Yahoo Autos This Has To Be The Worst Way To Hide The Headlamps
European Union rulings killed off pop-up headlamps in 2004, making the C5 Corvette and the Lotus Esprit V8 the last two production cars to have them. Yet almost 20 years before the world decided that these styling features were unsafe, expensive, complicated and bad for fuel economy, former Aston Martin designer William Towns has already solved the issue on his proposed budget roadster concept, the Tracer TXC.
Of course it's not like it didn't cross his mind before 1985. Towns, most famous for designing the delightfully boxy Aston Martin Lagonda, used a very similar concealed headlight setup on his 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog concept, a crazy mid-engined wedge with the widest gull-wing doors in the business.
For the equally mid-engined MG Metro-based fiberglass wonder known as the Tracer TXC, the designer went one step further, hiding the four square lights behind a plastic that would drop down when the driver turned on the lights. There's pretty much no way to design a headlight system that eats up more trunk space than this crazy solution, but if you're familiar with Towns' other creations, that shouldn't come as a surprise.
This minimalistic sports car's creators were hoping for a production run of 3000 cars per year, which of course never materialized. Ten years later, the then BMW-owned Rover Group came out with the transverse mid-engined MG F, a small roadster featuring zero hide-away headlights. William Towns had passed away two years before the first MG F left Longbridge.
Hat tip to carsthatnevermadeit!
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