Too late to be relevant, I know. We just bought our 98 Contessa. On the drive home, we went late one day, had to use the headlights and found the stock headlights to be very dim. Lordco Parts, here in Coquitlam, had a set of proper headlights to retrofit the original sealed beams. After reading this thread, I will now put a voltmeter on the wiring and see if that can also be improved.