Finally had a moment to go back and look.
In 1978, Giugiaro did the Isuzu Piazza, which auto journalists claimed at the time, to be the first production car to have the 'clamshell' hood. It's elegant, using an existing visual cut line on the nose to serve as a real body cut. leaving the uncluttered upper surface.
https://gunpowderblue.com/isuzu-piazza/