5 Old-School Innovations We Desperately Want Back In Modern Cars
1. Yellow headlights
There are few things in life cooler than a classic French car with yellow headlights. Legend has it that the yellow lights were introduced in France in 1936 so that allied forces could distinguish between ‘friendly’ French citizens and white-lit Nazi invaders. The truth behind the story is up for debate, but we do know that the French retained their quirky coloured headlights until 1993, when they were banned by EU legislation.
The French loved their yellow lights for a number of reasons. They allegedly worked better in the fog, created less glare for oncoming motorists and gave citizens a sense of national pride - all of this was subjective of course. With the European ban on these lights, the only place we now get to see them is on the racetrack, where they serve a very useful purpose. Slower GT cars tend to run the coloured lenses so that they can see the faster prototypes approaching from behind in low light conditions. And just like the citizens of France, many racers swear that the tinted lights create less of a glare in adverse weather conditions.
So they serve a semi-functional purpose, and they also have a cool retro look. Not surprising then that tinted lenses are slowly finding their way back onto road cars. But like all of the trends on this list, they only work on the right car. Porsches suit them down to the ground, and we love the effect that they’ve had on Paul Geudon’s (owner of Mulholland Racer) dark grey Porsche GT4 - truly beautiful.
2. Steel wheels (aka 'steelies')
We reckon that steel wheels are properly cool. There is something paired back and raw about seeing a car sitting on a nice set of steelies. Something that says you only care about the driving experience; aesthetics be damned.
In our opinion no car wears steelies as well as the iconic Peugeot 106 Rallye S1. They just seem to fit with the function over form ethos of the little French hatchback. Light for the period and highly durable, they worked perfectly. With the advent of cheap and lightweight alloys we’ve seen steel wheels assigned to cheap taxi cabs and base-level econoboxes, which is a real shame.
Luckily for us they haven’t completely died out thanks to the Japanese Subaru BRZ RA. The RA was designed as a base platform for tuners and race-teams so that they didn’t have to strip apart a fully specced road car. It features a full roll cage with door bars, harnesses, a front-mounted oil cooler, ducting for the front brakes and yep, you guessed it, steelies!
Subaru fitted the budget wheels on the assumption that most tuners will remove them, but we think that they look great.
3. Shooting Brakes
Some of the coolest cars of all time have been shooting brakes. The 1965 Aston Martin DB5 SB, 1972 Volvo 1800ES and the 2012 Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo concept were all stunningly beautiful looking machines. Initially conceived back in the early 20th century, the Shooting Brake design allowed the aristocracy to travel in style, while still having room for their hounds and weapons.
Granted, not many people require a car for such purposes anymore, but there is something incredibly cool about a useable performance car. I mean, we all love mid-engined supercars, but part of the fun is being able to take your friends along for the ride. Being able to travel to a ski-resort four up with all your gear is just another benefit.
The other thing that makes them so damn cool is the fact that they divide opinion, which is one of the many reasons why manufactures are so scared to produce them. When the BMW M Coupe was released in 1998 a great percentage of the motoring press didn’t know what to make of it. Nicknamed the ‘clown shoe’ it sold in poor numbers. It’s only been in the last 10 years that the M Coupe has received the recognition it deserves.
In recent years only Ferrari has fully embraced the idea of a usable shooting brake, giving us the incredible Ferrari FF. But we think other manufacturers need to be braver and follow Ferrari’s lead. For example, Aston Martin is looking to corner a new sector of the market with the ugly and unnecessary DBX crossover…Just make a usable shooting brake already!
4. Fabric Seats
Almost all modern-day mid-range cars come with leather seats as standard. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but not having a choice can be irritating, because let’s face it, leather has its downsides. If you live in a warm climate, leather can get unbearably hot, and in cold weather you have to deal with freezing seats for the first half-hour of your journey.
Leather is also a very poor material for performance cars. Have you ever seen a full-on racing seat made entirely from cow hide? Probably not, because leather is heavy, non-breathable and slippery. A happy medium would be leather seats with Alcantara inserts, which can be found on cars such as the Subaru BRZ SE Lux. But we still prefer the simplicity of full cloth.
Leather also means no awesome designs. Granted, this is a completely subjective matter of taste, but I absolutely love the classic tartan on Golf GTI seats. A design which can also be seen on SharkWerks’ truly insane [Outlaw Porsche 911 997 GT2]. (http://sharkwerks.com/porsche/997-turbo-gt2/562-2008-sharkwerks-outlaw-997-gt2-evoms-champion-and-magnus-walker.html).
5. Manual Gearbox
When Porsche revealed that its most involving driver’s car - the GT3 RS - wasn’t going to be available with a stick, the automotive community went into collective mourning. I mean, if Porsche couldn’t offer a manual gearbox, what hope was there for the future of shifting yourself? But it can be all too easy to get angry at supercar manufacturers. At the end of the day, they’re just reacting to market demands. For example, only one per cent of buyers ordered the previous Audi R8 V10 Plus with a manual gearbox, thus this year’s model only comes with flappy paddles - makes sense to us.
But it’s important to remember that some manufacturers still cater for the one per cent, and for that they should be celebrated. Both Ford and Chevrolet offer its high performance muscle cars, the Camaro ZL1 and Mustang GT350 with good old fashioned gear sticks, and both companies have expressed its intentions to retain the option of a manual in future models. Thank god for ‘Murica.
But Porsche has also shown that it’s not completely given up on that third pedal just yet. The GT4 is arguably Porsche’s most popular car of 2015, and the demand for its last analogue 911, the GT3 RS 4.0, is absolutely through the roof, with examples swapping hands for up to £300,000.
However, it really comes down to us, the car enthusiast, to ensure that the manual gearbox survives. So if you do find yourself purchasing a new car, make sure that you go for the manual without hesitation; the future of performance cars is counting on you!
What trends would you like to see come back from the dead?
Comments
10/10 article, hate leather seats
3/10 love leather seats
What about these beauties in a rolls Royce
Also cannot stand leather seats they wear terribly and after about 5-10 years are most of the time completely trashed and need replacing, cloth just makes more sense to me
am i the only one who dislikes steelies?
I’m with you.
Nope, me too. They always make the car look really cheap.
If I some day get enough money to buy a Lambo, I’ll put 13” steelies on it
so, they say leather is bad ‘cause it’s heavy and steelies (against aluminium) aren’t? + steelies are unsprung and they have rotational mass… also IMO they are ugly…
For the most part yes I don’t like them, but on some applications usually older vehicles, muscle, off road etc
Bring back pop-ups
JUST DO IT
The retro style wouldnt fit modern cars and the drag would be terrible too.
Sadly, these days even Internet Explorer blocks them.
your name was my steam name for a long time
Part of the reason that people don’t use them any more is because they’re reallllllly bad for people who get hit by cars, personally I think they have it coming for touching my car but oh well :/
Where are the pop-ups? #bringbackpopups
Where are the Pop-Up Headlights?
I don’t like shooting brakes, steelies or yellow lights.
Thank you
Some shooting brakes just work, most look like a sad mutation of a once beautiful vehicle.
What about a conventional handbrake?
The Renault Clio & Captur still have it
#2, fun fact: these are extremely popular in Canada. When I went visited Canada, for every 10 cars without steelies, there was one with it. And if you think about it, in a busy city, thats a lot.
That’s because you likely visited during the winter months. Most people have steelies on their car for winter, rather than ruining their summer wheels via road salt.
yellow headlights? No thank you.
Yellow lights are awful!
Completely agree, usually it’s the boy racer go to mod as well which just makes it that much more naff imo.
I prefer the look of modern xenon’s.
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