Cord, the short-lived luxury American car maker, caused quite the stir when it unveiled its 810 at the 1935 New York Auto Show. Nobody, not even the film stars who typically bought Cords, had seen pop-up headlights before. 

The 810 would later be honoured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as ‘an outstanding American contribution to automobile design’. Pop up headlights were indeed as important as Pop art.

But it would take 30 years for this particular type of daring design to be made available for general public consumption.

At first it was thoroughbreds from Ferrari and Lotus, but eventually regular car makers such as Triumph and Mazda would adopt the design.

By 2004 the last cars with pop-up lights were made: the Lotus Esprit V8 and Corvette C5. Pedestrian safety regulations on both sides of the Atlantic killed them off and they weren't great for aerodynamics either.

Here we revisit 25 of the greatest car designs to feature concealed headlights; most pop up but there are a few variations on the theme. We've restricted ourselves to one car per manufacturer to mix things up a bit