Re: Carello's -- was Headlight Buzzer

[Scott Fisher <sfisher71@domain.elided>]

--- Bruce Blair <bblair@domain.elided> wrote:
> You guys must have missed my treatise on E-Code
> headlamps a couple of months ago.

Guilty -- I've been nose-to-the-grindstoning it
lately.  I'll check the archives, and thanks for the
pointer.

> My importing/distributing company specialized in
> automotive lighting.

Does it still?  I'm always happy to buy from local
sources when possible, especially if it's somebody on
the Alfa digest.  

> We paid lots of bucks to an automotive lobbyist in
> Salem Oregon to help
> get E-Code headlamps legalized in the Northwest.
> Oregon was the first state to legalize them, 

Which must be why my research indicated that the
lights were legal in Oregon... thanks, Bruce.  I
appreciate it.

> Tony Sims wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > I'm not sure non-DOT headlights are legal in our
> fair state,

As Bruce indicated, the laws here explicitly permit
the use of E-code headlamps -- I first read about this
on Daniel Stern's Web site (see
http://lighting.mbz.org/faq/#legal for the exact
reference).  

> > I think they just
> > fall into the "not important to enforce" category

This raises a somewhat more interesting question,
however: because I am still making my monthly trips to
California on business (made the last one in the '74
Spider, as a matter of fact), the day may come when I
drive my E-code, Oregon-legal headlights through a
state in which they are not explicitly permitted by
the law.  Fortunately my usual driving schedule puts
me in California during the daylight hours (and the
intense darkness of rural I-5 in southern Oregon is
another big reason I want to upgrade my headlights).

> -- along with the "keep left except when passing" 

I have to express my appreciation for Oregon drivers
-- well, drivers in cars with Oregon plates, anyway,
as that's all I can really vouch for -- because
they've been really, really great when it comes to
moving right when faster traffic comes up behind them,
VASTLY better than any of the other West-coast states
whose license plates I've seen on my trips.  I've
made, oh, a dozen or so runs up and down I-5 between
Portland and San Francisco this year, and 95% of the
cars with Oregon plates will politely move over when
you come up on them (at least out in the country; in
the city, you're still likely to be stuck forever
behind a soccer mom with a cell phone in one ear and a
Happy Meal in the other, with the rear of her SUV
plastered well over with "My Child Was Citizen Of The
Month At Our Foo-Foo Private School" stickers).  I
give a nice thank-you wave (with all five fingers, no
less!) when they do.

Best,

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
http://greetings.yahoo.com

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided