Hot Slut Of The Day!
Rear Window Car Louvers!
Growing up, one of our neighbors had wooden shades in every single window in her house, and I thought that was the height of interior design sophistication. Possibly because most of the windows in our house were covered in busted-down metal shades. So when I first spotted blinds on a car in the wild, I gasped at the luxury of it all before looking around for police vehicles. Because obviously, a luxury car like that was carrying an extremely important dignitary who needed security at all times!
Louvers, which sounds like the fan name for people who love The Louvre, are window shutters with horizontal slats. Wikipedia says that they go all the way back to the Middle Ages. They were used to keep out snow and rain. Louvers didn’t make their way onto the rear windows of cars until the 1960s. That was news to me because I thought they made their debut on car rear windows during the age of true refinement (aka the 1980s). This comment on the VWVortex forum from user VWLarry claims that rear window louvers first appeared on a Lamborghini in 1965. But they didn’t really become an IT sportscar accessory until four years later when Ford designer Larry Shinoda put them on a Mustang.
Rear window louvers originated with the Lamborghini Miura in ’65. They were partly design element (covering the then-novel mid-mounted engine in place of glass), and functional element (enabling at least some rearward visibility). From there, rear louvers gradually caught on as a fashion statement. The “big breakthrough” for rear louvers came in 1969, when Ford’s ace designer, Larry Shinoda, made “Sportslats” (Ford’s moniker for them) a featured element of the now iconic Mustangs, Boss 302 and Boss 429, as well as on the Mach 1 Mustang. They were stylish, but also kept interior heat lower, since the Mustangs had fastback rooflines with large, horizontal rear windows that let in huge amounts of sunlight.
As that comment mentions, rear window louvers weren’t only used to add a heaping touch of elegance to a car, but they also helped keep things cool inside and blocked the cops from seeing you and your piece get your fuck on while parked on Lover’s Lane.
I’d put a louver on my car today, but my eyesight is already bunk enough, and I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to see shit. But then again, I really wouldn’t have to watch for cars behind me since everyone would spot my rear window louver and immediately pull over, thinking that an extremely important dignitary was driving through.
Pic: Reddit