LED headlamps - warm white or cool white?

[Dr_C]

Hi all,

I am adding lights and upgrading lights across my slot car collection... i am thinking cool white LEDs for modern cars and warm white for retro classics... but where to draw the line... i.e. what year? would 1959 the year of the introduction of the bmc mini make sense? so Jaguar d-types, MGAs etc would be warm white and minis, cortina mk1s through to dB10s would be warm white?

 

C

[woodcote]

Good question Dr_C. Having looked at colour photographs and movies of Le Mans at night, some look warm and some are definitely bright (cool) white. It'll depend on film stock, exposures, angle of view etc etc. I think we also have an expectation of what we will see.

 

Movies give more variation of tone, brightness and angle all in one shot, compared to still images. Like this from 1959: https://youtu.be/gC2xSuj6Zpg?t=280 compared with 1966:

where the headlights look much whiter - but so is the overall colour tonality and white balance of the film stock. I can't find the Le Mans clip on YouTube, but the wonderful film Speed Merchants (of the 1972 World Championship for Makes) is shot with a very washed-out look and headlights do look warm - warmer than the 1966 documentary (This Time Tomorrow). I don't think for a moment that headlights in 1972 were less bright or warmer in tone than 1966.

 

For authenticity, I suspect bright white is the correct choice for all eras. If you were there in 1959, I suspect you'd have seen bright white (but then if you time travelled to 2018, you would see something even brighter on the modern cars). But looking back, do we expect to see something warmer, older - does nostalgia have a tint? That's down to aesthetics and is entirely up to you.

[Dr_C]

Ok thanks woodcote... a bit f a rethnk n my strategy required. I have a Jaguar XK120 slot car with cool white LEDs already fitted... I will try another with warm white... then see which I prefer... and for pure sharing of aesthetics will post images of both here... also will do some Scalextric minis and Scalextric e-types too. I run all of these cars with SSD digital decoders...

C