Scissor doors
Encyclopedia
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
doors
Vehicle door
A vehicle door is a partition, typically hinged, but sometimes attached by other mechanisms such as tracks, in front of an opening which is used for entering and exiting a vehicle. A vehicle door can be opened to provide access to the opening, or closed to secure it. These doors are similar to...
that rotate vertically at a fixed hinge at the front of the door, rather than outwardly as with a conventional door.
History
The first vehicle to feature scissor doors was the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo concept car, designed by Bertone's Marcello GandiniMarcello Gandini
Marcello Gandini is an Italian car designer, widely known for his work with the automotive design house Gruppo Bertone, notably his design of the Lamborghini Countach. Together with Giorgetto Giugiaro and Leonardo Fioravanti, Gandini forms a noted triumvirate of Italian car designers, all born in...
. The door style was dictated by Gandini's desire for an innovative design, and by his concern over the car's extremely poor rear visibility. In order to reverse the car, the driver would be able to lift the door and lean his upper body out of the hatch in order to see behind the car. The first production car to feature the doors was a Lamborghini
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...
, Gandini's Countach
Lamborghini Countach
The Lamborghini Countach is a mid-engined supercar that was produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini from 1974 to 1990. Its design both pioneered and popularized the wedge-shaped, sharply angled look popular in many high performance sports cars...
; the sports car's wide chassis created similar problems to those found on the Carabo, calling for the unusual door configuration. The doors were used on the Countach's successor, the Diablo
Lamborghini Diablo
The Lamborghini Diablo is a high-performance mid-engined sports car that was built by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1990 and 2001. It was the first Lamborghini capable of attaining a top speed in excess of . After the end of its production run in 2001, the Diablo was replaced by the...
, on its replacement, the Murciélago
Lamborghini Murciélago
The Lamborghini Murciélago is a two-door, two-seat sports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 2001 and 2010. Successor to the Diablo and flagship of the automaker's lineup, the Murciélago was introduced as a coupé in 2001. The automaker's first new design in eleven years, the car...
, and on a low-production run derivative of the Murciélago called the Reventón
Lamborghini Reventón
The Lamborghini Reventón is a mid-engine sports car that debuted at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show. It is the most expensive Lamborghini road car to date, costing one million euros . Its top recorded speed was recorded in Dubai, UAE at...
. Having used the exotic door style for several of its cars, the Italian manufacturer has become synonymous with the implementation of scissor doors, which are sometimes colloquially referred to as "Lambo doors".
Advantages
- Offers the possibility of operating the car with the door open, in a manner that would be difficult or impossible in a car with conventional doors.
- Because the doors stay within the car's trackGround trackA ground track or ground trace is the path on the surface of the Earth directly below an aircraft or satellite. In the case of a satellite, it is the projection of the satellite's orbit onto the surface of the Earth .A satellite ground track may be thought of as a path along the Earth's surface...
throughout their range of movement, they are useful when parkingParkingParking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions...
in tight spaces. A gullwing door style offers similar visibility, but the doors swing out from the car's area slightly.
- The hinge is placed in a similar location to a conventional door, so a convertibleConvertibleA convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away having windows which wind-down inside the doors, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle...
version of the car is possible with the same door style.
- Reduces the dooringDoor zoneThe door zone is the space spanning about four feet from the sides of parallel parked cars. It is hazardous to ride a bicycle or motorcycle in a door zone because if a door is suddenly opened, the cyclist must either crash into it , brake suddenly, or swerve into the adjacent lane of traffic...
hazard to cyclists.
Disadvantages
- The door still impedes access/egress much more than a gullwing and, in some cases, more than a conventional door.
- The manufacture cost of the door hinge can be more than that of a conventional door.
- If the height of the parking lotParking lotA parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
ceiling is insufficient, the door may come into contact with it when opened.
- In the event of a rollover, emergency egress may be more difficult than with conventional doors, if not impossible.
Types
There are different types of scissor doors. The conventional type rotates to 90 degrees. Scissor doors can be powered and they usually are.VLS
VLS doors have a scissor door configuration. The biggest difference is that they are designed to initially open slightly outward before opening upward to allow the top edge of the door to clear the door frame and A-pillar. Although butterfly doorsButterfly doors
Butterfly doors or vertical doors are a type of door sometimes seen on high-performance automobiles. They are similar to scissor doors, but while scissor doors move up, butterfly doors also move outwards, which makes for easier entry/exit at the expense of saving space.The McLaren F1, Alfa Romeo 33...
also move upwards and outwards, VLS doors are not butterfly doors, this is because VLS doors move outwards to a very small degree compared to the angle of butterfly doors
Butterfly doors
Butterfly doors or vertical doors are a type of door sometimes seen on high-performance automobiles. They are similar to scissor doors, but while scissor doors move up, butterfly doors also move outwards, which makes for easier entry/exit at the expense of saving space.The McLaren F1, Alfa Romeo 33...
.
130 Degrees
Although conventional scissor doors rotate to 90 degrees, some can rotate up to 130 degrees; these are commonly used for modified cars. These have the benefit that they don't obstruct the entrance or exit to the car as much as conventional scissor doors. VLS doors also can rotate to 130 degrees.Scissor-conventional door hybrid
Some aftermarket example scissor doors are also designed so they can open vertically, and horizontally like a conventional car door. These are used so the user can get the benefits of both types of door and open the door in whichever style is best suited to the situation.See also
- List of cars with unusual door designs
- Suicide doorSuicide doorA suicide door is a car door hinged on the trailing edge, the edge closer to the rear of the vehicle. Such doors are rarely used on vehicles in modern times because of their disadvantages....
s - Gull-wing doorGull-wing doorGull-wing door is an automotive industry term describing car doors that are hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by the 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300SL race car and its road-legal version introduced in 1954....
s - Butterfly doorsButterfly doorsButterfly doors or vertical doors are a type of door sometimes seen on high-performance automobiles. They are similar to scissor doors, but while scissor doors move up, butterfly doors also move outwards, which makes for easier entry/exit at the expense of saving space.The McLaren F1, Alfa Romeo 33...
- Sliding doorsSliding door (vehicle)A sliding door is a type of door that opens by sliding , whereby the door is either mounted on or suspended from a track. These aren't usually used in small vehicles, but generally they're most commonly used for minibuses and buses to provide a large entrance or exit for passengers without...
- Canopy doorVehicle canopyA vehicle canopy is a rarely used type of door for cars. It has no official name so it is also known as an articulated canopy, bubble canopy, cockpit canopy, canopy door, or simply a canopy. A canopy is a type of door which sits on top of a car and lifts up in some way, to provide access for...
- Vehicle doorVehicle doorA vehicle door is a partition, typically hinged, but sometimes attached by other mechanisms such as tracks, in front of an opening which is used for entering and exiting a vehicle. A vehicle door can be opened to provide access to the opening, or closed to secure it. These doors are similar to...