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car Easter eggs
7 cars whose designers hid secret Easter eggs inside - from sharks to the Tesla submarine
We’ve combed through the archives for some cracking – geddit – examples of quirky design.
EASTER EGGS AREN’T just left behind by the Easter Bunny. Sometimes they are left behind by car designers too as an in-joke or message.
In motoring – as elsewhere – an ‘Easter egg’ is an intentional hidden feature in a car that has some sort of story behind it.
So to mark the season, we’ve been on an Easter egg hunt. Here are some of the cracking Easter eggs we’ve found:
1. The headlights on the Ford GT
The Ford GT was built to celebrate Ford’s centennial which occured in 2003. If you look closely at the headlights you’ll notice that there is a hidden ’100′ as a nod to the 100th year of Ford building automobiles.
2. ‘Window Willys’ on the Jeep Renegade
There are loads of Easter eggs hidden in the Jeep Renegade. In the loose change cubby there is a trail map of Moab, Utah – a natural habitat for hard-core Jeep owners – plus there is a strolling Sasquatch on the rear window.
There is also a Willys Jeep printed on the wheel and a tiny Willys Jeep driving along the windscreen. The Willys Jeep is the indestructible original 4×4 Jeep that helped the U.S. and its allies during World War II. The Easter eggs on the Jeep Renegade help reinforce the fun loving nature of the model.
3. Logo lights on the McLaren P1
Look closely at the lights of the McLaren P1 and you’ll see that the shape of the headlights is actually the McLaren ‘Speed Marque’ emblem.
Regarding the Speed Marque logo, McLaren said: “The revamped logo that first appeared in 1997 featured a streamlined speedmark which bears similarities to the vortices created by our rear wing… [and] evokes the aggressive markings found on predatory animals and insects.”
4. Sneaky sharks on the Opel Corsa
Be careful, there are tiny wild sharks on board the Opel Corsa. But don’t worry, they won’t bite – they are hidden and almost invisible in the car’s interior.
Since 2006, a few Opel designers have been finding discreet ways of putting shark motifs inside the cars they work on.
This all started when Opel designer and diver Dietmar Finger was working on a sketch for the outer panel of the glove box on the new Corsa. Dietmar’s son saw his sketch with the sharks and said they looked pretty cool. Dietmar agreed.
The next day, he showed his fine-tuned shark profile to Australian-born Corsa Chief Designer Niels Loeb, who was immediately sold on the idea. The shark in the glove box went into production. It’s now a standard feature in the interior of well over two million Corsas which have been produced since 2006.
5. Soybean mirrors on the Pagani Huayra
Horacio Pagani is the Argentine founder of Pagani Automobili, an Italian specialty auto-maker. He is revered for the incredible levels of artistic dedication that he puts into his exotic car designs.
For example, on the Pagani Huayra – the mid-engined hypercar named after Huayra-tata, a Quechua wind god - the wing mirrors are inspired by soybean stalks. The leaf-shaped works of carbonfibre art are stuck on the end of each stalk. (Pagani has also said that the side mirrors were modeled after “the shape of a woman’s eye”.)
6. Submarine settings on the Tesla Model S
Tesla boss Elon Musk is the king of Easter eggs and there are loads in the Tesla Model S and X – including being able to turn your Tesla into a 007 vehicle. Kind of.
If you go into the settings and name your car ’007′ the photo on the touchscreen turns from a Tesla into the Lotus Esprit submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me. The screen also shows ‘Depth (Leagues)’ instead of the suspension settings.
Elon Musk owns the famous Bond movie submersible, having bought it at auction in 2013 for nearly USD$1 million. He is working on a ‘side project’ to build his own submarine car.
7. Geeky girths on the Toyota GT86
There are plenty of geeky hidden Easter eggs in the Toyota GT86 – including the badge that looks like a drifting car and ‘T’ motifs throughout the cabin and on the grille (the T stands for Toyota to mark the car out from the Subaru BRZ, which is essentially the same car).
However, perhaps the nerdiest detail is that the exhaust tip measures 86mm, exactly the same as the bore and stroke of the engine. The 86 is a tribute to the iconic AE86 Toyota models.
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