I just converted the front light on my motorcycle to LED's. It's bright, but the distance is reduced. The color is a weird bright white, things actually do look more like they were being hit with sunlight, which gets a little creepy if you look at it too long.

I wonder why Audi is charging so much for this option.? LED's are rather cheap now, even high end cluster that put out 2000 lumens only cost like $600.

They charge so much because, if you have enough money for an Audi R8, dropping a little bit more is no big deal for someone who can afford it.

I could give a rat's ass what headlights it has...I just want an R8!

you can get one if you pay in Euro...

$5500 for LED headlights? Not me, but someone has to buy it to bring the price down. Remember when SAT/NAV was first an option in cars, and it was really expensive? Now that damn Suzuki is going to come with it standard.

Give it a few years, and LED headlights will be on all cars, even the Tata!

@ Jason,

I highly doubt the LED's you picked up for your bike are the have the same quality/development level as what's going to come as a $5,500 option on an $80k+ supercar.

Umm, it wouldn't surprise me it the led's used were K2 Luxeon V's (or a revision of the Luxeon line). So NO I doubt the led's were the expensive part. It was probably more the optics and power side. Luxeon V's are about $5-$8 a piece, however a simple electrical drive circuit is closer to $20, and for how many they are powering they probably have a completely separate custom electrical drive to power all of them.

I think $5500 is a bit much, but it's more of a collector/status option.

Mass production of good technology is great. Heck even CFL's are fairly cheap now, under $2 a pop. (I remember buying some of the early models for about $6 a piece).

No, it's not worth it.

I wonder if they will continue to work even when the car is burning up? They burnt up in testing and now a production car caught fire in europe...hmm I think I'll wait until they arent catching on fire any more. LED's or not. (Why LED? HID puts out the same color (kelvin temp) light. When its comming towards you at night you can tell wavelenght, not what its being produced by (DIODE vs. Xenon Gas)

Light color does make a difference though, since I got Xenon lights in my Mercedes 7 years ago I havent even concidered a car that didnt have Xenon headlights.

The only problem I find with this isn't the price, its that for other cars, LED / HID headlights are blinding. It sucks driving along and having a car with these lights in the oncoming lane, you pretty much have to look away or you get temporarily blinded. Maybe these aftermarket lights aren't properly lined up, either way I don't like it.

The HID / LED lights that are "blinding" you must be improperly aligned. HID (on a mercedes) outputs 35 Watts of light at 4700K (white/blue) and a standard bulb light from most cars puts out 50-55 Watts of light closer to yellow color. People think its "blinding" because its a different color (which is what makes you look at them) but in reality they output less light and in turn are not as "bright" as a standard headlights. I know, its hard to understand at first but in reality the "bright" HID lights arent as bright as hologen lights.

If you see a ricer running around with HID lights though its likely they are not installed correctly.

@Austin814

I suspect you may be correct. Many of the higher-end cars that I've seen them on are fine (mercs, lexus, etc), its the Civics and such that I really notice it on.

@Austin814

While HID lights use less wattage than standard halogen lights, they are infact brighter. The 2 measurements to watch for are color tempurature (measured in kelvins) and lumens. The color tempurature indicates what color the light output the light has while lumens indicate the light output or brightness of the light (similar to how flashlights are measured in candlepower).

The halogen lights that normally come on vehicles these days produce between 700 - 2100 lumens between 40 and 72 watts, the higher wattage being high beams of course and hover around 3000 Kelvins which is where the yellowish hue comes from. Many of the aftermarket bulbls that people put in their car are tinted blue which removes the yellow hue leaving a whiter looking light that is in fact less bright. Or the wattage will be higher than normal to compensate for the reduced brightness.

Hids on the other hand produce between 2800 - 3500 lumens between 35 and 38 watts and more with the new 50 - 55 watt HID bulbs. Their color temperature ranges between 3000k - 30,000k but the bulbs are crystal clear because the color is produced by the light it's emitting and artificially.

Come to both bulbs though is that that higher the color temperature, the lower the light output (lumes). To answer your question though, it is illegal to put HID bulbs in cars that didn't come with them because they can possibly blind oncoming traffic due to the fact that they're brighter. The headlamps of cars that aren't specifically designed to operate with HIDs do not produce a the correct beam pattern. Instead, the light goes everywhere and can blind oncoming traffic. Most cars that come standard with HIDs have "projector" headlamps that focus the light so as to not blind other drivers. Some vehicles even automatically adjust the level of the headlamps to keep the light at an optimum angle regardless of the vehicles orientation.

So there we go. A long answer to a short question.

I forgot to comment on the topic. I like the idea of LED headlamps but full LED headlamp technology seems to still be in it's infancy. So even if I could afford an R8, I'd stick with HID headlights.

The technology would have matured when full LED headlights come standard on a Camry or Accord. Maybe that's when I'll get 'em.