Cord, the short-lived luxury American car maker, caused quite the stir when it unveiled its 810 at the 1935 New York Auto Show. Nobody, not even the film stars who typically bought Cords, had seen pop-up headlights before.
The 810 would later be honoured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as ‘an outstanding American contribution to automobile design’. Pop up headlights were indeed as important as Pop art.
But it would take 30 years for this particular type of daring design to be made available for general public consumption.
At first it was thoroughbreds from Ferrari and Lotus, but eventually regular car makers such as Triumph and Mazda would adopt the design.
By 2004 the last cars with pop-up lights were made: the Lotus Esprit V8 and Corvette C5. Pedestrian safety regulations on both sides of the Atlantic killed them off and they weren't great for aerodynamics either.
Here we revisit 25 of the greatest car designs to feature concealed headlights; most pop up but there are a few variations on the theme. We've restricted ourselves to one car per manufacturer to mix things up a bit
Buick Y-Job (1938)
The Y-Job is generally reckoned to be the first true concept car even though the Volvo sponsored Venus Bilo predated it by five years. The Swede didn't get pop-up headlights though – which was just one of the many forward-looking features of this Harley-Earl-designed dream car.
Lotus Elan (1962)
The first mainstream production car to feature pop-up lights after the Cord of more than a quarter of a century earlier, the Elan was a landmark car because of its incredible dynamics thanks to its zesty engines, minimal kerb weight, all-independent suspension and disc brakes all round.
Maserati Ghibli (1966)
Launched in the same year that the production Lamborghini Miura was shown, the Ghibli was the first in a succession of Maseratis with pop-up lights; the Bora, Merak, Khamsin and Indy would all follow. Designed by a young Giorgetto Giugiaro in his time at Ghia, the Ghibli came in coupé and spyder editions, powered by either a 4.7 or 4.9-litre V8.
Oldsmobile Toronado (1966)
The Oldsmobile Toronado was notable for a whole raft of reasons, not least the fact that it packed a 385bhp V8, yet the power went to the front wheels – in an age when all of its successors were resolutely rear-wheel drive. The 7.0-litre V8 also produced 475lb ft of torque, transmitted through the wheels that also had to do the steering. The handling was predictably problematic but at least the front-end design was neat with those concealed headlights.
Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (1968)
Ferrari isn't often early to the party, but when it came to pop-up headlights it created an all-time great with the Daytona and would go on to adopt them for all of its cars (apart from the Dino 206 and 246) until the arrival of the 550M in 1996.
Opel GT (1968)
Operated manually via a lever, the GT's headlights swivelled into place rather than popping up. Made in left-hand drive form only, for sale in Europe, the GT came with 1.1 or 1.9-litre engines. More than 100,000 were sold including some with Buick badges, for the North American market.
