This is one of my perpetual puzzles. In the ’40s and early ’50s, the best Euro cars tried amazingly hard to omit taillights. Designers who lavished close attention to shapes and grilles and roofs and dashboards simply ignored taillights, tacking on microteensy standardized pinpricks way down behind the bumper. Taillights were apparently obscene.
Two haute couture Italian designs in the same issue of Collectible Auto form a neat constants/variables pair.
This Isotta-Fraschini prototype shows the Euro tendency. Standardized microdots couldn’t possibly be seen at night, and contributed nothing to the design.
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This Chrysler concept car by Ghia was produced in very small quantities, probably about 20. It used the ’54 New Yorker chassis and hemi engine, and Ghia violated the Euro rule by using ’54 Imperial taillights. Beautiful!
Taillights are PART of an automobile. They’re not an aftermarket accessory like rally stripes or mirror dice. How could a passionate artistic designer resist the temptation to APPLY ART to this important and crucial PART of the structure?
Zitlights do nothing for the car, do nothing for the creative impulse, and allow the car to be smashed more easily at night.
Polistra's Mill 