Allow Pop Ups: Cool Models from the ‘70s with Pop-Up Headlights
As promised, we’re rolling through the week with cars from the 1970s which featured a styling decision which would go on to all but define particular generations of gearheads: pop-up headlights.
For anyone wondering why this is the theme of the week, we will repeat that the styling feature has popped up (pun intended) again on a relatively new machine thanks to an outfit called Result Japan. That company plans to roll out pre-orders of its Neo86 at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, a car which blends old-school AE86 styling with GR86 modernity.
[Image: Ford, Porsche, FernandoV / Shutterstock.com, Dominick Corrado/Shutterstock.com]
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The ‘70s brought an era of blunted performance to many American automakers, described these days as the Malaise Era - itself a term coined by our very own Murilee Martin. Longtime readers (thanks, both of you) will remember that detail, even if other places on the web frequently usurp the term without attribution.
Nevertheless, the lack of power and general build quality during these dark days of Detroit did at least permit a few styling leaps, including no shortage of cars with hidden headlights such as various and sundry Lincoln models of the era. Jock Ewing, Frank Cannon - they all drove machines with such features.
Across the pond, Porsche was busy trying to replace the 911 with the front-engined 928, a car which had pop-up headlights designed in a very unique manner. These peepers rose up and flopped forward, lying back down in line with the slippery bodywork when not illuminated.
Your author failed to understand this detail when he was five years old and couldn’t figure out how the car managed to illuminate the road ahead when its headlights were pointed at Jupiter.
Meanwhile, the sultry Alfa Romeo Montreal had a set of slatted doors above its quad round lamps, giving it a sly fox type of appearance suggesting it would steal your girlfriend if it could. Fun fact: the man in charge of CALTY, Toyota’s design house, drives a bright orange example.
Back in America, and before the Malaise took hold, Plymouth cooked up a homologation special at the beginning of the decade with its Superbird, complete with pops-ups and a giant wing. An honorable mention also goes to the tremendously square Aston Martin Lagonda.
