The Myth Behind the Ban: Why Nissan Had to Abandon Pop-up Headlights

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Nissan deployed pop-up designs across multiple chassis, tailoring the mechanism for budget runabouts and high-performance machines alike. In the mid-1980s, the Nissan Silvia S12 carried the torch with sharp, angular styling, offering buyers four-cylinder turbocharged power behind a wedge-shaped front end. At the same time, Nissan took an unorthodox approach with the Nissan 300ZX Z31. Rather than concealing the lights entirely, the Z31 used semi-recessed pods that lay flat and parallel to the hood, rising slightly when illuminated to reveal sleepy, half-exposed glass units.

Nissan showed its experimental side with the Nissan Pulsar NX (sold as the Nissan EXA in international markets). Designed at Nissan Design International in San Diego, the second-generation KN13 Pulsar NX was a modular transformer car. Owners could remove the rear canopy to swap between a coupe, an open-air targa, and a mini-wagon shooting brake. Anchoring its futuristic front end was a pair of sharp pop-up headlights.

The pinnacle arrived with the Nissan 240SX S13 and its domestic Japanese twin, the Nissan 180SX. While the Japanese-market Silvia S13 received fixed projector headlights (the famed "brick" and "triple projector" housings), the North American 240SX had to use pop-up lights to satisfy US bumper and beam height laws. The resulting "pignose" and "chuki" fascias became legendary silhouettes on drift tracks worldwide, while the 180SX kept its pop-ups in production in Japan through 1998.