The greatest cars ever made with pop-up headlights

Slide of 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 Slide of 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. Slide of 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. Slide of 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. Slide of 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. Slide of 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. Slide of 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. Slide of Saab Sonett III (1970) There were three generations of Saab Sonett, but just six examples of the first edition were built. An all-new design was introduced in 1966 which proved more successful, but it wasn't until the third take that Saab really hit its stride with more than 8000 examples sold. This final version was the only production Saab to feature pop-up headlights. Slide of De Tomaso Pantera (1971) Designed by Tom Tjaarda during his time at Ghia, the De Tomaso Pantera was theoretically the perfect supercar. Underneath that sleek bodywork was an unstressed push-rod V8 that was cheap to maintain yet it provided mountains of torque. Between 1971 and 1992 more than 7000 Panteras were made, making it by far De Tomaso's most successful model. Slide of Lancia Stratos (1972) First shown at the 1971 Turin salon in prototype form, the Stratos was the first Lancia to be designed by Bertone. Power was courtesy of a Ferrari Dino-sourced 2.4-litre V6 while the plastic body was draped over a steel spaceframe. The car proved unbeatable in rallying, the Stratos notching up victories in the 1974, 1975 and 1976 World Rally Championships. Slide of Fiat X1/9 (1973) At a time when the British were producing the front-engined MGB and Triumph Spitfire, Fiat's take on the affordable sports car theme was refreshingly different. Not only was the engine in the middle but the sleek design was topped off with flip-up headlights. Over a 17-year production span more than 150,000 X1/9s were built, later models being sold in the US wearing Bertone badges. Slide of Lamborghini Countach (1974) Whereas the Miura's headlights flipped forwards the Count