It's pretty much the standard Super Gobot car transformation. Zeemon, Bugbite, Baron Von Joy, etc. All of them used it.
@Superomegaprime : When the first DX Machine Robo (what became the Super Gobots) figure came out, it was the "
Psychoroid", a futuristic car that appeared in one or two episodes of the anime
Space Adventure Cobra. I believe the figure was envisioned more as a piloted mecha rather than an independent robot character. This can easily be seen by the red and chrome driver figures in the cockpit, representing Cobra (the red one) and Lady Armoroid (the chrome one) piloting the robot (which is why the 2 drivers seem like mis-matched colors, when in reality its an intentional color choice). So, you're not that far off, much like a Macross Valkyrie, a lot of the early DX Machine Robo figures utilized that concept of maintaining a place for the drivers between modes, and the radio based on those figures does the same. Not sure I'd call it a dumb transformation, if I were driving a transforming car, I would hope it would do something similar for the passenger compartment...