The head of the local chapter of TESTES (Taillight Education Services To Explain Stuff) has been on my ass ever since I got back from Monterey Car Week, demanding a large post about taillights that I encountered at the world-renowned series of car events. I’m all for taillight-related outreach and education – the only way we can get people to hear the Good News about taillights and all they provide modern society is by putting compelling examples of the taillightric arts in front of them – but I still think the TESTES people were getting a little pushy.
“People need to see elegant and inspiring taillights!” they’d yell at my face as they saw me in the street, seizing me by the bicep.
“Ow, hey, you’re hurting my arm,” I’d usually respond back, attempting to peel those alarmingly-strong fingers from my upper arm. They would just keep eyes locked with me until I agreed to finally get the post up, which is, I’d like to point out, happening right now. So, any TESTES members, if you’re reading this, back off.
They do have a point, of course. There were some fantastic taillights seen during Car Week, and you, as humans, need to see and experience them as well, so that’s where I come in. Join me, if you will, on this little guided tour of some of the most compelling and engaging taillights that I saw.
Off we go!
First, there was this incredible Gandini-designed 1976 Ferrari 308 GT Rainbow, part of this year’s wonderful Wedge Car category, and featuring some beautifully-integrated simple taillights, inset into the flat planes of the car and in a sort of layer cake red-amber-red design, with a thin heckblende connecting the lower lamp sections. They’re really quite elegant, in that bold, geometric 70s way.
At the other extreme are this charming, tiny, jewelry-like taillights on a 1948 Alfa Romeo; they feel like a decorative brooch worn on a simple dress, and I really like the subtle detailing on the lower part of the chrome bezel and the contrasting lens fluting styles.
The tall, slim lamps on this Aston Martin are almost architectural, like a pair of bi-color obelisks flanking the rear of the car. I do find it strange the chrome divider doesn’t exactly divide the color, as there’s a small red section in the upper amber part.
This peculiar little taillamp I saw on a number of cars during the week, leading me to believe this was some sort of common model sold to both coachbuilders and the aftermarket. It incorporates a license plate lamp below, but its most distinctive quality is the drain-like series of round holes that form the lenses for the light. When I was with Kristen Lee, she noted that these lights triggered her trypophobia.
They are sort of strange lights; I don’t dislike them, but they almost feel like a kitchen tool or something.
This Lamborghini 350GT has some off-the-shelf for the era taillights, and while they’re nicely integrated, I’m mostly including this shot because I think these cars are just lovely from the rear. The sheer size of that slightly domed rear window is incredible.
These simple lights are from a 1937 Bentley 4 1/4 liter Vanden Plas Tourer. They mount on either side of the license plate, and aren’t really integrated into the body in any other way. I don’t think the arrowhead-shaped sections perform any sort of turn indicator function, but if they did, it’d be ideal.
It’s interesting to think about just how common off-the-shelf taillights once were, even on some extremely expensive and highly-designed cars; this 1937 Peugeot doubles up on some common lighting units for that extra little bit of class.
Sometimes these parts-bin lights can seem an afterthought, like these little round units found on this stunning 1948 Talbot-Lago. Look at the grille on this car, with the alternating-color slats:
Incredible! And while, sure, the little round lights actually do work (you can see the same approach taken for the turn indicators up front) you can’t help but feel they were a bit of an afterthought.
Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, seemed to really consider the look of the taillights for their 300SL cars (gullwing and otherwise). These units were sleek and highly visible and legible, incorporating all the needed taillight functions into a very integrated and attractive unit, hugging the rear curves of the body, and being visible from a wide range of angles. A lovely taillight!
Just to drive home the surprising ubiquity of the shower-drain-style taillight, here’s another example, this time integrated into a larger multi-lamp unit, this one on a 1932 Lancia Astura. Also, I’m not convinced the clear-lensed light was a reverse lamp; I need to look into this more – was that just the rear running lamp?
There was a really unusual streamliner at the Concurs D’Elegance, a 1932 3.3-liter Rohr Model 8 Type F Streamliner, a car I’m extremely unfamiliar with. The approach to taillight design here is interesting, a novel approach to using off-the-shelf components, but mounted in an interesting way. The little dormer for the red rectangular lens and the amber pod sprouting from it makes for a really satisfying combination. And look at this thing overall:
What a striking machine!
These Ferrari taillights are similar to the ’48 Alfa jewelry-like taillights from above, but with more domed lenses and inset deeper into the fender, with a chrome bezel surrounding it all. Little gems!
This one-off, Ghia-bodied 1955 Ferrari 375 MM has some beautiful lines, and a design vocabulary that feels like an interesting mesh of American and Italian, especially when looking at these taillights. I feel like variations of this design concept have been seen many times since this car, but if this proves to be the source of the tail-fin-cross-section-triangular-lamp, then I can see why it proved so popular. The ribbed lens is such a nice touch, too.
I feel like this year I was really appreciating the parts-bin sort of lights, like this one that feels to me like a robotic praying mantis head. This one is a Lucas “King of the Road” lamp, and it’s on a 1936 SS Cars (from Swallow Sidecars, and later, Jaguar) SS100.
This taillamp on a Mercedes-Benz appears to be another sort of supplier-provided light, but modified with the Mercedes-Benz tri-star. It’s not a lot, but it’s something to customize the look.
I can’t recall the car this was on, but it was just so damn purple, I had to take a picture of it.
I’m including these lights from this custom-bodied Rolls-Royce because I’m pretty sure they’re from a Citroën SM. Here’s a little video I did with, again, Kristen Lee, about this car:
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These incredibly elegant little taillights may be my favorite of the whole week. They were on this absolutely charming and tiny 1953 Crosley-engined, Frua-designed, Nardi 750. I also did a video about this lovely little brute:
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Just fantastic!
I get that Rolls-Royce is fancy and swanky and gets in any club they want, but what the hell does the blue light mean? Are you a cop? You have to tell me if you are.
I’m kicking myself because I can’t remember what this car was, but I love how this tiny, ribbed lamp is embedded into the bodywork, almost like a bubble in some thick, viscous liquid.
This is a taillight from an early Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia, from Randy Carlson’s wonderful faux-50s-Mexican racing Ghia. These were only seen on “low-light” Ghias made from 1955 to 1959.
This is another very common style of taillight that can be seen on many cars; while the colors are familiar, they don’t likely mean the same things that we expect. The amber was likely a brake lamp, and I still need to research if clear was a reverse lamp even at this early stage. Stay tuned.
I’ve always loved the extreme simplicity and industrial, machine-age look of Voisin lighting equipment. They’re so minimal, a taillight taken to its barest exreme, a bulb, something to hold a lens, and a colored lens. That’s it. They’re so straightforward and mechanically honest, I just love them.
This is a sidelight from the same car, with the same aesthetic themes. There’s really nothing else like them.
I guess we can do one modern light, right? Why not? This one is very exciting, looking like a rocket exhaust port of some kind. This is from the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake, and it lends such a great sci-fi-like bit of fun that helps keep the overall design from becoming too self-serious.
Jaguars have always done something with taillights that almost no other carmaker has done: a mostly amber lens that incorporates red lights in a strange, seamless way. I like these, and you can see this even on cars as late as 1970s to 1980s US-market Jaguar XJs. I’ve written about this phenomenon before, if you’re curious.
If you really want old-school, you can’t beat a nice brass lantern for a taillight. These were likely originally oil lamps, the same kind that once caused the only taillight-related riot ever.
I’m including this picture because those are the same lights that were used on my old Reliant Scimitar, among a bunch of other cars.
Finally, I think it’s bad luck to walk by a Ford Cortina with the round taillights and not take a picture or at least pay your respects. What a taillight!
I hope this taillight tour helped you with your life, your outlook, your very soul. Taillights have the power to improve lives, if you’ll only let them in. Won’t you let taillights into your life?
Jason, I’ve been scratching my head trying to remember which car I saw those beautiful little streamlined lights on:
Finally I figured it out – it’s the 1938 Rolls-Royce Phantom III ‘Parallel Door’ Coupe by James Young, an extremely interesting car not only for the gloriously elegant lighting but for it’s fancy sliding door, clearly borrowed by a time-traveler who had seen the Peugeot 1007 before head through the wormhole to become a London coachbuilder.