As someone whose formative auto years were in the 1960’s, I’ve always been a fan of hidden headlights. While they haven’t completely disappeared, with the focus on aerodynamics, light weight, and increased fuel economy, they’ve mostly gone the way of the hand-cranked window and manual choke.
While covered headlights can be traced all the way back to the late 30’s Cords and early 40’s DeSotos, and could be seen up until the mid-90’s, their peak was reached in the decades of the Sixties and Seventies.
There are so many to choose from, here is just my take on a Top 3;
1965 Buick Riviera. Those vertical clamshell headlight covers are brilliant. As beautiful as Bill Mitchell’s ‘63 original is, I think the hidden headlights give it an even more impressive and unique look.
1963 Corvette Sting Ray. Breathtaking – that was all I could say when I first saw a ‘63 Corvette. With that knife-like horizontal prow, it looked like it could cut right through the wind. It still has that effect on me today.
1965 Chryslers. OK, so these are not really “hidden” – they’re more “clear lenses”, but these transparent headlight covers really made the ‘65 Chryslers stand out. I think the most attractive are those on the ‘65 Imperial. It’s a shame later federal regulation did them in.
What are your favorite hidden headlight designs?
66 and 67 Riviera look good whether covers are open or closed
Here you go. (Via Bring a Trailer.)
Consumer Reports was highly critical of hidden headlights for safety reasons particularly those on 66-67 and later Rivieras because they could temporarily blind oncoming drivers when they dropped into position.
My Elan has pre-safety lights. That is the head lights lifting mechanism fails in the down position. Hard on the gas climbing a hill, vacuum goes away and the lights recede.
70 and 71 Sport Fury/Sport Suburban. Perfect complement to those big loop bumpers. And that loud ‘kachunk’ sound they made when they closed…
Like this one
1936-37 Cord. 1942 DeSoto. 1965 Riviera.
The article appeared as a question on my screen and I responded mentioning the cars mentioned in the article. Ooof! I always liked the 1968-69 full sized Chevy. They looked good and were rare even when new.
Cord 810/812.
+1 One of the first. And remained, one of the most attractive.
1965 Riviera was my first thought, but that was mentioned in the text. So I’ll go with 1966-67 Dodge Charger, whose hidden lights did a 180-degree flip when turned on, preserving the surrounding grille texture.
I’d give it to the 68 Charger personally, perfect front end design and though the exposed headlights weren’t as clean as the 66-67s for 68 only Dodge did use a bezel that mimicked the grille for a similar but less elaborate effect
If they’re supposed to be hidden, how could they also be attractive?
I am a little biased here but there were many nice ones.
I’ve always liked the early Mazda Miata (NA generation) with the small lense that allowed flashing the headlights when the were retracted.
As a little kid, I liked the headlight treatment on the Toyota 2000GT.