What Are Your Favorite Hidden Or Retractable Headlights?

As a GenXer, I’m at an advanced age where I miss certain things that used to be common in cars. No, I’m not going to lament “smokers” vent wing windows or the damn foot-operated high-beam switches Jason always goes on about. No, I’m going to lament the loss of concealed headlights that either popped out of a car’s nose or revealed themselves behind flip-open covers.

Back in the dinosaur era, American cars were all required to use standard sealed-beam headlights; this was limiting for the styling since you simply couldn’t make them any shape you’d like as has legally been the case here since 1984.

Manufacturers dealt with this by occasionally covering them up with retractable panels, like on this big Ford LTD:

They were vacuum-operated, and common leaks meant that you’d often see big Fords parked with the lights covered and then walk back past them hours later and the “eyes” would now be exposed, watching you with evil intent (they were usually spring-loaded to be open, so the default would be usable headlights). This always looked sort of terrifying to me as a kid as you walked past these menacing-looking giants; I’d cross the street to avoid walking by one.

Remember also that the NHTSA forbade you from shielding headlights, even with clear covers. This resulted in some odd solutions like the Cordoba-based Dodge Magnum and the “downsized” R-Body St. Regis.

These had plastic see-through doors that dropped out of sight when you hit the lights.

Also, there were (and still are) minimum headlight height requirements, so forget about putting headlights way down in the bumper on the wedge-shaped sports car. No, you’d have to say yes to pop-ups. Or, of course, flip around lights as on a mini-Corvette Opel GT. This guy’s divine powers hopefully include anti-salt protection if he wants his rust-prone GT to even stand a chance of not disappearing into the ground by the mid-eighties at best. If he’s so all-powerful, why wouldn’t he just get a real ‘Vette and not some Kadett-chassis pretender?

[Ed note: that’s The Butterscotch Playboy pictured above.– Pete]

These were not motorized but instead controlled by a lever that looked like a second parking brake next to the shifter.

Note the headlight icon: these turned the lights on as well as flipping them, but some markets you could turn on just the parking lights by a separate switch on the dash:

Here they are in operation:

Pete popping in again to remind everyone that the C4 Corvette’s headlights operate similarly, but via motors, and longitudinally: 

How about you? What are your favorite hidden or retractable headlights?

Top graphic image: RM Sotheby’s