AHOOGA!! We hope you have your tweed jacket and ivy cap on because we are hopping in a vehicle of the 1930s! Well, sorta. Today we are testing 7” round headlights on a 1975 Mercedes-Benz Gazelle, a replica of a 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK. The last car Ferdinand Porsche designed before leaving the company to start his own.
Classic cars are notorious for their poor-quality headlights. Options to replace the dim, and unreliable OEM lights are limited. Especially if you are looking for a period-correct light. To help you find the best headlight in terms of quality and light output, we have tested eight headlights that will fit your vintage car.
Likely driven by dentists and tenured professors alike, the Gazelle clearly draws all its inspiration from the famed 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK that once held the production car top speed record (120mph!). The Gazelle took the elegant roadster design and outfitted it with parts from a number of different vehicles. This particular example has been built upon an air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle chassis.
You also got the comforts of AM/FM radio, cassette player, and a heater. A few things they conveniently left out on the original car. If you were feeling ambitious, the car could be ordered as a kit. This gave you quality time to piece the car together and something to do before the next episode of Dallas aired on Saturdays, on CBS.
We will be looking at the performance of these headlights. More specifically, how bright they are, what their beam pattern looks like, and their color. We also want to get a good idea of the quality of these lights and how well they will fit your vintage car.
It is important that these headlights work well for the safety of yourself and others. Classic cars are typically smaller than newer cars and lack many reflectors that modern cars do. On the other end, you want your classic car to emit quality light from its headlights to ensure you get home safely.
To set a benchmark for our test, we have some practically brand-new GE halogen headlights on this Gazelle. This illustrates the best-case scenario you could have for lighting on your classic car. The longer you have used them, the dimmer they will become. So, if you have yet to swap out your headlights, chances are your output is not good.
We tested our light at 820 max. Lux on low beam. We did this by setting the light up 25 feet away from a wall and measuring the brightness with a Lux meter. While this light is bright, all of its power is concentrated in the center. You will get great distance from the lights, but almost no width.
The high beam shares a similar issue as the low. Not much visibility, and the 1680 max. Lux is bright, but not where it counts.
Throughout the test, keep in mind that the OEM sealed beam light is often brighter than the upgrade. The real upgrade is the beam pattern and improved quality of these lights. You also should keep in mind that LED bulbs have much longer lifespans than halogen bulbs.
This headlight is commonly sold by Quake LED, but you can find these just about anywhere on Amazon or eBay for barely any money. If you choose to go with these, you are throwing money away. We tested them at 140 max. Lux, an 82 percent decrease in brightness from the stock halogen housing. The beam pattern is very bad too, with no hotspot.
For the high beam, the Quake LED was tested at 660 max. Lux, which is 61 percent less bright than stock. The beam pattern is nothing worthwhile either.
Holley is a leader in the classic car industry. They have just made their way into the lighting industry with their RetroBright LED headlights. There may be brighter housings out there, likely made for motorcycles, but Holley’s RetroBright is the way to go when it comes to classic car styling.
They come in three different colors. There is a ‘classic white’ 3000K light that is very similar to the OEM lights you are used to. There is a 'modern white’ 5700K light that gives a bluer color. And lastly, you have the RetroBright with a yellow-tinted lens meant for your European-inspired build.
Starting with the yellow version, these were tested at 620 (24 percent less bright than stock) and 920 max. Lux (45 percent less bright than stock) for the low and high beam lights. While they are not brighter than the OEM sealed beams, they do have a far better beam pattern that is also more consistently bright across it.
Between the low and high beams of the RetroBright, you are getting a 33 percent increase and a taller beam pattern.
| Low Beam | High Beam |
With the ‘classic white’ 3000K version, we tested it at 680 max. Lux on low beam and 1030 max. Lux on high beam. While these are 17 and 39 percent less bright than the stock lights, they make up for in their beam pattern.
| Low Beam | High Beam |
Lastly, you have the 5700K ‘modern white’ RetroBright LED headlight. These were tested at 870 max. Lux (6 percent brighter) on low beam, and 1420 max. Lux (15 percent less bright) on high beam. This headlight emits the brightest low beam in our test. This is in part due to its color temperature, which does influence a light’s strength.
| Low Beam | High Beam |
This American company has been a leader in the automotive lighting sphere for some time now and they have their own “classic” headlight. It is the same light that you will find on their Harley and Jeep 8700 headlight, except this one has fluting on the inside of the light for some style points.
There are two very large round projectors and two small D-shaped projectors on each side. All six projectors join to make your beam pattern.
The low beam was tested at 610 max. Lux (25 percent less bright) and has a super sharp beam pattern that is wider and more consistent.
The high beam was tested at 1140 max. Lux. It may be 32 percent less bright than the stock light, but the beam pattern here is amazing. The height and width of this LED headlight have characteristics of an off-road light.
| Low Beam | High Beam |
This was recommended to us by a commenter, and we are grateful to try out lights that you all have used or are on the fence about. If you have any other recommendations, please leave us a comment!
With these from VintageLEDs.com, they have a few things going against them from the get-go. Firstly, the ‘E’ mark on the glass means that these are made for European specification and therefore not DOT-compliant. Second, the LED bulb has not been produced in companion with the housing. So, you will find that the LED bulb does not work well with this housing that was designed for a halogen bulb.
We tested these at 280 max. Lux, which is 66 percent less bright than the stock lights. The beam pattern is unfortunately no good. There is no consistency to its intensity and the shape of the pattern has been haphazardly designed.
The same cannot be said for the high beam that we tested at 1440 max. Lux. That is 14 percent less bright than the stock light, but the beam pattern here is pretty good. The downside is, you spend most of your time driving at night with your low beams on and you will need those to be the better of the two beam patterns.
We were able to get ahold of two of Dapper Lighting’s premiere headlight options for the 7-inch round category. These are a pretty well-established name in the classic car space and we wanted to see how they really perform.
Their V1 headlight uses a projector that was common about 10 years ago. It is also smaller than standard, which means it will give you a smaller beam pattern. However, it will fit your headlight bucket without issue.
We tested this one at 220 max. Lux (73 percent less bright). The beam pattern is great, but the brightness is not great for the low beam. On high beam, the 200 max. Lux (88 percent less bright) is a letdown. We suspect that when the internal shutter opens up for the high beam, it loses the compound reflecting capabilities, producing a dimmer light.
| Low Beam | High Beam |
The V2 has a more modern projector, but with that comes a larger housing. If you are getting this headlight, you may have difficulty getting it to fit in your headlight bucket due to the compact size the halogen sealed beam headlights originally came in.
Dapper Lighting’s V2 was tested at 370 max. Lux (55 percent less bright) on low beam. Same as with the V1, you get a very modern beam pattern. However, it is not as wide nor as consistent as the other entries on this list. On high beam, it is 76 percent less bright at 400 max. Lux. The pattern is great, but it is just not bright enough.
| Low Beam | High Beam |
Like we said before, all these aftermarket lights are not going to be as bright as the OEM light. That is not as important here, as the OEM halogen headlight has all its brightness concentrated in the center. With the best of the aftermarket lights we tested, their brightness is a close second to their beam pattern, which aims to give the driver better visibility.
Out of the lot we tested today, the Holley RetroBright LED Headlight takes first place. It has a great combination of beam pattern, color options, and period-correct styling for your vehicle. Not to mention, it also comes in other sizes to fit a variety of classic vehicles.
If you are more of a visual learner, be sure to check out our video that shows all these LED headlights in action. While you are there, make sure to like and subscribe to our channel for the latest lighting upgrades for your vehicle.
Have any questions about one of the products we mentioned? Contact us today, and our customer service team would be happy to help.