I remember years – shit, decades – ago, when I was still a young collegian, full of collagen, I was walking with my friend Chris in a parking lot somewhere to my car, the same 1973 Beetle I have today. Chris looked at the car, and started to laugh. I asked him what the hell he was laughing about and he pointed to the car. “On the front, that’s…that’s just a handle.” Chris was pointing to the VW’s chrome hood handle, low and front and center right there on the hood, just above the bumper. Well, yeah, it’s a handle, that’s how you get the trunk open! So why did this strike Chris as so odd? Was he just an idiot? I mean, kinda, but that’s not really why. He had a point: Most cars don’t just have handles right on their noses.
This is one of those weird unspoken rules of auto design: prominent handles that you grab with your hand and pull are only allowed on doors or occasionally hatches or trunk lids or rear doors: never on the front. This rule was well-enough understood that even a non-car-interested normie like my friend Chris there clocked it, and when he actually finally did look at my car and saw it, it struck him as comical.
I mean, I suppose I generally understand why this is; auto design, at least since, say, the 1930s, has favored sleeker designs that shun something as utilitarian as a straight-up handle on the nose of a car. Big grilles and ornate hood ornament sculptures, sure, but a handle? Pfffft. What are we, animals?
This got me thinking about the cars that bravely violate the no-handles-on-your-face rule, and I only came up with a handful of cars. For an unspoken rule, it’s pretty religiously adhered to. Here’s the cars I can think of that aren’t afraid of a nose handle; it’s likely I’ve forgotten some examples, so if one springs to mind, please, tell me in the comments, so this page can become the go-to resource for Nose Handle Cars.
Nose Handler 1: Volkswagen Beetle
The Beetle has to be the best known and by far the most common car to flaunt the No Face Handles rule, and it’s been flaunting the rule throughout its life, at least in original, air-cooled form from 1938 (where it started as a little L-shaped handle before it turned into the familiar chrome parenthesis in 1949) all the way until production stopped in 2003.
It’s revealing about the power of The Rule that, with one exception, no other VW made use of a Nose Handle, not even the re-born New Beetle, which substituted the VW badge where the handle once lived.
The one other VW to use a nose handle? The Australia-only VW Country Buggy, which I guess I’ll count as Nose Handler 1.5? Should it get its own entry? Maybe. Aw, crap, if we do the Country Buggy, then I guess we need to do the also VW-based Gurgel X12, which sported the same hood latch as the Country Buggy – a latch that was normally the Beetle and Bus’ engine lid (and, in the Bus’ case, hatch) latch.
Nose Handler 2: Porsche 356
Also derived from the Beetle is our next entry, and possibly the most valuable and desired of all the Nose Handle cars: the Porsche 356. The 356’s nose handle is much more streamlined than most, almost passing as a hood ornament, but it’s very much a handle, which you can check if you don’t believe me, because that’s how these are sold as parts:
That’s a handle, all right.
Nose Handler 3: DKW Schnellaster
I think this is the only van member of the Nose Handler Club, but boy is it a nice prominent one. That handle opened the hood for engine access, which, interestingly, also caused the headlight outer lenses to rise with the hood:
Damn, that’s some fantastic engine access!
Nose Handler 4: Front-Door Cars (BMW Isetta, Zündapp Janus, Trojan 200)
This is another sub-category of Nose Handlers, because all of these are cars with a door in the front, necessitating a handle of some kind. Interestingly, the lone modern entry into this category, the Microlino Isetta-inspired EV, seems to have made an attempt to meet the No Face Handle Rule and its door handle appears to be hidden:
I think they could have gotten away with a visible handle, if they had the ‘nads to try.
Nose Handler 5: Maico
In the early 1950s, German motorcycle builder Champion tried their hand at building a small car, hoping to help fill the huge postwar demand for small, inexpensive cars. In 1955, Maico, another motorcycle maker, took over building the cars, which were designed on a somewhat VW-like model, which, to be fair, was a popular approach to small cars of the era: rear-engined, streamlined, backbone chassis, that sort of thing.
Like the VW, the front luggage compartment could be accessed via a simple, prominent, unashamed handle, in roughly the same location as on a Beetle.
You know, I’m also noticing that the Nose Handlers seem to have a favorite headlamp provider: the VW, Porsche, DKW, and Maico all use those distinctive double-glass Bosch/Hella headlight units.
Nose Handler 6: Brutsch Mopetta
This last one is unique in that it’s the only time I can think of where the Nose Handle is not used to open a door or hood, but instead is used to drag an entire car around. That’s because the car, the Brutsch Mopetta, is so tiny it was designed to be lifted by that handle and moved around for parking or storage or just, you know, hijinx.
Only about 14 Mopettas were built by Brutsch, and only four are known to survive today. My Autopian partner Beau has one so we’ll get a whole video about this thing as soon as we can.
I think that’s all the Nose Handlers I can come up with, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn of more, so, please, if I’ve missed one, don’t be shy. I’m not sure how I feel about this no Face Handles rule in general, though; I think there’s a place for a good handle right up front, sometimes, and I challenge car designers to boldly push back against this sort of arbitrary rule.
The world needs more nose handlers!
Interestingly, the Type III / IV and Karmann Ghia did not include a nose handle (boring!). All hail the VW Beetle!
Very much not the same thing, but I always found the original Transit Connect a little perplexing, with the hood release being done via a key slot hidden behind the slide-up front emblem, rather than the conventional interior latch.
Not to be the thesaurus nazi, but in the sentence “The Beetle has to be the best known and by far the most common car to flaunt the No Face Handles rule, and it’s been flaunting the rule throughout its life” I think the word you want is “flout”, not “flaunt”.
To flaunt is to present something ostentatiously, while to flout is to violate a rule as blatantly and egregiously as possible. For example, a douchey trust fund baby may flout the rules of common decency while flaunting their wealth.
Not to be that guy but back when the handle was used there wasn’t a normal convention. So I say as a newspaper person of 25 years both would work but flout ie obvious would fit better.
Also my dad was an English major so there is that.
No mention of 1940 Fords?
Hummer H2 has has a thing or -two- to say about this…
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b3/1b/96/b31b9696dab7a79e8d0da14f610729fc.jpg
The Morris Minor is another mainstream car with a bonnet handle, although mildly disguised as a h0od ornament.
The Jenson CV-8 I’d a nearly, and it’s front engines too.
It does have a handle, but they hid it under its own little flap on the bonnet.
Can you please repost this in English? I have no idea what you are trying to say.
Saw a 1970s Citroen DS at a small local car show last weekend and it had the optional chrome hood ornament that had a distinct handle shape to it with a cutout centre.
Hino trucks, part of the Toyota family, have big handles right in front.
VW Type III hoods have a horizontal decorative piece that spans the width of the hood, there are indents underneath to -serve- as a handle. Not a through handle, but nevertheless functions as a handle for a front opening hood.
I’ll throw in the one-off Martin Martinette: https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/martin-martinette-1932
…and the Mercedes-Benz 130H: https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/mercedes-130h-1935
New Beetle handle trivia: 1998-2001 models had a flip-up VW emblem on the hatch that revealed a cute pop-out handle and a keyhole, one-upping the keyhole-only flippy emblem from the first-generation Altima.
It was replaced with a simple static badge for 2002 because it was just as easy to lift the hatch from under the lip, and it was basically pointless anyway – even with the car unlocked, the handle wouldn’t unlatch the hatch, it just gave you a secondary, less-physically-advantageous way to lift it open.
Don’t forget the all in one badge handle/ boot release on golf 5 or 6 (maybe more) that also exists on some SEAT or Cupra too.
https://static.ed.edmunds-media.com/unversioned/img/long-term/misc/vwgtihandle.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQNNT_OuZMamCFB0ouTa-f8OSh7nMgnFreB1Q&usqp=CAU
On topic and off topic.
Are articles like this considered part of the Torchtopian segment?
When DT is DU, its all Torchtopian.
Do front buttons count, like on the first-gen Suzuki Cultus (sold in America as the 1985-88 Chevy Sprint)?
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Chevrolet-1985-sprint-ffq.jpg
Is it a handle? No?
I think you’ve got your answer right there.
Torch, this got me thinking about how much gas you have wasted having that un-aerodynamic handle on the front of your car for…. 30 years? 5-10 gallons?
Even better, how much gas have you put into that car since you’ve owned it? Honest question.
The New Map Solyto has an arrangement that differs from any of the listed examples in that the handle is at the top of the hood, just below the windshield, and the hinges are at the bottom:
https://smallcarsclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Solyto-11.jpg
I’ll second the New Map Solyto.
What about the Mercedes secondary hood releases that pop out of the grille after you pop the hood? Or does a normally-hidden handle not count?
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/attachments/w210-e-class/361042d1299343639t-w210-secondary-hood-release-adjustment-dscn0811.jpg
My Alfa Romeo 164 has the same detail.
BMW E46 models also have a little hook that sticks out of the grille when you pop the hood from inside the cabin.
I’d argue that these are more the semaphores of nose handles than straight-up nose handles, but you are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.
I had a suspicion that early Tatras may have had a trunk handle, and some internet sleuthing confirmed. Too bad we can’t post pics here…
No, but we can link to the Lane’s website. The T-97: https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/tatra-t-97-1938
T-87: https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/tatra-t-87-saloon-1947
I was going to say, Jason forgot all about just what Ferdinand Porsche was looking at over Hans Ledwinka’s shoulder.
Front door opening micro-cars are just, well I don’t know if they are crazy fun or crazy crazy. I mean you are probably going to die in a serious front ender anyway, but if you don’t they are probably going to need a big can opener to pull you out of the wreckage.
Well here’s an idea on that. Of course the handle is needed so it doesn’t apply in this situation. But a little redesign you got yourself a motorized hamster ball. Forget Collisions the vehicle just bounces off and rolls. Has any engineers worked on this? Roll to a stop or some new kind of brakes? The airbag system just covers everything.
More people should be smart like me. S/
One of the non-functioning prop Checkers on the set of Taxi had a nose handle on the hood, does that count? Always wondered why that was there, it was kind of distracting in the background, like a slightly misaligned wallpaper seam that you immediately focus on every time you walk into the room
No
The Austin Healey Sprite (the Mk1 Bugeyed one) has a handle on the nose, but it’s low enough that it’s hidden by the front bumper when hidden. And really, it’s not really a nose handle as much as a tiny little beauty mark on the car’s chin. (it’s the handle to open up the bonnet, which is just a turn latch like trunk handles on later Spridgets)
That DKW van’s hood has a pretty neat hidden safety feature: if you ever forget to latch it properly and it flies up while you’re driving down the road, you can look through the headlight cutout!
Funny that you mention that, I was doing the annual emissions test the other day and I noticed that, when open, my front hood looks like a small crescent moon – it is actually quite driveable!
I wonder if we could rate the cars by the visibility they have with the hood open
Having driven a Ford F100 pickup for about 3/4 of a mile on the Hollywood freeway in traffic with the hood open, I have to tell you that those little slots that look like they have something to do with ventilation at the back of the hood make an excellent see what the hell is going on in front of you viewing port in those situations. Not that that didn’t keep me from immediately cutting a hole in the hood and installing a hood pin arrangement to keep the hood from ever opening on its own again.
Hear, hear. More nose handlers (handlen?) – enough of these stupid, hidden latches that make you hunch over and scrape your knuckles just to open your hood so you… can… hunch over and scrape your knuckles working on… the… car. Hmm.
I would suggest if your car knuckle scrappings occur during opening the hood you need to just hire a mechanic.
German practicality over form. We need more of this in cars.
No… no we dont.
There is already TOO much of this practicality BULLSHIT.
We dont have sedans.. not practical.
We dont have coupe / 2dr versions of sedans anymore.. not practical.
We dont have wagon versions of sedans anymore… not practical.
We dont have convertible = coupe / 2dr versions of cars anymore.. not practical
We dont have manual transmissions anymore.. not practical.
Screw practicality!
We have 4500+ vehicles that do nothing but haul around the same stuff as sedans did years ago, thats practical?
We add weight by adding in more tech and complexity to a vehicle.. thats practicality?
Everything is boring.. few cars with colors, cant get what you want.. thats practicality FOR YA!
FORM has GONE TO SHIT!
User name checks out
Not a full handle, but the Chevy Sprint deserves an honorary mention as perhaps the most modern reinterpretation of the handle. If only JT had the time to write about it…
https://www.theautopian.com/why-the-1980s-chevy-sprints-hoodlatch-is-so-utterly-baffling/