The Pop-up Headlights Story 

The best thing about those headlights it's that you can use them to wave another driver that also has pop-ups, instead of honking. And they will do it in response too.

I loved those 80s Corvettes where the whole light assembly would rotate backwards 180 degrees.

Never knew they were actively banned. Thought they just went out of mainstream style.

My favourite car with pop-up headlights absolutely has to be the Lamborghini Miura - Some people might not even know that the Miura even has pop-up lights, they're just like the ones on the Porsche 928

Every time I drove my Honda Preludes (2nd and 3rd Gen) and spotted some kids, I popped the headlights out and retracted them back in. That always caused a little sensation for them, some cheered at me. Loved that! And if course, being retracted especially on the lowered 3rd Gen BA4 the car looked sooo cool! Thanks for the great video!

I loved the popups on my Celica. But my favorites were the ones on a friend's Opel GT.

You forget the 20 years of Pontiac Firebird pop up lights from 82 to 02, I have owned a 91, a 2001 and now have an 88.

5:38 1965 Buick Riviera THE sexiest stacked headlights out there😍

Any cars with pop up headlights look cool and as far as I can remember, the only motorcycle with pop up headlights is the Suzuki Katana 750 and scooter is the Honda Elite 125

Donut Media be like: "POP UP POP UP POP UP UP N' DOWN HEADLIGHTS POP UP UP N' DOWN HEADLIGHTS POP UP UP N' DOWN HEADLIGHTS ... "

I owned an 86' Honda Accord LX as my first (drive-able) car. When I got to test drive it, my dad was in the passenger seat playing with the switch that would flip the headlights up; he was practically obsessed with showing them to me! Now I drive a Scion (as the Honda died to a hit-and-run) and I miss those pop-ups so damn much.

Great video again. Being a child of the 70s and 80’s, I find them remarkably cool- they always will be 🙌❤️

For most childhood, my dad had a 72 Ford LTD, my mother had a 76 Ford LTD Landau with pop-ups and my stepdad had a 78 For LTD with pop-ups. When we went in vacation, my folks always rented a Ford LTD. So let's just say we were a Ford family. I'm not sure which was my favorite. The hubcaps on the 72 were spectacular and my favorite for sure. The 76 was fully loaded, custom ordered by my mom who simply checked every box on the form. I loved the pop-up headlights with the decorative plate that set it apart from other cars. It seemed very fancy to me as a ten-year-old. The 78 seemed no different except for those blasted Garcia Vega cigars that stunk it up. Nonetheless, the 78 carried us kids to our favorite places, such as most close vacations, the local bakery every Sunday morning and the best, the place we called the Cocoa Kingdom, my stepdad's workplace where there was an endless supply of hot chocolate packages that my brother and I were free to indulge in while my stepdad worked for half a day. We charged up on sugar and burned it off by running around the fourteenth floor of the office building, using desks as shields and staplers as Jedi guns. Sometimes we ventured to other floors of the building, but the best was the fourteenth. Luckily there was really no such thing as indoor security cameras back then. Pop-up headlights were a part of my life. When I bought my first car, I had to overcome the idea of owning a car without them. I mean, what was going to protect the headlights and how would I keep those headlight pockets clean? When my own kids were grown up, I saw a Pontiac Fiero GT for sale and I had to have it. I walked into the dealership with cash and spent the next summer restoring it. The pop-up headlights were glorious, even if I had to fix them a couple of times. Maybe someday someone will design pop-up LED headlights that only need to pop up a few millimeters above the hood. Something has to break this pattern of all the boring trucks and land-yachts that we pass off as family cars these days!

Totally throught this was an 80's and early 90's thing until I watched this video. Never knew pop ups existed before the 80's.

You know your middle-aged nostalgic audience so well! And I agree about the 928.

I loved those trick headlights. My mom had a 67 Olds Tornado. All the neighbor kids wanted her to turn them on & off. I always thought it was more to protect the lights. They wouldn't break from stones & didn't get plastered with bugs & road spray. Except at night, but most cars drive more in daylight anyway. Every style still fascinates me. I'm a 67 Olds myself! 😄💩

Again an awesome video. I always did have a weak spot for the popup headlights. My favorite car with the " winky eyes", my beloved Fiat X1/9 1.5 Bertone. That was a marvelous nippy little cruiser. ( I went to buy the MGB GT and did go home with the Fiat. Never did regret it.)

Any lotus, particularly those of the 1970's are very cool with pop up headlights. Cool wedge shape and pop up lights... How cool is that

2:52 “it would be hard to imagine the Ferrari Testarossa without pop-up headlights”. Not really - it’s called the Ferrari F512 M 😉

I owned a 1984 Pontiac Fiero (black) and I loved that car. It came with pop up headlights, and a cool feature was that when you turned the lights on, and they began to “pop up”, you could actually turn them off and they would begin to “pop down”. You didn’t have to wait for them to pop all the way up. If you practiced a bit, you could turn them on and off a few times quickly, and the lights would “flutter” open and closed (up and down) and Fiero owners would do that to each other as you came towards another Fiero. Some of us called it “winking”. Man I loved that car, and all your videos too 🙂❤️🇨🇦

As a child it was great when a car with pop-ups would flash you across at a zebra crossing, definitely that eclipse/double rainbow feeling!

I've had 2 Triumph TR7s and 2 Australian Ford Capris all with pop-up headlights. They're great, makes the front of the car look so much more distinctive.

Fiero and Trans Am!! RIP Pontiac 😢

Triumph TR7. I had a toy one when I was younger and I was absolutely fascinated with its design.

How I miss pop up headlights as well as stacked headlights like the GTO And several Mercedes .The Buick Riviera had stacked pop up headlines how cool is that !

What he says at the end about the super-rare treat of seeing a car's headlights pop up being "like seeing a solar eclipse" fails to mention one other pleasant and heartwarming fact, though --- there was such a thing as ASKING someone who had a car with pop-up headlights to cycle them open and shut for you so that you could watch them. I used to do that as a young teenager, and people would usually do so with a smile; they evidently liked the novelty of their car's unusual lights, too, and so they were the type to be willing to share said experience with others, and incidentally show off their car a bit in the process. :D

Definitely the Opel GT with its twisty pop-sideways Headlights. Lol

No Barn Doors, No Comment ! I've had two cars with pop ups, a MX5, which over ~17 years of ownership never had a problem with them, and a RX7 FD3, where one failed, was replaced by a reconditioned motor which then failed just a year later and thus had to be replaced again. BTW the MX5 winking picture - that's not a failed pop-up -if you look closely you'll note one side has a shorter rectangular unit (Brainstorm ?) - the picture was to show a comparison between the original and the alternative. I'm reasonably certain dropped the pop ups for the MK2 MX5 due to incoming European pedestrian crash safety legislation - thought this was the reason most manufacturers dropped them, not financials.

Just got myself a pop-up headlights '86 Nissan 300ZX. Also owned one of those Volvo 480s with pop-ups. Cool indeed.

@5:38 that has to be one of the sexiest 'pop up' headlight designs ever!... And it didn't even pop up. It simply uncovered itself.

My favorite was the Opel GT, with headlights that rolled over sideways, when you pulled on a big handle in the console next to the gear shift.

My fave pop up headlight car was the Opel GT. Gorgeous looking car.

The Australian made Commodore VL Calais Turbo also had hidden headlights but not in the true description. The horizontal headlights were half covered by an eyelid at low beam which raised up exposing the entire headlight when high beam was engaged. This electric motorised system was trouble free if maintenance was performed when scheduled. Laxed maintenance resulted in sticking, no retraction of eyelid, destruction of motors, and distortion of eyelid due to heat induction when highbeam engaged without retraction. But looked great and made the front of the car distinctive from its lesser stablemates.👍👍🇭🇲 Just to add to the 'Pop up Headlight' stories, I recall Ford Australia releasing a prestige vehicle called the 'Landau' which the headlight body rolled 180° to expose dual headlights. When not in use the exposed headlight body matched the grille. Looked very classy. 👍👍🇭🇲

The headlights on my Opel GT tend to be the biggest jawdropper of the car. They roll over unlike any other cars, which tends to surprise anyone who has not seen it before. Perhaps you have not seen it before, as I am sure they would have been on this video. Thank you for the history, as you showed me many that I was unaware of.

"1936 was a great year to be alive"

The arse-end of a 928 in chase HQ had as much of a transformative effect on my teenage development as Linda Lusardi's!

Making me feel nostalgic for my 1987 Honda accord. I would hit the button to flip the lights up and down repeatedly just for fun. 😄

upvoted for "pedestrian protection provisions preventing protuberances." (that, and the thorough overview illuminating how many times this has popped up in automobile history!)

Managing to mention two Alfa Romeos in just one general video. Super great!!

Love popups! I've owned three cars with them - A 944, a MK1 MR2 and a MK1 MX5. If you flicked the 944 headlight switch up and down quick enough, you could get the lights to go out of sync - one light up, one down! :D Of them all, the one I loved the most was definitely the MX5. Wonderful car.

Pop up, up n down head-lights! Top vid as usual!

Really love that Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno with that pop-up headlights. Feels like it's ready to delivering tofu in 4 a.m. at Mount Akina when it pops up.

68 chargers hidden headlights ::

Sorely missed feature of car design. Loved your comparison to the gleeful pleasure of seeing a double rainbow!

No mention of the first gen Camaro, 68,70charger, mercury cougar, a comparison of the rs and non rs 67 Camaro would bring a point across for hidden lights

A nicely concise yet detailed enough history of this element of automitive design. Thank you. Would like to maybe see a series on the evolution of automotive design, one preferably that goes into more than just, say, "cars were round, then boxy, them round again". Rather, maybe you could look at things like: flush glasshouses, lowered boot lips for ease of access, invisible boot struts, independent rear suspension, creases and belt lines along panels, door handle design, raked windscrens, projector headlights etc.

The Opel GT had pretty cool ones that rotated out of the hood

We're in agreement on pop up headlamps - they're very unique and cool - of course my favorite example is my own favorite vehicle, the 1980-81 Triumph TR8 - love your channels!

As a kid, I thought that the Volvo 480 was the coolest looking car in the world.

My dad bought new a 928S4 back in 1988. Awesome car for the time, but I still love the look today.

I'd like to see headlights that have some reactive coating that go from clear to paint matched color, much like reactive frosted windows that can go from clear to frosted.

You missed my favorite, the Opel GT, a modestly priced sporty car of the 70c. Its headlights were on pods that rotated on fore-aft axes to pop up the lights. And they flipped in the same direction! Truly too cool for school. The headlight switch was a lever on the console, and it took a strong pull to turn the headlight pods over manually. Pretty amazing engineering.

If I ever meet the person who decided that pop up headlights were unsafe, I'm going to punch them in the eye.

I owned a Porsche 924 for a short time, and popping the headlights up hit so many 80's childhood fantasies. I am so glad I was fortunate enough to have owned a pop up headlight car. My dad still has a first gen miata with the pop ups. Also I would argue round bulb pop ups are the higher class version and square pop ups, just no. square in general. motorcycles included.

Inexpensive car that had pop up headlights: Nissan Pulsar NX/EXA

My first car that I ever bought was a 1993 Ford Probe. Loved the pop-up headlights on that!

The C4 Corvette has the best pop up headlights may be because i own one

Yes - you showed the Probe - almost thought it wouldn't make it. Its a beautiful car today.

Basically "regulation ruins everything".

Absolutely spot on. I too found spotting a car at the exact moment the headlights popped up great to witness. But as you said they had their drawbacks when they stuck open or closed. They are still really cool though and its a shame that they are not present on some of today's cars. My personal favourites are the Porsche 968 and Porsche Slantnose. Keep up the great work, always look forward to seeing your latest video.

Awesome! When I was a kid it was the Australian XA Ford Landau that turned me on to hidden headlights.

Love the nod to Chase H.Q.! I've got a 1991 Corvette ZR-1 with of course those beautiful pop-up headlights!

I'm not much into cars, but when I was a kid my cousin had Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge on his Amiga, and its title screen was the titular car viewed from the front, which then animated to show the lights popping up and shimmering. That was pretty cool, even to me, and it left enough of an impression that it leapt immediately to mind almost thirty years later.

My favourite pop-ups has to be the window pane design of the first generation NSX. That combined with the grille shape just made it look so hardcore in my opinion.

My first car was a Mazda 323f and the biggest reason I bought that car were the pop up headlights , one day a child asked me why I didn't tuned or pimpt my car, I pushed on the button to pop them out. He saw it, ran to his father who had a all pimpt out Volkswagen Golf and said that he had to get rid off those dumb lights in that car and needed to install the pop up lights that I had. I still smile when I think of that moment when my "normal" car outclassed a car that had numerous hours of work and money put in to it.

On a 928 if you flash the headlights using the column dip switch it is the integral spot/fog lights on the front grill that operate, not the main lights. If you want to “blink” you have to stretch forward and operate the main light rotary switch on the dashboard binnacle- fine if you are stationary but not if you are driving. The 928 is a big powerful beastie which needs your full attention to drive fast.

My uncle had a 1989 Honda Accord that had the pop-up headlights. There was a button on the dash that made them pop up without turning on, intended for use as a passing signal. Any time he'd see a couple kids looking out of the back window of a station wagon (at that time, wagons with rear-facing third row seats were everywhere) he'd make the car "blink" at them... Until they'd try to point it out to their parents, at which point he'd stop. After the parents stopped looking, he'd do it again. It was quite funny.

your narration skills are so awesome so crystal clear and easily understandable for someone with terrible english like myself

I owned a 1990 Ford Probe for the headlights, but the best were the 1984-1996 Chevy Corvette, it was cool the way the swung around.

Favorite pop up head lights off me has to be the Triumph TR 7 . Beautiful car! Nice one! Take care stay well. Darren.👍

Thanks, another cool video. As a kid, I used to walk to school with Joey and his Mum had a 1970 Mercury Cougar. Sometimes he would be late and his Mum would drive us to school in the Cougar. Not only did it have the cool retractable headlights, but the super cool concealed tail lights with those sequential turn signals. What eight-year old didn't feel like a million bucks then?

Nice Chase HQ and subtler Outrun mentions. Keep up the good work.

1983 Toyota Supra. Gr8 vid. Thank you.

I've never seen a car with pop ups that didn't have a manual up and down method. If one or both wouldn't come up you could pop the hood and raise the light with a knob. My coworker just had to do that the other day in the pouring rain with his 95 Firebird!

The Knight Industries Two Thousand sparked my love of pop up headlights - and red swooshing sensor lights - and talking cars - and Turbo Boost - and ejection seats and... aaahhh it’s great to reminisce!

My dad's Honda Ballade had pop ups... Whenever he came home I'd wait at the window and he'd pop them up and down just for me and I thought it was the coolest thing ever... Things like that made him the coolest dad I could have wished for, and heaven knows I miss him

Mazda RX7’s pop-ups were my favorite each generation - and you could use the high-beams to signal drivers while they were closed!

First car I remember with pop-up lights was the Opel GT, might be some others back then, but Opel GT had the coolest pop-up lights. Back then, there wasn't so many american cars in my hometown.

I had several cars with “pop-up” headlights, my 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix, my 1978 Dodge Magnum, and my 1972 Dodge Monaco Station Wagon (read that as Estate Car) Since you did specifically as for such items in the comments section. I had no trouble at all with any of those cars headlamps.

Toyota MR2 MK 2 is my favourite. Great vid!

The 1965 Imperial had an ingenious design which accomplished the aerodynamics of the pop-up headlight, without the moving parts. Both pairs of sealed beam headlamps were covered with a glass plate painted with horizontal pin stripes, and surrounded with a chrome bezel. It lent a smooth, refined look but didn't have the drawbacks of a mechanical system. It was a beautiful car.

I agree about the 928's beauty. I was lucky enough to drive a 928s around for a day and I kinda fell in love. I need to buy one someday....

Pop ups are by far one of the coolest car features ever in my opinion, it's hard to name one car with pop up's as a favorite, but some that i like are the Toyota ae86, Honda Prelude gen 3, mid-80s Toyota Celicas, and the Gen 3 Saab Sonett, but of course there are many more! I love them all, and would love to own one at some point.

My first two cars,a 3rd Gen Firebird and a 4th Gen Firehawk both had pop-ups,they were extremely reliable after being overhauled and had a manual mechanism in the event of a failure,I remember being gutted when the C6 Corvette came out with conventional headlights.

SQuare headlights in North America weren't allowed until 1974, and weren't available on production cars until GM added them on some of their 1975 models.

My first car was a ‘92 Mazda 323F 1.6i 16V with pop-up headlights. I used it from 2008 until 2011 when I fell in love with a ‘98 Volvo C70 T5 Coupé.

On the Porsche 924/944 the pop-up headlights were on one shaft coupled to one motor, so always opened both sides. The motor has a disc on the back, so you could open it by hand, if the electrics failed. It worked very reliable.

Closing your flip-up lights reduces drag during downhill battles, and prevents the leading driver from knowing where you’ll attack.

My first car was a red Mazda 323F (first generation). I still regret the day i had to exchange it for something else as it was no longer allow to drive on the road. I still see one driving around once and awhile.

Odd topic, especially when only one headlamp mechanism was operational. Interesting and well presented. Thanks from Orlando.

Gotta say the Corvettes are tops on my list but a call out has to go to Buick Riviera for their very cool llights. Thanks for this video.

Well done and very interesting! I bought my first car, in 1986 when I was 16. It was an 1971 Opel GT with pop up headlights. They were connected via a linkage and rotated clockwise to open. You shoved a lever on the console to activate them and if you didn't shove it hard enough, they'd get stuck halfway.

the 1967 to 1969 Mercury Cougar headlight covers were always cool too!!

A few bikes have these too back then: -1985 Suzuki Katana GSX 750S -1986 Honda Elite 150 -1983 Honda Spacy 125 Striker

The '65 riviera with the clam shell headlights was definitely the coolest. The one toward the end of the video, with the upper and lower halves separating, for those unfamiliar with it. It looks like it's opening it's eyes. That whole car was the coolest design ever in my opinion. Love that car

living in the uk as a kid we were fascinated by the tr7 pop ups.

The best " pop up" headlights I've seen are from an Opel GT. Like a lot of earlier manual headlights the design was simple , mechanical & easy to fix . Used to see a lot of cars from the 70's & 80's with " drunk" or " sleepy" headlights, one up and one down.

I've always loved the old Suzuki Katana 750, the only motorcycle I can think of with a pop up headlight!

You missed one! (and I owned one!) -- 1968-1972 Opel GT. Cable-driven headlamps in 'buckets' which rotated in and out of position. The mechanism was a bit heavy, and took a bit of force on the console-mounted lever. This also led to a running joke in the German motoring press: "You can always spot them" - The people with big-thick right arms": - You know, the Opel GT drivers" - "Lamps out, lamps in, lamps out, lamps in". That was how an Opel GT driver signaled to pass on a motorway.

4:36 Arr, where’s me eyepatch, me hearties.