When the wedge shape was in fashion ...
12/29/2019
The wedge shape in car design had its heyday in the 1970s, but the end of the flat flounder became apparent around the mid-1980s. One reason for the disappearance of the "wedges", as they were known in English-speaking countries, was that folding headlights were no longer in keeping with the times. However, most cars of this type had retractable headlights due to the flat design of the front end.
There are probably several reasons why pop-up headlights have disappeared from cars many years ago. They are not aerodynamic, and in times when people are fighting for every tenth of a liter of fuel savings, integrated headlights are simply the more sensible solution. Increased requirements for pedestrian protection have also certainly taken their toll. Last but not least, they were also always a cost factor, as folding headlights required their own mechanism, regardless of whether they were operated electrically, manually or with a vacuum system.
One of the most famous representatives of production cars with this design language was probably the Lotus Esprit from the pen of Giorgetto Giugiaro.
But Oliver Winterbottom also left his mark on vehicles that looked as if they had been folded out of paper. He developed style-defining shapes such as those of the Lotus Elite 75 presented in 1975 or various TVRs, such as the 350i 2+2 available from 1983.
If you wanted to buy a really expensive and complex to maintain wedge, you could hardly avoid the Aston Martin Lagonda. The luxury limousine designed by William Towns is a sought-after collector's item today.
What all "wedges" have in common is that they are more polarizing today than they were back then. In the seventies, it was simply "en vogue" to drive a wedge. Today, when many cars look similar and some brands have lost their visual identity, it is refreshing to see a wedge-shaped car in everyday life. To drive such an eye-catching vehicle, however, you need to be a little eccentric, as you will never go unobserved...
Thanks to the latest LED technology and its lights, which can be made smaller and smaller, it is quite possible that the wedge design will soon rise from the ashes like the Phoenix. The Tesla Cybertruck could be the first harbinger of this. It's up to you to be happy about it, or not...
