Quick, picture these three cars: a sleek 1998-2003 BMW Z8, a stately 1997-1998 Lincoln Mark VIII, and a workhorse 1995-1997 Ford Explorer. They’re all quite different cars: a European sports car/roadster, a big Grand Touring luxo-coupé, and a car once so popular it made the Cash for Clunkers most turned-in list twice in the top ten, once for the 2WD version, and once for the 4WD. They’re all quite different, but they also all share a very unusual automotive detail that really doesn’t show up anywhere else. Any idea what that could be?
Here’s a hint: like anything that matters, this is taillight-related.
Still thinking? Here’s a hint:
Get it now? It’s neon! All three of these cars use neon lights in their taillights in some way! And, ironically, the Neon up there does not.
Yes, neon lights! Normally, cars use 12V incandescent bulbs or LEDs, but sometimes you may just want that special warmth and gloriously even light distribution that only neon provides. Of course, there’s also a pretty significant downside to using neon lights, a reason that likely explains why its use is so uncommon, and that’s the fact that neon requires a much higher voltage than the usual 12V a car normally provides. Neon tends to require something close to household US wall voltage, between around 90V to 120V, which requires a good bit of additional electronic hardware to work like ballasts and exciting stuff like that.
Let’s take a look at our three neon-taillight-havers one by one, staring with the most limited implementation, the Explorer:
In the case of the Explorer, the neon was just used for the center-high-mount-stop-lamp (CHMSL); the rest of the taillights were just conventional, boring incandescent bulbs. If you look at Ford Explorer forms, you can see a lot of people surprised and a little alarmed to find that what they thought would be a simple fix for their third brake light is actually much more involved and has the extra excitement of real danger from the high-voltage components.
The 1997 to 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII featured a neon heckblende/brake lamp that was incorporated into the trunk lid, and the corner sections of the taillight used conventional illumination. The result was a large, wide taillamp that glowed in a way that really did seem different than conventional incandescent bulbs or even LEDs of the time; it was bright and even and powerful, and felt like the glow of engines from a starship, which is how you should feel in a fancy-ass Lincoln coupé.
I mean, look at these things!
But the real crown of neon automotive lighting has to go to the BMW Z8, because the Z8 used high-voltage neon tubes for front turn indicators, side indicator repeaters, and the full rear taillights, including the stop/brake/tail and the turn signal sections. It was an absolute triumph of neon, and possibly the greatest showcase of neon automotive lighting in the whole automotive world.
The neon lights on the Z3 really took advantage of the unique properties of the neon, and emphasized the tubeness of neon lights, with long, wide, wraparound turn indicators that glowed bright and amber, a side indicator repeater incorporated with the badge that looked like just a bit of trim suddenly illuminating, and the taillight shape kept the wide, sweeping look.
It was just some wonderful lighting design.
Three very different cars, but all trying one bold, now pretty much dead-ended approach to lighting. With modern LED designs, you can emulate the look and brightness of neon quite well, but use far less energy and not need dangerous and complicated voltage transformers or anything like that. I think neon car lights aren’t likely to make a comeback, so that’s all the more reason to consider this peculiar trio one more time.
Speaking of taillights, when are we going to get another Max Hardigraw mystery?
Right after the 10th mercury Monday
Dang it! I’m going to the wrong taillight bars! You shame my ignorance. Next you’ll say something like a fourth state of matter or some such nonsense.
The light output looked fantastic on the otherwise mediocre MkVIII (with that stupid fake spare tire bulge as if a ’90s suppository needed a 50-year old styling cue), but I always questioned the availability of parts down the line, especially where it never took off with other cars. Of course, the commonly-seen dragging butts from failed air suspension before they largely disappeared apparently made it a moot point.
> Neon tends to require something close to wall current, between around 90V to 120V
That’s voltage, big shoots, not current.
As a 2nd gen Explorer aficionado that owned a 1995 Explorer, replacing the neon light was an absolute pain. Ford gave no consideration for replacement, forcing the removal of an unnecessarily high amount of rivets. Replacing the ballast is even worse, though luckily I never had to. Buying a replacement neon bulb was also idiotically expensive twenty years ago, and is likely even worse now (though I believe there are LED replacements, but they require rewiring the light all the way back to the ballast input harness). The 98+ “bubble butt” hatch did away with the neon, though most people agree the bigger hatch doesn’t look as good as the smaller hatch on the 95-97 trucks.