Wing doors, butterfly doors, sliding doors and much more
Car doors with hinges at the front? Dull! Over the years, many car manufacturers have reinvented the door.
The suicide door
Or ‘suicide door’, with hinges at the back. The term is debatable. However, these types of doors are considered dangerous because the wind can get a hold if they open unexpectedly while driving. You run the risk of falling out of the car trying to close it again. Recent examples of these types of doors are the latest Opel Meriva and the BMW i3, the Mazda MX-30 also has them. The picture shows a Lincoln Continental.
The butterfly door
In other words, ‘butterfly doors’, which open diagonally upwards and outwards. A good example is the 1992 McLaren F1, and modern McLarens still have them. The first production car with butterfly doors was the 1967 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.
Alfa Romeo T33 Stradale
McLaren F1
The scissor door
In other words, ‘scissor door’, a variant of the butterfly door, in which the door in this case hinges upwards at an angle, but does not deviate outwards. The hinges are not attached to the A-pillar but lower to the body. The Lamborghini Countach was the first production car she had in 1974.
The sliding door
In modern times, became known in the BMW Z1, where the door moved vertically. Horizontal is also possible, as with the Peugeot 1007, and the rear doors of the B-Max and various larger MPVs from the eighties, nineties and zero, or, from a completely different era, the Kaiser Darrin from 1954.
Kaiser Darrin
The gull-wing door
Or ‘gullwing door’, with the hinges in the roof. Whereby your brain if all goes well a direct line with the Mercedes 300 SL from the 50s. The idea was later copied with the Bricklin SV-1 and DeLorean DMC12, among others.
The hood
Or ‘canopy’, where the complete roof and ‘greenhouse’ (windows and window frames) hinge in one way or another forward, backward, sideways or upwards. Not useful, but cool. So widely used on concept cars, but also on, for example, the two-seater Bond Bug from 1970.
The front door
The trademark of the microcars of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Heinkel Kabine and BMW Isetta. You enter these eggs by opening the large front door sideways, with the steering rod moving along via extra hinge points.
Micro Microlino, the modern interpretation of the Isetta.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl