tape on headlights

[Mr.Mecha]

Hello everyone. I'm not a drifter, I just find it very interesting, and wish it was more popular in North America.

I was just wondering why some drifters put tape on their headlights, usually in an x shape.

[Layla's Keeper]

Well, it's not just a drift thing, as taped headlights have been found on road racing cars since the 50's and earlier. Basically, the idea is to protect the lenses of the headlights from shattering during daylight racing, thus putting out a light and scattering glass/plastic shards onto the track in front of your tires.

It does, however, look really cool.

[Mr.Mecha]

I had a slight idea that's what it was for, thanks for clearing that up.

[Suislide]

yeah, it's to save all the glass in your lights from falling out if they get hit...although it obviousley won't save every shard...and some people are now doing it as a style thing. what you SHOULD do is carry the tape over onto the hood/trunk and bumpers so that in the event of a shatter, the glass will be hanging off something...some people i see keep the tape entirely inside the glass...yeah...that'll do TONS...

[kfoote]

In most cases, it's a carryover from when lights were glass and it was primarily a matter of keeping everything together and lowering the potential for cut tires from broken glass on the track. With plastic lenses, it is a bit less of a concern as the plastic is less likely to shatter from stone damage than the glass lenses were. Events that tape on just the lenses do not stay in the headlight frame are usually sufficiently catastrophic where cleanup of other parts is necessarry.