It’s no secret that I’m a man who loves a novel trunk. I find trunks inspirational, even. Today, I’d like to share with you a trunk concept that’s not just inspirational, it’s flat-out mind-blowing. So get a dropcloth handy. The car is a Ford city car concept from 1980 called the Pockar, and it may have the most novel trunk setup I’ve ever seen.
Are you ready? I mean, you’re not, but just try. Hold on. Here it is:
Holy shit, right? This is like space-utilization black tar heroin right here. Just look at what’s going on here. The genius designers at Ghia made it their mission to not let a solitary drop of cubic volume go to waste in this little car, and to achieve this noble goal, not only did they build a little one-box car capable of seating four with some cargo volume at the rear, they took the dead space inside the doors and made it into usable luggage room.
This is the car-trunk equivalent of Mark Rothko’s 1951 painting No.6 (Violet, Green and Red)– simple, unassuming, but when you’re in front of it and really contemplate it, numinous and profound.
The little suitcases inside these door pockets (from which the car gets its portmanteau name, pocket+car=Pockar) are custom fitted luggage, which is a nice touch, but I think any sort of duffel bag could fit inside there.
I have no idea why this never caught on, other than that carmakers just weren’t willing to put so much money or sophistication into a little city car. Maybe one of the Japanese Kei car makers will finally give this idea the chance it deserves.
The interior is like the whole 1980s, boiled down into its constituent brown velour and slathered everywhere, and those mirrors look like they inspired the design of Ford’s first-gen Probe.
Oh, little pocket-car, thank you. Thank you for just existing, and holding my brown velour suitcases of respect in your doors.