What happened to this idea then?

[Loveclassics]

Hello guys,

As I have been hunting down classic cars, that some have pop-up headlights. Why was this cool feature scrapped in the end?

[bubs]

aero dynamics?, fuel efficiancy?, headlight alignment?, problematic wiring and motors?, and general euro and world styling.....take your pic

[suffolkpete]

The idea behind pop-up lights was that it enabled you to have a very low bonnet line without contravening the regulations about headlight height and very good aerodynamics (when they were down at any rate ) I think they went out of fashion for styling reasons, and reliability problems with the likes of Triumph, Lotus and TVR.

[rich.]

mx5 & early rx7 mazda had them..

[Mitsuru]

One of the most famous of pop up headlight cars 1936 Cord

[Alf ista]

I thought they went out of fashion for safety reasons. If you hit a pedestrian with the lights up, you will do more damage and so on...

[JPB]

I thought they went out of fashion for safety reasons. If you hit a pedestrian with the lights up, you will do more damage and so on...

Surely the potential for damage is the same with a car that has fixed headlamps? I think that hitting one of those damned inconsiderate pedestrian types could leave you with a broken lamp in either case....

[michael1703]

Some are vacuum powered, perished pipes and weak inlet pressure makes them pretty lethargic when you need them

[Jonjeffryes]

Some are vacuum powered, perished pipes and weak inlet pressure makes them pretty lethargic when you need them

I have them on my 944 and they are not the prettiest design when raised.....great aid when parking though

[Martin Evans]

Lotus used vacuum lights and originally the vacuum was used to raise the lights. However, they were altered to fail safe, so the spring kept the lamps up and the vacuum kept them down. You'd see the lights come up when the cars were parked and the vacuum gradually filled.

I think the likes of Ferrari still use pop up lights; I suspect cost has been a factor in their demise on some cheaper cars. They were quite trendy in the days of the TR7, the wedge TVRs, Lotus Elite/Eclat and Esprit, Fiat X19 etc etc.