Citroen experimented with some pyramid-shaped designs in the 1980s.
The Tesla Cybertruck is a 1980s vision of the year 2019. And it could be rightfully called retro, looking back at the days of flat-surfaced concept cars with angles sharp enough to give you a paper cut.
While the truck itself may have been inspired by the cars of Blade Runner, it was by no means the first vehicle to pitch a very two-dimensional vision to prospective buyers. In fact, the angular aesthetic dates back to the 1960s, with some notable revivals in the mid-1980s along with heavy presence in vintage video games that could squeeze only so many kilobytes of data through their circuits without overheating the hardware or crashing. If you grew up on video games of the late ’80s and early ’90s the Cybertruck probably seemed familiar if not particularly aerodynamic, but familiar is good enough, and the aesthetic certainly has its own audience.
Here are a few notable pioneers of the angular aesthetic, some of which actually made it into production.
Styled by William Towns, the Lagonda tempted more than 600 buyers during a production span of over a decade.
1. Aston Martin Lagonda
Ditching the muscular look of the Aston Martin V8-based four-door sedans, the Lagonda was pushed onto the scene in 1976 — pushed because it wouldn’t start at its auto show debut. Styled by William Towns (using nothing but a ruler, as the joke went) the Lagonda sedan combined a V8 engine, a generous footprint and cabin electronics that were too advanced for their own good. Produced until 1990, the Lagonda served as the brand’s luxury flagship but was built in very small numbers: just 645 cars left the factory in over a decade on the line, making it one of the most expensive luxury cars in the world as well as one of the most polarizing. The later versions softened its edges a bit, but interest remained very niche, with a lot of these going to the Middle East. The Lagonda was a huge PR boost for Aston Martin, which had been continuously treading water, but it wasn’t as big of a seller as it arguably could have been. The fizzy electrics were gradually updated over the years, but there’s something to be said for outdated tech that was going into Rolls-Royce cars of the time — it worked most of the time.
Radar signature: Pretty low, all things considered, but the car itself is pretty large and has a shiny chrome grille. Leave the pop-up headlights down to improve aerodynamics.
Can you buy one? You could, but getting the gauges to work properly can be a tall order with early cars. Who needs gauges anyway?
2. Citroen Karin concept
Revealed at the 1981 Paris Motor Show, the Citroen Karin concept featured an innovative 1+2 seating layout. Styled by Trevor Fiore, the angular coupe featured an interior as innovative as the exterior, with an impossibly cool steering wheel centered around a hub surrounded by buttons. A central screen remained visible to the driver in the center of the hub, while the steering wheel itself featured buttons. The pyramid-shaped Karin was purely a design exercise because even Citroen knew it couldn’t really produce or market such a car to anyone, but some of the exterior shapes made it into the Citroen BX and the Citroen XM in diluted form.
Radar signature: Practically invisible.
Can you buy one? Nope, since there’s only one.
The Bulldog could have been a cool production car, but Aston Martin got cold feet.
3. Aston Martin Bulldog
Styled once again by William Towns, once again using nothing but a ruler, the Bulldog sought to cash in on the angular supercar craze of the late 1970s before it ran out of steam. Powered by a twin-turbocharged 5.3-liter V8 producing 600 hp the Bulldog wanted to set its sights on speed records, as well as Lamborghini. The car managed to squeeze out 192 mph — well below the hoped-for target of 237 mph — despite pretty good aerodynamics and plenty of power. New ownership at Aston Martin thought the Bulldog would have been too expensive to produce and would have tied up too many resources, even as a limited-production halo car. Aston Martin eventually sold the sole prototype to a private buyer and continued churning out far more conventionally styled cars until the arrival of the Virage, which adopted a wedge profile but not the slab-sided skin of the Bulldog.
Radar signature: Very low; it could probably fit under parking garage gate arms. No more paying for parking is a valuable attribute.
Can you buy one? Well, there’s only one, but if the price is right the current owner may part with it.
The Lotus Esprit was one of several commercial successes of very sharp wedge shaped cars. On a Lotus scale, anyway.
4. Lotus Esprit
The mid 1970s produced a bumper crop of wedge-shaped cars, and 1975 was the year the Lotus Esprit landed at the Paris Motor Show. Styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Esprit was powered by a 2.0-liter inline-four and clothed in fiberglass, combining a curb weight of just 2,205 lbs with excellent proportions, a snug cabin and great aerodynamics. The Esprit was not exceptionally fast flat out, but a feather-like curb weight delivered quick launch times and impressive handling, even if the engine itself was not a powerhouse. The Esprit stayed in production basically forever, losing some of its edges with an 1987 redesign. But it was a remarkable hit for Lotus and a testament to Giugiaro’s genius, because the design itself still looked fresh by the early 1990s. The Esprit also largely avoided the fate of the Lamborghini Countach, which gained superfluous wings and scoops with each incremental facelift, finally looking very overstyled by the end of its tenure.
Radar signature: These tend to be finished in loud colors, so the low radar signature is often negated by the paint.
Can you buy one? Actually yes, there are a lot of them from various generations and they tend to be pretty affordable.
The DMC-12 paired a PRV V6 with a stainless steel body and plenty of flat surfaces.
5. DeLorean DMC-12
Have you heard of this car? Where would we be without this stainless steel wedge, and where would it be without the Back to the Future movies? The story of how the DMC-12 came to be is filled with details that are too outlandish to believe decades later — a Hollywood film about it just could not be produced believably. Powered by a PRV V6, the gullwing-doored coupe creaked into production after many delays and production bottlenecks, landing a bit flat in the car market of the 1980s. With a reasonably plush and interior and too many quirks to count, the DMC-12 was a very 1980s vision of the future, one that never quite arrived.
Radar signature: Low, but the stainless steel does make it stand out quite a bit.
Can you buy one? Yes, but you have to be fully on board with people screaming “Back to the Future!” at you several times a day in traffic. You also have to be comfortable with being a brand ambassador and answering questions about the movies.
The Modulo combined a sleek exterior with plenty of power.
6. Ferrari 512S Modulo
An early practitioner of the wedge aesthetic, Ferrari had one of the most angular and sleekest concepts of the 1970s in the form of the 512S Modulo concept shown at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show. But if you look closely, there are no shapes that are purely flat — there is a very delicate curvature to all of the surfaces. The result was a very low and very sleek concept with plenty of power: 550 hp, courtesy of a Ferrari 5.0-liter V12 engine. And the exterior wasn’t even red. But with all that glass, you need to reflect as much sunlight as possible instead of absorbing it — we have a feeling that the cabin could heat up quite a bit after that V12 warms up properly. Perhaps that’s why the concept was repainted from the original black to white.
Radar visibility: Practically invisible because it’s so flat. There is nothing at which to even aim the radar gun.
Can you buy one? If you’re James Glickenhaus, you can.
The Boomerang was an influential design for Maserati in the 1970s.
7. Maserati Boomerang
Once again the work of Giorgetto Giugiaro, this 1971 wedge combined a very flat hood and windshield plane with a sharp shoulder line, featuring doors and windows bending inward. The initial concept was unpowered as built for the Turin Motor Show in its debut year, but the company later fitted it with a 4.7-liter V8 engine and actually sold it to a private buyer. The elements of this car went on to inspire many other production models, including the Maserati Bora. The concept was novel for its mix of glass and metal in the doors, and for its… well, it was novel for just about everything really, and it even managed to preview some later Marcello Gandini designs for Maserati, such as the Khamsin. That’s how influential it was. Oh, and it also paved the way for the Lotus Esprit that Giugiaro designed — the Esprit is basically the Boomerang when it comes to shapes and proportions.
Radar signature: Very low, and so is its height.
Can you buy one? Unfortunately no, otherwise we would have bought one already and would drive it around while wearing some kind of one-piece jumpsuit with a turleneck and some orange wraparound shades.
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