I love driving a car with the windows down. Sure, when it comes to actually being cool in summer heat, air conditioning of course is vastly superior, but when it just comes to visceral enjoyment, give me open windows every time. Of course, for many cars, especially more aerodynamic ones, open windows often create some unpleasant wind buffeting that can get quite strong and annoying. Years ago I actually looked into what makes those annoying thrum thrum thrum sounds when you have a window open, and it’s this complicated thing called Helmholtz Resonance, but we don’t really need to get into that now. All you need to know is that the annoying wind buffeting effects can be eliminated if you give the air a path to escape easier, and that’s at the root of what I want to show you now.
There are at least three cars from the late 1960s – the Alfa Junior Zagato, the Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato, and the Lancia Flavia Sport Zagota – that have a sort of power-window-related feature that’s really clever and I think unique to these cars. These cars didn’t exactly have power windows themselves – they were still hand-cranked – but they did have one powered element that was designed to work in conjunction with the windows.
It was the hatch. All three of these cars had a rear hatch with a latch that was connected to a motor, and when you pushed a little switch on the dash, which you can see here:
Actually, you know what? It could be this switch:
The truth is I’m not exactly certain. But I do know that the switch – whichever one it is – then actuated the motor which would then open the hatch just a tiny bit. Here’s an Alfa Junior Zagato sporting the slightly opened hatch:
… and here’s a Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato showing off the same trick:
…and, here’s a thrilling video of an Alfa Junior Zagato closing the slightly-open hatch:
So, what was the point of all of this? Look at the size of the motor needed to make that hatch open like an inch or so:
What was the point of it all?
Well, the point was if you were driving around with the windows down, enjoying the wind in your long, luxuriant, flowing locks of hair, pretty soon everything inside the car would start to get all loud and windy and crazy, until you reached just under your speedometer and hit that little switch, opening the rear hatch just enough to give the wind an escape route.
And then, as if by magic, your airy interior would calm down dramatically, and you’d get to enjoy all that fresh air without the atmospheric violence.
I consider this a form of power windows, or at least power-assisted windows, because the motor is performing a task directly related to the open-window experience. It may be a stretch, but it’s interesting, and that’s good enough for me.
This is a neat detail, as if I didn’t like the Fulvia enough already. I love fresh air when I’m driving, but I tend to not use the windows, in favor of opening the moonroof. I find it’s the perfect amount of airflow to make me comfortable, without being too strong or directional.
I don’t know if it’s all cars with a moonroof, but I learned a trick to lower the rear passenger-side window an inch or two when *venting* the moonroof and it would make a perfect air current through the cabin.
I like the fresh air so much that I usually have a window cracked during the winter.
Nothing like driving on a crisp cold day with the window right down, and the heating on full blast pointing at my feet.
I guess the Zagato bodywork was just too thin to mount pop-out rear windows, like on old Porsches? (and a lot of other cars)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuboeXao4kK/?img_index=1
As far as oddball power window setups, I can’t think of one that makes less sense than the 4dr and wagon GM G-Body cars. Conventional windows up front, power or manual, but the rear door main glass is fixed. To add insult to injury, the rear vent windows get power open and close.
Was this some sort of wierd child safety feature? Did GM not know how to make a window regulator that would fit in the smaller (relative) rear doors of the G-Body? Did they just expect the AC to work forever?
It’s been a question on my mind since I was a little kid, stuck with hot air only in the back of my parent’s ’82 Regal.
They believed people would be more concerned about interior space when they were downsizing to the G body, so they had to make the doors as thin as possible for maximum interior room width. It was also a cost-cutting measure and they were able to market it as a child safety feature.
I think the rear wheel wells cut too far into the window space as well, plus if you look at the shape of the rear window it’s kinda like a trapezoid, which I’m guessing makes rolling it down difficult.
They should put that in the Supra
I commuted 9 years in my 1984 W123 turbodiesel, most of those years the A/C was kaput.
Best solution was to drop the rear passenger glass about 2″, crack the sunroof about the same amount and drop the driver’s window a couple of inches. That eliminated all the buffeting and delivered copious amounts of fresh air. The sunroof had a nifty air deflector that popped up when open, so the cabin remained pretty quiet.
I loved the hand-cranked sunroof in my 300TD: crank it back until the deflector raised fully, then I was safe from buffeting.
A smart person on Thingiverse made a spacer that allowed the rear window of the smart fortwo to be propped open while fooling the car that it was closed. It’s a brilliant little piece of kit that I keep meaning to replicate for use in my other car.
Is that where the exhaust comes in?
My Matrix sucks that in when I open the window portion of the hatch.
So, cool, clever. Killer, one might say.
This!
I know someone with a Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato.
The rear hatch does little more than let exhaust fumes into the cabin—completely impractical.
However, it would make for a great piece on how flawed this design is.
Of course, it would require some due diligence.
Writing from a purely aesthetic point of view, without real-world experience, wouldn’t do it justice. But it’s interesting, and that’s good enough for you, Jason.
I had a 2006 4Runner and when I would drive with the back hatch window down, would definitely get exhaust fumes. Basically had to make sure all windows were down to be able to breath. Really sucked as it is/was a great feature
Yep it is the second switch. Used to have one.
ANNNNND?????
Did you like it? Did yours work? Did it work as described here? Please elaborate!!!!
Lol, yes it was great. Worked as intended and I couldn’t believe in a 48 year old (at the time) Italian car it worked every time.
What was the other switch for?
That’s a nifty option I wish more would do. The Impulse I had back in the day had pop out rear windows and used it all the time. The Dodge minivan had powered pop outs, very nice.
To alleviate the buffeting, I’ve found if I roll down the passenger front window a few inches, then the driver side rear window a few inches, I get a nice cross breeze that isn’t blasting in the face. Well, for the driver at least. It’s good to about 60 mph, but above that it just too much noise and air.
I love the air flap windows on Chrysler minivans. (The rear side windows look fixed in place, but they’re hinged at the front. Early models opened manually, later ones were powered individually, and the latest are powered, but only operate as a pair.)
I wish all my vehicles had either those or rear hatch/door glass that opens like the Lancias. It’s such a simple improvement that makes a huge difference in daily life.
Both versions are awesome at getting the hot air out before starting the air conditioning. They’re so good that for me, they reduce the times I’ll actually use my AC by about half.
I always thought it was a solution for pre flow-through ventilation, but it makes sense that, even with FTV, you’d still get the buffeting that this would solve. Especially important with the weedy European car engines of the day and famously bad AC, if equipped. One of the reasons I like sunroofs is that cracking them open has a similar effect of mitigating the resonance.
Completely agree, particularly re: sunroofs/moonroofs. On my Accord, putting the moonroof in the tilt position completely eliminates buffeting even at freeway speeds and the only noticeable increase in sound levels is being able to hear road noise and other stuff going on outside the cabin. Despite a pop-up wind deflector, fully open there’s some buffeting at higher speeds, but it’s nice around town and on slower secondary roads to get the additional circulation and environmental sounds.
My Subaru GL and Legacy had aftermarket sunroofs with no deflectors and, with the panels out, the buffeting could be brutal unless the windows were open. So, IME, the wind deflectors are a help. They don’t solve the problem, but they move up the speed where the buffeting gets annoying.
At certain speeds, the deflectors on both my ’01 Jetta and ’17 Accord create more noise and turbulence up than when you hold it down. I’m sure testing was performed, and compromises were made.
I would get the hissing noise, but less buffeting. Playing with the height of the deflector while driving, there were times where lower was optimal, but yeah, without becoming an overcomplicated mess to make it variable height, they had to pick a compromise position.
Same on my X3 BMW – more noise with the deflector up.
My 2018 is about the same. At highway speeds the noise levels become annoying. The cross flow solution – passenger front, driver rear and vice-versa also works. Too bad Honda couldn’t have put in some pop out window vents on the vestigal rear rear windowlets, you know, like make them useful instead of styling fillips.
Didn’t you recently write about a similar feature on the Matra Djet? Don’t recall if it was powered or not, but I’m pretty sure it had a pop up boot to smooth turbulence.
The silver knob on the Fulvia is the trip reset.
Damn it. Why don’t new cars have this feature. This fantastic AND looks kind of cool.
If new cars had this, how many screens do you think you’d have to scroll through before finding the touch-sensitive icon that operates it?
Plus, you’d probably have to buy a subscription to be able to use it.
That’s awesome.
The rear windows on my EF hatch pop out about an inch, and man, it’s just so pleasant most days to have those open.
Are there any drainage holes on the lower part of the window/hatch(?)/d ring where the flanges are? Curious to know if water pools in there or not since the bottom part is closed off.
Man that part about more aerodynamic cars having the problem worse is no joke. In my Volt, having the fronts open, or all four, is no problem. But if you open the rears, while leaving the fronts closed? Absolutely unbearable. Sounds like somebody strapped subwoofers to your head.
Opening the rear windows only did the opposite on my hatches and wagons Front windows alone were much worse, though cracking the sunroof usually solved it. Rears only not only avoided the resonance, but had less wind noise. The wagon was not great aerodynamically, but the Focus was .26, I think, which is pretty good.
Most cars get the Helmholtz resonance worst with just one rear window open. This makes a lot of sense when you consider how a whistle(a Helmholtz resonator) works and that by opening just one rear window you are creating the best possible approximation of a whistle geometry.
Yes, a 10Hz whistle.
Love this type of thing, my old Impala was always great windows down being a hardtop and probably having so many rust spots for air to escape out of, no buffeting ever, haha.
Every time my ex wife opened the window on her side, I would crack open the back window and she thought it was stupid… apparently she was impervious to that buffeting sensation. It led to many fights. I’m not saying this is why we divorced, but it would have been a valid reason.
My old Toyota truck has rear pop-out windows. Since the latches are broken they automatically open when the front windows are down over 40mph. No motor required!