I had and have those plastic original equipment lights in some of my cars. I get good light out of them on some, but it's not the same. I clean them as in the FAQ and as I have outlined and added to that, and think it's a voltage issue which I have yet to measure. But good output is possible.

Re: low fogs; I think I know what you mean, these were an option and very rare. I did not know they existed til a year or two ago, when I saw 3 cars with them in a week, and none ever before or since. They have a sort of trapezoidal shaped lens. BigBen on TB, from Europe, has had them for sale, in the $200 range IIRC. RepairmanJack here has them and I helped him get a replacement one a few weeks ago. He has pics up in one of his threads, so you can see if these in fact are the same ones you're referring to.

"...red on black and a 5 speed..." can I have your car too? :-)