Racing number illumination lights on FIAs

[xb-60]

Any information available on where (ie which vehicles) the sidelights for night racing on FIA cars or Comp cars were sourced?

Cheers,
Glen

[Ron Scarboro]

This one?

[LMH]

Lucas L534 I believe.
Larry

[xb-60]

Thanks Ron and Larry. I think these are the lights I have which are Massey Ferguson dash lights. Just wanted confirmation I was on the right track

Cheers,
Glen

[LMH]

They come with or without a chrome spacer, depending on application. Having it stand off the body a little makes it light the number a little better.
The one above in the photo has the spacer.
Larry

[CompClassics]

The original LUCAS lights for the FIA Cobra application used the stand off piece. Early comp 260 / 289 Cobras also used the same LUCAS license plate light as a rounded light.

[xb-60]

Thanks gents. Good information.

I've painted my "MF" dash light shells in body colour, but whereas the vents look good using the Azzurro 505C spray pack, the gloss level on the light bodies doesn't match the car body colour particularly well, so will have to think about what to do there.
The lights aren't essential; I was intending to use them to conveniently () fill holes in the body aft of the vents that are needed for registration purposes, and to suit the "FIA" nature of the car.

Cheers,
Glen

[rsk289]

Blimey, Massey-Ferguson? That's a bit obscure, even for AC.

Most UK - based sportscar prep companies looked to the humble MGB...

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/shop-b...verse-mgb.html

Roger

[xb-60]

A bit of navel gazing here, Roger....the lights I have are for a MF 135; they superseded the MF 35 in 1964, and they are similar enough but not exactly identical to those in Larry's picture of the earlier Lucas items that I would be quite happy to use them. However I'm not happy enough at this point with the paint match but after a few glasses of red on Christmas Day, I might see them in a different light


Cheers,
Glen

[rsk289]

Well, as Dan has pointed out, Cobras were prepared by SA, not AC - and SA were known to use Massey-Ferguson parts in other areas, so given that M-F were based in Ontario until '88 it's quite possible that SA sourced these lamps from there as well.
From my days of building race-replica 3000s, I know BMC and many other British teams used the L534 MGB numberplate lamps for the statutory Le Mans roundel illumination requirements, and wondered if AC used them on the Le Mans Aces, but can't find a close up good enough for identification purposes. It seems possible that having driven for Aston Martin, etc. Shelby stuck the same ol' lamps he was used to from the British teams on the Cobras - don't know. But M-F might well have been the source for these.

[xb-60]

My understanding is that COB/COX cars were not as consistent car-to-car as the CSX cars, sometimes individually spec’d by the buyer/customer and built accordingly as bespoke cars by AC. This was a different situation to the CSX cars that were, I understand, spec’d as a batch according to the supply contracts let by Shelby.
It would seem to me that the MF 135 dash lights were possibly a cheaper “knock off” of the Lucas lights, and as the “Ferguson” in Massey Ferguson was a British company, it’s conceivable that AC used those lights on COB/COX race cars.
Totally co-incidentally, I spent many hours behind the wheel of both an MF 35 and MF 135, and once in my much younger days, visited the MF factory at Sunshine in Melbourne, Australia.

Cheers!
Glen