One of the most famous automobile roof designs ever debuted at the Geneva Motor show in 1963 on the Mercedes-Benz 230 SL, also called the “W113.” The lid, with its concave shape, earned the car the name “Pagoda,” a term alluding to “curved roofs of Far Eastern temples.” But the shape didn’t exist for just aesthetic reasons, it also offered practical benefits includingvisibilityand ease of ingress.
This all comes form the legendary designer Paul Bracq, who says in the video below from auto supplier Mahle—and my German is getting a rusty so forgive me here—something to the effect of: “We needed a car with good visibility and ingress capability…at the time, we needed 10 centimeter of depth to give a roof stability. And if you flip the roof, then I have 10 centimeters better visibility and it’s easier to get into…and so the Pagoda was born.”
Jalopnik runs these “blip” posts every morning, and they usually just consist of a single picture and a small, single-paragraph description beneath it. But I couldn’t not show you that video. It’s a design legend talking about a masterpiece!
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