side comparison using the correct HID bulbs and housing, the true HID lights will be noticeably better. I believe Larry Wu uses HID bulbs removed from a production car---his system is very well engineered and is quite detailed---very well built.
The car in question is my GT5. I am happy to answer any questions I can about the conversion but I do not think that Larry Wu is doing them any more. In fact, as far as I know, the only conversions of his that were ever installed in a Pantera were in his and then mine. At the time, he was playing with HID systems as a hobby. He was a student, and did a few conversions on some other makes of cars in addition to mine in order to make some cash.
Kirk is right that Larry did quality work, but at the time he was not a qualified engineer as far as I know.
He adapted the projectors and ballasts from an Acura NSX for my application. I had to send him my buckets for the procedure, which required a lot of cutting and took many months. The cost was several times that of the kits available today, but it was a custom job and at the time the only way to get a dual HID conversion. I gladly paid the price, though, because my car does get driven at night on dark roads infested with deer, and the old bug-eyes were useless to the point of being outright dangerous.
I agree with Kirk that a properly executed HID conversion is unlikely to be illegal especially if it uses parts from factory production vehicles. That said, it is still legal to beat your wife with a leather strap in California as long as it is of specified dimensions, so the law can be an ass and you might want to check your local ordinances before proceeding.
