Quote:
Quote:
Apparently the "blue" shade of most HID bulbs is a marketing thing. I remember Daniel Stern talking about some of the prototype HID systems of the 90's. They were plenty bright and had an slightly yellowish output color similar to halogen bulbs. Then the marketing types came back and said, "That's nice and all, but is there any way you can make it look different." I guess the marketing folks saw beyond just safety, but the look of exclusivity.
Since this is totally bogus, I doubt it came from Mr. Stern.
Factory HID systems have always been 4300K to 4500K, which is almost pure white. This color white can look "bluish" when compared to the typical 3500K of std halogen headlights. But for HID to actually BE blue, you've got to get up around 5400K. From there up, you've got a bulb putting out actual BLUE light.
HID projector headlights have a band of very blue light right at the cutoff line that is a product of the shield in the projector, not the bulb itself. If the cutoff line happens to land in an oncoming driver's line of vision, he is going to see blue. As the beam cutoff bounces in and out of his line of vision, he will see the tell-tale "blue flicker" that HID headlights are famous (or infamous) for.