The trials and tribulations of car design - Opera Windows
10/28/2013
Opera Windows" made their first appearance in the pre-war years. They also fitted in with the more carriage-like design of the vehicles to a certain extent. Unexpectedly, these mostly round small windows in front of the C-pillar then celebrated a comeback in the 1950s, for example the Ford Thunderbird of the 1956 and 1957 model years had such openings.
In the seventies, they could then be found on many American cars and even the Japanese couldn't resist, for example the Daihatsu Charade Runabout of the eighties had "opera windows".
What was once well-fitting in terms of design now looked rather unusual, apart from the fact that these small windows did not provide good all-round visibility, which is much more important in modern traffic than in the 1920s or even 1950s.
And because many designers tend to "quote" (this is also known as retro design), the new edition of the Ford Thunderbird built between 2002 and 2005 was also available with the small portholes.
