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LED lighting is one of those modern pieces of technology that people are looking to adapt to their older cars. In addition to brighter illumination, LED lights draw less amperage and operate at cooler temperatures than traditional filament-style bulbs. Plus, they last a lot longer, which is also a plus. LED taillight conversions are available for a wide variety of popular muscle cars, and we’ve shown a few of those conversions in the past. Headlights are a different matter, however.
Though you can find aftermarket LED headlights, they tend to look weird, with multi-element fixtures in the housing that can take on the look of the compound eye of a biting insect. Many also include the trendy “angel eyes” illuminated ring around the perimeter of the housing. Not everyone wants the front of their car to look like a horsefly or have the styling elements of a 2000s-era BMW. That’s why it was a big deal when Holley released its line of LED headlights. They actually look like the sealed-beam lights you want an upgrade from.
Holley’s RetroBright lamps were just introduced a few months ago, but have been a wild success so far, according to insiders we know. We got a set of their 5×7-inch rectangle lights to replace the H6052 halogens in our ’93 GMC C1500. You have to look really closely to see the Holley logo in the center of the lens of the lamp on the right.
LED headlights tend to have cooling fins at the rear of the housing to shed excess heat. Still, the dimensions are identical, and they easily fit the headlamp buckets of our pickup.
Installation is so easy, we won’t insult your intelligence by showing the process step-by-step. Most sealed-beam lamps are held in place by a trim ring like this. Unscrew it, remove the old lamp, and slip the new one in its place. One issue to be aware of is corrosion in this area. The retaining screws are small and can be easily stripped if they are rusty. Have some penetrating spray and spare screws on hand just in case.
The LED’s pigtail plugs directly into the headlamp wiring connector. Holley sells adaptor wiring if needed. Plug it in and forget it!
You can see the difference in illumination between Holley’s RetroBright headlight on the passenger side and the H6054 halogen bulb on the driver’s side. Holley sells these in 5700 degrees Kelvin, for a modern white light, or in a more yellow 3,000 degrees Kelvin, if you prefer the old-school look of a traditional halogen bulb.
You’ll notice a big difference on the road, too, though it’s difficult to find a really dark road here in Southern California. We’ve seen some LED conversions with very narrow beams that make it difficult to see around a corner, but the RetroBright headlights push a lot more light out in front of you, and in a wide, usable pattern, too.
The RetroBright lights draw less power and run cooler than traditional filament-style bulbs. Our sealed-beam quickly reached 100 degrees F within a minute of switching it on. The LED barely cracked 90 degrees after a 30-minute drive.
In addition to the 5×7 rectangle bulbs, Holley makes RetroBright headlights in 4×6-inch rectangle, 5.75-inch round, and 7-inch round, all in 5,700 K or 3,000 K color temperatures. You can even get them with a yellow lens if you want that European rally car look. To our motorcycling brethren: don’t let the cagers have all the fun. The 5.75-inch round light fit the nacelle of our 2008 Sportster, so we swapped that over immediately. It’s a vast improvement over the stock headlamp, and much better looking than the generic Amazon-special LED lamp we replaced it with last year.
Source: Holley; 866.464.6553; holley.com
Keyword: We Test Holley's New RetroBright LED Headlights