From time to time, car manufacturers realize that letting light into the car is really cool. We spend hours every day in the closed box, from which there is only a side view: it’s no wonder that the classic sunroof has been with us for a long time.
Let the sunlight in
In addition, the various panoramic roofs that are split, continuous, with shades or with heat-reflecting properties are also becoming more and more popular. However, few people think about the driver! As long as the passengers can look up, behind the wheel this is not a very smart thing, the driver assistance software is not yet there to allow us to do this.
However, a few manufacturers have already shown how to do this. You don’t have to focus on the roof, you have to extend the front windshield, thus providing an unparalleled view for those sitting in front. This is exactly why the audience marveled at the Tesla Model X, it was also considered a great innovation, what a move by Elon Musk’s company to let light into the passenger compartment.
But they were by no means the first in the modern era. Of course, there have been attempts before, all kinds of bubble-like strange modern ideas, but the real, available, series-produced panoramic windshield was certainly launched by Opel, with the Astra H generation.
It required a special glass
All this happened in 2004, but even then Vezess reported on the latest and most important car news, we wrote about Opel’s innovation: “It’s like flying! According to Opel, with the Astra GTC’s optional panoramic windshield, we can enjoy a view like behind the stick of a sports plane.
The glass made of special glass is 150 cm long and 116 cm wide on average. The 6 mm thick windshield is integrated with the roof window and reaches all the way to the B-pillar. Since there is no central roof brace between the A-pillars, the feeling can be that of an observatory. The entire open sky can be enjoyed from the car.
The sunshades are on the manually retractable shade. The heated glass of the windshield takes its shape in the mold from its own weight. The almost 1.8 square meter glass roof of the GTC is protected by a patent.
To prevent the spectacle from becoming a hot glass cage, the one and a half meter long windshield was equipped with a special heat protection layer. Of course, they didn’t forget about the usual fold-down sunshades either, excessive sunlight should never blind the driver.”
Opel liked it
At Opel, they saw that this was a successful enough feature to remain part of the range, so the next Astra also received the solution, but the Zafira MPV was also fitted with a gigantic front windshield, which also received a retractable shade. It was really a gigantic piece, which with the split A-pillar gave the driver a quite unusual field of vision. At that time, Citroen also followed Opel’s example, the C4 Picasso also received a similar panoramic windshield.
This is what we wrote about this solution in 2007: “The biggest charm of Citroën’s new minivan is clearly the huge and expansive front windshield. It’s like sitting in an IMAX theater and watching a 3D nature movie through the stupid paper glasses. The only difference is that this is reality.
Although the GTC Astra was previously available with a panoramic windshield, it is nowhere near as spectacular, and in our experience, it distorts strongly at the edges. Here, the bisected A-pillar is so transparent that it is as if the whole windshield were a single glass surface up to the door glass. And this is not what the factory marketing material claims. Pedestrians are saved.
In addition to the positive effect of the solution on passengers, it did not spread due to its clear disadvantages: it was expensive to manufacture, and there was a high chance of injury due to the impact of gravel, which the buyers were aware of. This is why the extra offered at a hefty price has disappeared from the range of mass producers, and today the continuous glass surface built into the roof is more common.
Source: www.vezess.hu
