FWIW, when I use the LED strips, I end up using 15-20ma for the entire 18" car. That's 24 LED's powered in 8 groups of three at 12 volts. Each LED has a current of around 2.5ma, and the lights in the car are plenty bright. I've had several people already contact me with my lighting modules and ask how they tone down the lighting at the lowest setting, that is about 5ma light output, and they want less!
I prefer the even lighting of the strip along the whole length of the car in any case. I did a bi-level car for someone, and I just continued the wiring to the second strip of lights. One of the major pluses of using the LED strips is the even distribution of lighting.
