RUF Sells Potent LED Replacement Lights for Your 993-Gen Porsche 911
Created with input from the 993's designer, the kit is plug-and-play simple.
The new LEDs are almost three times as powerful as the originals.
One of the reasons vintage Porsche 911s hold their value so well is that they offer a driving experience that feels special but is also usable every day. They won't beat you up like more exotic Italian fare—or 'fail to proceed' like a British classic. Nope, Stuttgart's finest 2+2 just works. You want to keep the experience pure, but a few upgrades always help (just ask any 930 Turbo owner how much more pleasant that car is to drive with modern tires). Now, there's more good news for air-cooled 911 owners, as RUF is releasing an LED headlight option for the 993-series cars.
Headlights are one area where cars have hugely improved over the years, from the low-candlepower sealed beams of the mid-1980s to the megawatt brightness of a modern BMW. The aftermarket has plenty of plug-and-play upgrades for many older vehicles, but messing with a 911's front end comes with some peril. That friendly round-eyed face is part of the car's character, and you don't want to turn it into some laser-eyed anime character.
RUF has lots of experience modifying Porsches without ruining the recipe. In this case, with its typical attention to detail, the company went so far as to bring in the 993's original design manager, Tony Hatter. Hatter's portfolio extends to heroic Porsches such as the GT1 and Carrera GT. He's also a Yorkshireman, and thus it is a bit amusing that these Teutonic icons were crafted by someone who slightly sounds like Wallace from Wallace & Gromit.
Originally, the 993 came with high-intensity discharge (HID) lights, which were branded as Litronic. They were quite effective by mid-to-late 1990s standards, but these new headlights offer nearly three times the lumens. Further, they're fitted with a special coating to reduce glare, and the low-beams feature asymmetric lighting so you don't blind oncoming drivers.
RUF always sweats the fine details, so anyone looking to upgrade their 993's nighttime driveability can rest assured that this new lighting is a few steps above some eBay drop-ship solution. The packaging is even designed to carefully protect the old halogen headlights when those are removed so that originality can be preserved.
The kit is not exactly inexpensive, at a little more than the equivalent of $8700, but you can save a few bucks by doing the work yourself, as it is designed to be simple to replace. If you've got a 993, then you already know that air-cooled flat-six loves cool evenings and cruising after dusk. Why not make those nights a little brighter?
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