Headlight help

My newly restored QV is currently at our local Ferrari main dealer in Prato, Italy to have a Certificate of Conformity (Scheda Tecnica) raised by Ferrari so I can import it from UK to Italy and get Italian number plates.

This whole process takes 3 weeks while Ferrari work out the original specification and presumably check over the car to see if everything is ok.

I'm pretty sure everything is not ok, for example the lights are RHD and the wheels are from a 348. So in order to pre-empt them, and avoid main dealer prices, I've been looking at buying a couple of LHD headlights in advance.

That's where the trouble starts. I assume the main beam headlights are the same on a RHD as on a LHD. I was surprised to see that they are not identical to each other, there is a LH and a RH. Does that sound right? But more than this, there is also the option of Main Beam 'F excluded' and Main Beam 'F only'. Maybe this is really obvious and I'm just not getting it but does anyone know what the 'F' is and whether or not I should be excluding it on a car with LHD lights to be used in Italy?

Its even more complicated for the dip beam headlights. Here the choice is, again surprisingly, LH and RH but also 'RHD only' which I probably already have fitted or 'F+RHD excluded' or 'F only'.

So a LHD car can have lights with or without the 'F'. Can anyone please tell me what the 'F' means?

Thanks

Mauro
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I’d assumed you’d just purchase some stick-on reflector adjusters as if you were visiting Italy from the UK. The lights are so poor you won’t worry about blinding people on low beam whilst you get sorted.

As the car is RHD won’t F be looking for RHD components to sign off on?


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Sorry,
F is a market area. I forget which one, Swiss maybe, unless that’s CH.... I’ll dig out my parts manuals unless someone else posts.....


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I have a set of LHD headlights of CIBIE would you ever need one
Yes, I had to check it too for a customer and found out the difference, but also the LH/RH difference in lamps. On the schemas, they have a different part#, but in practice they don't as far as I can see on all Mondials I have and have demolished...

 

F means France = yellow headlamps...

 

F for France - Ferrari use logic at last!!! Thanks, that saved me digging out the start of ordering new bits once I’d found my manuals!!!


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The high beam has a symmetrical light output pattern. The light units for the right and the left side of the car are identical.
However the mounting frame to which the light unit is attached isn't symmetrical, hence two part numbers.
Check the positions of the lateral adjustment screws in the front frame; it's symmetrical to the vehicle centre line, not the light units.

The low beam has an asymmetrical light output pattern to avoid dazzling the oncoming traffic on the driver's side.
Therefore LHD and RHD cars must have output patterns of opposite geometry.

Again the light units for the right and the left side of the car are identical within each version of the LHD or RHD.
And again, the mounting frame to which the light unit is attached isn't symmetrical, hence two part numbers.
Check the positions of the lateral adjustment screws in the front frame; it's symmetrical to the vehicle centre line, not the light units.

I hope this sheds some light... onto the necessary part numbers to cover all the markets.
Since the early nineties, the French have adopted white headlamps like the rest of the world, so that diversity of headlamp part numbers has disappeared.
But the British still drive on the "other" side of the road, so we continue to carry the LHD and RHD variety of headlamps...

 

Now I know that F = Yellow your post makes sense about the housings - rather than having to swap the lamps over and turn ‘em upside down!!

As you say, a lot easier if you all just drove on the right side of the road - or the left [emoji6] (and I still think the stick on beam deflectors for travelling in mainland Europe from UK will be the easiest solution on the wallet)




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That's brilliant, thanks for all your advice on this. I've imported RHD cars to Italy before, sadly they want proper LHD headlights when they do the vehicle check to issue a number plate, RHD with deflectors for a car kept permanently in Italy wouldn't pass the test.

 

Here is why. The high beam is composed of 2 overlapping symmetrical light patters.
This is independent of RH or LH traffic:

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The low bean output pattern is composed of 2 overlapping asymmetrical patterns:

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A sticker-converted low beam cuts the light pattern length by half and with the remaining pattern illuminates the sidewalk instead of the road:

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As this is very far from the legal requirement and provides only marginal illumination of the road ahead at higher speed, it is only acceptable as a temporary solution for cars crossing over the border between Europe and the UK.

 

I would love to see Q.V. actual patterns!! I appreciate they have a reducing effect, but I always assumed if you had a Ferrari you didn’t need to go out at night so much (either to save money for servicing or because you had all the company you needed thanks to the magnetism of the car!!!)

So long since I drove the car, but I do remember the exhilaration of approaching a bend at spend, dipping the main beams and accidentally plunging the car into darkness then getting the headlamps popped back up just in time to get round! Always felt that added about 30-50 BHP to the driving experience, but took 6 months off my life!!

(Bad) jokes aside. For serious cross continental travel, it sounds like one could make a relatively straight forward adapter plate to allow lights to be moved within the housing? Probably easier to have two sets of pods I guess....


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Or buy a set of LHD low beams...

 

Yes. I completely missed the point there!!!


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