LEDs can make for some of the tackiest modifications to any car. Luckily Jalopnik readers know ten designs that make them look like a dream.
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LEDs are very simple. They don't make heat like regular lights do and they're small. This gives them lots of opportunities to be contorted into all kinds of elegant lines and shapes.
Most automakers and tuners are content to tack them on randomly to the front of their cars. These companies' goal is not to make a car safer with brighter lighting, or just cooler with imaginative designs. They just want the car to look expensive like Audis.
Not everyone is so single-minded. Here are the most creative designs we've seen in production cars, tuner cars, and concept cars. If cars start picking up these design tricks, we'll be very happy.
Photo Credit: Audi
10.) Aston Martin One-77 Taillights
The One-77's thin strip of LEDs at the rear just makes traditional taillights look chunky, heavy, and old-fashioned.
Suggested By: ThatBastardW, Photo Credit: Ed Callow
9.) Under-Hood Lights
There are times when you break down and pull over at the side of the road at night and you've forgotten a flashlight. Reader Brent Worrell put a strip of LEDs on the inside of his hood so that he can always work on his car in the dark. It seems like a great idea to us, and it looks cool.
Suggested By: Brent Worrell, Photo Credit: Brent Worrell
8.) Lamborghini Taillights
Lambo has been putting these three-pointed stars on the back of its cars since the Reventon, and they all look super cool.
Suggested By: mantaTM, Photo Credit: Ben in London
7.) Off Road LED Bars
LEDs are bright. A full bar of them will turn the pitch black nights you get way out in the middle of nowhere into day. Just don't use them on the street and blind everyone in front of you.
Suggested By: LaurieB, Photo Credit: Rigid Industries
6.) Directional Taillights
With LEDs, it's easier for carmakers to make sequenced taillights, which have looked awesome since the ‘70s. We're glad they're making a comeback, like on the new Mustang.
Suggested By: dpomeroy455, Photo Credit: Ray Wert/Jalopnik
5.) Audi A6 Headlights
Audi is still ahead of the game on their LED headlights. The all-LED lamps on the new A6 just look like they're from the future.
Suggested By: BATC42, Photo Credit: Matthew Hine
4.) Citroën Metropolis Concept
While the A6 is cool, it lacks some grace in its LEDs. Citroën's 2010 concept shows how you can use LEDs to draw headlights and taillights into more abstract shapes with a lot more depth. We want to see more production cars look this intricate.
Suggested By: Too.Tired.To.Sleep, Photo Credit: Citroën
3.) Audi R8 Taillights
Well, Audi has at least one car with the same cool factor as the Citroën. The facelifted 2014 R8 taillights are super deep, and they look like evil robot eyes. We like.
Suggested By: Mikeado, Photo Credit: Audi
2.) Dekotora
LEDs are great for making small, precise details but they're also just great for complete optical overload. Japan's custom truck scene, dekotora, takes that style about as far as it can go.
Suggested By: burglar, Photo Credit: Alienware
1.) Mazda Furai
As we've said, LEDs give designers a lot of room to make headlights and taillights abstract, and break away from the old look of big round or square lamps. No car gives a proof of concept like Mazda's 2008 racecar-turned-Batmobile. The LEDs are mounted in smooth plastic, blending them into clean lines. We just think every car should have lights like these.
Suggested By: Jordan Hewlett, Photo Credit: Mazda