Chevrolet Corvette (C2)

1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray split-window coupe, by Larry Shinoda under Bill Mitchell Detroit's own answer to the European coupes. Larry Shinoda drew it under the direction of GM styling chief Bill Mitchell, with pop-up headlights and a spine that ran down the roof and split the rear window in two. That divider is the whole story in miniature. Chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov argued it hurt rear visibility, Mitchell reportedly said that without it you might as well forget the whole thing, and the split window lasted just one model year. Look at it for American design confidence at its peak, and for a famous detail that won the argument only once.