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Juts how much skil does it take to drive on unlighted road with your headlights of?

I think it's humanly impossible. BUT, a VERY VERY VERY skilled driver can try...

Piece of cake. Happened to me the first time I was out in my own car. Before I'd passed my test a couple of friends from work came out with me for some extra practice. We went a few miles up the road and on the way back the fuse for the headlights went, leaving me with the utterly worthless sidelights on unfamiliar, foggy, wet B-roads at 8pm on a January evening.

"Fun" was not the first word that sprung to mind. I ended up crawling back most of the way with the only light source being my hazards. I've never felt so relieved to pass through well-lit 30mph zones.

Don`t know about mountains, but i saw in a movie(interview iirc) once, a very good racing driver saying he could drive a track with his eyes closed.
Asked to demonstrate a lap, sitting in his office, he was mimicking steering/throttle/braking/gear shifts.. the "virtual" laptime was very close to his real ones.

My memory fails me now, i tried to find that video, i think it was senna or schumi, maybe someone else knows what i`m talking about.

When you learn a track, and learn it well, i think it should be a piece of cake running in pitch black. The off/on headlight trick sounds good to me, as "you" can see the opponent taillights, the problem is he doesn`t see you and might (will) take you off. Good/possible in theory, can go so wrong in practice..

I've done that :hide:

It's not as hard as it sounds. The preceding car lits the road and environment so as long as you keep close visibility is quite good.

Full story. The generator (is it called carbon brushes?) was failing and could not deliver power for anything but the ignition and faint glowing of the lights. This was in the middle of the night on a rural road and before gsm phones and I did not want to walk 33km. For the first 7km or so I had decent visibility to drive slowish (70kph), highbeam worked but was dimmer than usual), then I was overtaken and followed that car at full speed (90kph) while my lights got very dim, than that car exited for even smaller road and last 5km was creeping (30-50kph), a friend tried to help with a flashlight (his orders were to light at cars to make us visible)

Yes it was stupid but I was 19 and immortal.

In the days when rallying had night stages, crews sometimes suffered faulty headlights and had to contend with moonlight and pacenotes. Navigators sure earned their bread in those days!

It's not impossible, as I saw a civic with his headlights turned off or broken at the 24 Hours Nürburgring, who followed another car to see anything at all.
Anyways, there's no doubt that you must be really insane to try that.

ive been in a mates car while he was drivin, he tryed to scare me by turnin off his lights goin over a mountain.. didnt phase me at all.. :P