**The Evolution of Pop-Up Headlights: A Look at 13 Iconic Cars**

Pop-up headlights, a design feature that has been captivating car enthusiasts for decades. In this article, we'll take a journey through the history of pop-up headlights and explore 13 of the most important cars that have featured them.

**Number 1: The Car That Started It All - Cord 810**

The granddaddy of pop-up headlights is the Cord 810, which first appeared in 1936. This American car was not only the first to feature hidden headlamps but also boasted a blistering 125 mph from its 4.8 liter V8 engine. The idea behind these early pop-ups was to reduce drag and achieve higher speeds.

**The Genius of Superchargers**

In 1937, the Cord 810 took it to the next level by incorporating a supercharger. Superchargers are indeed one of the coolest car features, ranking right up there with turbochargers and, of course, pop-up headlights!

**Number 2: The Mitsubishi Starion - A True Icon**

The Mitsubishi Starion is often considered one of the best-looking cars on this list, with its muscular yet supple design. This sporty car was not only a great street performer but also a fantastic racing machine, winning three SCCA Endurance Championship titles from 1984 to 1987.

**A Testimony to Racing Teams**

The fact that the Mitsubishi Starion's headlights were left on during racing is a testament to how much these teams value style and performance. What good is winning if you don't look good doing it?

**Number 3: The Toyota AE86 - A Drifting Legend**

The Toyota AE86, released in 1983, represents everything that's great about car culture. This fifth-generation Corolla may have been a simple design, but at night, it transforms into a pop-up drift party machine.

**Toyota - The King of Pop-Up Headlights**

It turns out that Toyota is actually the king of pop-up headlights, with several models featuring this iconic design feature. DJ Khaled would say, "Another one!"

Stay tuned for more articles on cars and car culture by hitting the Subscribe button and the little bell next to it. Don't miss our video releases, as we'll be in the Comment section for the first hour!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Pop-up headlights,they're one of the coolestdesign features to evercome on any car, ever.You guys know I love them.I talk about them all the time.I wrote a fricking song about it.In this video, I'm gonna run down13 of the most important carsin the history of pop-up headlights.We've got the car whichstarted the whole thing.The last car that everhad pop-up headlightsand a whole bunch of really,really cool cars in between,this is an episode I'm very excited aboutbecause it features pop-up,poppin' down the headlights!This is--- D, D, D, D, D-List.- Number 13, the Mitsubishi Starion.I'm just gonna put this out there.I'm gonna say it right off the bat.I think that the Mitsubishi Starionis one of the best-lookingcars on this entire list.It's like a Gundam.And I would also bet thatit's one of the most underrated.It's muscular but supple,boxy but smooth, it's Starion.Now, you may know theStarion as the Dodge,or Plymouth Conquest but honestly,who cares what the badge said.That wasn't even closeto being the best thingon this car's front-end.That accolade, of-cois,went to its wonderful,beautiful, original pop-up headlights.The Starion's headlightsstart on the hood,and then finished downby the front fender,which is a move.Now, the Starion is a great street carbut it was a fantastic race car,winning three SCCA Endurance Championshipsin 1984 through 1987.The team, they didn'teven remove the headlightsdespite the fact that they technicallyslowed the car down at night,'cause of a little thingcalled errh-dynamics.Now that is a true testamentto not only how greatthe headlights looked,but to how rad these racing teams arebecause what good is winning,if you don't look good doing it.Number 12, the Cord 810.Now, it wouldn't be rightto talk about pop-up headlights,without paying homage to the granddaddyof pop-up headlights,the pop pop of pop-ups.Hidden headlamps, as theywere known back then,first appeared on the Cord 810,way back in the year of 1936.It was also the first American carcar to be made in front-wheel drivewith independent suspension,and the reason the Cordgot hidden headlamps was aerodynamics.It made a blistering 125 hrsprsfrom its 4.8 liter V8,and the idea was that having the headlightstored within thefenders, cut back on drag,and would help achieve higher speeds.It's a great idea, it's a genius concept.And in 1937, they even made itwith a fricking supercharger.Superchargers are honestlymy top five things that I liked the most.Number one, my family, obviously.Number two, my dog, who's also my family.Number three, pop-up headlights.Number four, turbochargers.Number five, superchargers.Go ahead and hit the Subscribe buttonso you don't miss anything,and hit that little bellnext to the Subscribe buttonbecause every time we release a video,the host is in the Commentsection for the first hour.So yeah, if you want to talk to me,make sure you watch it in the first hour.To make sure you don'tmiss in the first hour,hit that bell.Number 11, the Toyota AE86.(speaks Japanese)It's no surprise that this carmade it on the list, it's an icon.I feel like I've talkedabout it a million times.If you wanna learn more about it,check out my episode of Up to Speed.I'll put the link in the description.If you guys are anything like me,and if you're watching these videos,I assume that you are very much like me.This might be one ofthe most vivid memoriesthat you have of pop-up headlights.(electronic dance music)Now, the 86 was the fifth generationCorolla released in 1983.It represents pretty much everythingthat's good about our culture.Here, you got a car.I mean this is a Toyota Corolla.But people are so excited to see 'em,and they are so fun to drive.Just so simple, and then at night,you get to have yourselvesa pop-up drift party.This isn't the only Toyota on the list.Toyota's actually kinda the kingof pop-up headlights, turns out.Don't believe me, I wannaquote my good friend,DJ Khaled, when I say, "We the best."Number 10, Toyota Celica.But Toyota Celica wasfirst produced in 1970.It was a huge part of why Japanese carsare so popular in America.But it wasn't until thethird generation arrivedin 1981 that we finally gotit with pop-up headlights.Now, the reason for thiswas a bunch of newly introduced rulesthat decided that car headlightshad to be a certain height,away from the ground.Now, this kinda sucked for a lot ofcar designers of the day,who were constantlytrying to make their carsas low slung, good-looking,and aerodynamic as possible.Now, the practical fixwas to add headlamps,which are retracted, themajority of the time,allowing for the car to maintainits low sleek profile and aerodynamicity.It's a word check it out.And then, they pop-upand meet all the safety laws required.The Celica would keep itsiconic pop-up headlightsuntil 1994 when the sixth genreverted back to normal inboardfixed position headlamps thatdidn't even pop-up, or down, or nothing.That's actually when a lot of carsgot rid of pop-up headlights,which I'll get into in a secondbut for now, I wanna roundout the Toyota tripletsand get into number nine.The Toyota Supra, the third gen.The third gen was where the Suprareally became the super, quite literally,because it was this generationthat the Supra and Celica,which had originally shared a platformand used to be the Supra Celicawere separated into twodistinctly different models.But now, with the Celicachanging to front-wheel drive,the Supra was freeto be what everyone knew in their heartsthat it had the potential to be,a rowdy butt Japanese sports car.It also introduced us to the 1JZ-GTE, Max.1J sounds, oh, oh yeah.(engine roaring)(moans)Number eight, the BMW M1.(cheers)This is one of the best-looking carsever made in my opinion.Of course, they're good looking.They're designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro,Giugiaro, Giugiaro, Giorgetto Giugiaro.This man is one of the most celebratedcar designers of all timeand beginning in the '70s,he went through a period,as all artists do,of dreaming up wedge-shaped sports cars,which would change the waythat we think about cars forever.One perfect example of thisdesign ethos is the BMW M1.Now, they made it from 1979 to 1981in order to be homologated for racing.And the inclusion of pop-up lightsallowed him to get the tip of the noseto a very fine pointand as close to the road as possible.Ironically, the M1 ended up havinga drag coefficient of0.40 with the lights down,which isn't very good.Just for context, thisis a 2005 Honda Odyssey,and its drag rating is 0.30.But we got a BMW with pop-up headlights,so I'm not, man, I love this car.I love this thing, look at that.Good looking bird.Number seven, the Lamborghini Diablo.Lamborghini has a great historyof using pop-up headlights in their,there's no other way to put this,era-defining cars.Starting with the Miura,which a lot of peoplesay is the most beautiful car ever,and a lot more people sayis the first supercar ever.The Kuntosh would alsoprominently feature pop-up headlights.Beautiful, but both of thoseiconic cars were leading to this.The poster car,Lamborghini, for many of us,children of the '90s.The Diablo, produced from 1990 to 2001,this car was the first Lamborghinithat broke 200 miles per hour,and it did so with pop-up headlights.Dude, one of my ultimate dreamsis just be driving a Lamborghini Diablo,and I got my buddies over there.Nolan's over there drivinga Lamborghini Diablo.Jeremiah's over theredriving a Lamborghini Diablo,and I got Joey in the back,Zach Jobe over there, driving Diablos,and those neon horse-lightscreaming on the highway,listening to synthwave.Number six, the Porsche 928.The Porsche was no strangerto pop-up headlights.They became a styling cuefor all of their front engine,water-cooled cars of the '70s and '80s.First, they were on the homologated 924,and then, on the 944, Porsche even offerthe 911, 930 with pop-up headlights,as part of their slant nose variant.For me though, the Porsche928 is the Porsche,that deserves to be on this list,and the reason is simple, yet significant.They rounded the back of the headlights.Can you imagine sitting behindthe wheel of a V8-powered Porsche 928thinking, "Oh, where did the sun go?"It's getting dark, I betterput on the headlights."And then seeing these beautifullittle bulbous beauties facing you.Technically, they'rekind of reverse pop-upsbecause when they're retracted,they go back and down, and then the lightsare like flushed.Max thinks they're theugliest lights on this list.I think they're phenomenal design.I don't care what Max says.This next car makes the listjust because it's such a weird carwith such a weird story.Number five, the Volvo 480.Way back in the year of 1986,Volvo made their first moveinto the compact market with this,the Volvo 480.It was their first carto feature front-wheel driveand was pretty much entirely developedwith American consumers in mind,to improve Volvo's presence in the US.It was given pop-up headlightsto adhere to our annoyingheight requirementsfor headlights on American roads.But despite the factthat it was pretty muchentirely developed for the US,after they went through all that trouble,they didn't even releasethe car in America.In 1988, the exchange rate was so highthat the 480 would have cost over $30,000,the same price as that year's Corvette,and it was an economy car.I think they look really cool.Number four, the Nissan 180SX.The Nissan 180SX wassold in 1989 through 1998as the sister model to the alreadysuccessful Nissan Silvia.The S13 Silvia, in my humble opinion,is one of the best-looking cars, ever,and one of the only carsthat I can kinda draw.And the chassis was so good that Nissandecided to make a hatchbackversion of the carwith a totally different nameand a set of pop-up ass headlights.They called it the 180SX,and it was so popular that evenafter they changed the Silviato the newer S14 generation,they kept making the180 for six more years.That's unheard of.Now, we got a version ofthe Silvia and the 180SXhere in the States withthe 240SX notchbackand fastback respectively.Both of them had pop-up headlights,and I also am not really includingthe 240 on this list becauseit's basically a Silvia,or a 180SX with a truckmotor, which truck?Find out on next week'sepisode of the D-List.Number three, the Aston Martin Lagonda.The Aston Martin Lagonda is one ofthe coolest cars to evercome out of Britain,and a lot of really cool carshave come out of Britain.I mean TVR exists, but this car is so coolthat literally at RADwood,no less than six Donutemployees stopped in our tracksand had to take a picture of this car.In pictures, it's cool and weird-lookingin all the right ways, but in person,it's legitimately breathtaking.And I don't say that about a lot of cars.Only 645 were produced in the 14 yearsthat it was made, and it was givensome of the most luxurious featuresand fittings of the time,including touch sensitive buttonsreplacing practically all of the dialsand an early form of digital display.The thing that really cementedthis car's inclusion on this listwas the fact that it has not twobut four pop-up headlights.All in all, the Lagonda had 10 lightscomprising the headlight setup.Number two, Mazda RX-7.I know a lot of you guys were upsetthat the RX-7 didn't make iton last week's list about yellow cars.Well, hopefully, I'm gonna make it upfor you right now because this isthe only car on this list,where every generation is represented,every single round of RX-7 had--♪ Pop-up poppin' down headlights ♪And every generation ofthis car looks awesome.The first gen is like sharp.The second gen has the Turbo 2.It's like boxy and like ultimate '80s,got a little hood scoop from the factory,and then, oh we get tothis one's the best,the FD, that's the third gen,just like, it's like ifJapan made a Corvette.The RX-7 and its cute little pop-upsactually predate theones fitted on the Miataby over 20 years, and that's why the Miatais not on this list, don't ack me.Honestly, sometimesMiata isn't the answer.What if you gotta go to Home Depot?Finally, the number one car everwith pop-up headlights butbefore we get into that,I just wanna give aquick honorable mentionto every single car everthat ever came with pop-up headlights,because every single one of themis a beautiful winner,just like every single one of you.Say it to me right now, say,"I am a beautiful, beautiful winner."Pontiac Firebird, FordCapri, Nissan Pulsar,Ferrari, Dodge Daytona, DeSoto, Toyota.(self-cross-talking gibberish)Subaru XT, that's all I can rememberoff the top of my head.Now, if you have somehow kept trackof every single car on this list,you might have noticed thatthere is one very distinctcar that is missing.In my opinion, the most influential carto ever be fitted with pop-up headlights,and number one, the Chevy Corvette.The Chevrolet Corvette has been producedcontinuously from 1953 to the present day,and we were lucky enoughto see the inclusionof pop-up lights from 1963 C2right up until the endof the C5 run in 2004.That is the longest continuous runof any car with pop-up headlights.So much of what made the Corvette greathas to do with its hidden headlamps.The muscular undisputed Fender linesof the C2 Sting Ray.The wing-like quarter panels of the C3.The long needle tip front-end of the C4,and finally on July 2nd 2004,after putting up one hellof a fight to keep 'em,Chevrolet finally had to give into automotive safety standardsand ditch pop-up headlights,making it the final car toever be fitted with them.So that is why the Corvette is number one.I hope you don't wannafight me in the commentsbut if you do wanna fight me,I'll be in the comments for the first hourafter this video is released.And I'll be in thecomments every first hour,after every video is released.Pop-up headlights are likea design icon that were weird.They didn't really make a lot of sense.They actually came from arestriction or a limitation,and I think they're likea perfect representationof everything that I love,and I think a lot of youguys love, about cars.And so I'm happy that I got to makea whole video about them.We make a new video everysingle day on Donut.I'm not exaggerating.We got seven a week.To make sure you don'tmiss anything again,hit that Subscribe button.Follow Donut @DonutMediaacross social media.Follow me @JamesPumphrey.I'm excited that I'mable to still make videosfor you guys from my garage,and I really just, fromthe bottom of my heart,thanks for making this my job,and I love you.(groovy music)