As I understand it, the gas crisis of the mid 70’s saw everyone shifting from making/buying cars that were either as big or as powerful as possible and getting sometimes single digit gas mileage to much more fuel efficient vehicles. But while cars got smaller and lighter and engines got handicapped for the sake of efficiency, it seemed that cars of this period were some of the least aerodynamic vehicles since the dawn of automobiles, especially compared to the bubble cars of the 40s and 50s. This seems counter productive.
In: Engineering
Until 1940 to 1958 there was only one legal headlight assembly in America, single 7″ round sealed headlights. In 1959 they allowed dual 7″ round headlights per side (vertical or horizontal were fine).
In 1975 they legalized square headlights that are so iconic of 1980’s vehicles. It wasn’t until 1984 that they legalized unsealed headlight assemblies with replaceable bulbs molded in a variety of shapes that could flow with the rest of the shape of the car.
When you’re only allowed one headlight assembly with a vertical face pasted to the front of the vehicle, it’s going to limit the amount of reasonable looking vehicle designs. Before composite headlight assemblies, the only way to make a reasonably good looking car with sealed beams starts with a flat, vertical nose.
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