Pop-up headlamps are definetly one of the things we need back from the 1980’s.

Ever since 2004 there hasn’t been a car with pop-up headlamps. I don’t know about you but for me, they are one of the most awesome stuff ever fitted into a car.

Even if it says 80’s in the first sentence up there, pop-ups were introduced by Cord in 1936, on the Cord 810. If you don’t know about Cord, don’t worry, your grandpa does. In the 80’s, pop-ups were all the craze in car design. Chevrolet had been using them ever since they released the Corvette C2 in 1963. Ferrari had them in the Berlinetta Boxer and Lamborghini had them in the Countach. Even Toyota had a go in it, and I’m sure you all remember the resulting AE86.

Pop-up headlamps add style to a car. Take for instance the Volvo 480. With this car, Volvo made something that was radically different that their usual “sensible box on wheels” standard. The resulting hatchback looks the part even today. The pop-ups are only there to add the final touch to the mix. As a final example, even the daddy of all sports cars, the Porsche 911, was improved with pop-ups in the form of the 930 Slantnose. These are very rare and highly expensive nowadays, partly because they are hand-built but mostly because of how awesome they look.

Sadly, modern safety regulations made the incorporation of pop-ups pretty much impossible. When the Lotus Esprit and the Corvette C5 were canceled and replaced respectively in 2004, the chapter of pop-up headlamps in automobiles drew to a close.