List of cars with non-standard door designs

This is a list of cars with non-standard door designs, sorted by door type. These car models use passenger door designs other than the standard design, which is hinged at the front edge of the door, and swings away from the car horizontally and towards the front of the car.

List of non-standard door designs

The main types of non-standard door designs are:

  • Butterfly – butterfly doors move via hinges along the A-pillar, on an axis not aligned vertically or horizontally to the vehicle or ground. A special type of butterfly door is a single door at the front of the car with the steering wheel attached.
  • Canopy – roof, windshield, and sides are one unit that moves upward, forward, or sideways to provide access.
  • Gullwing – (also called "falcon-wing") hinged to the roof at the top horizontal edge of the door, and open upward on a horizontal axis. Gullwing doors with a second hinge between door and moving roof panel are called falcon wing doors.

Similar to a Gull Wing door the Falcon wing door is a double hinged rear door on the Tesla Model X. The primary hinge is located along the midline of the roof, the second hinge is above the side window. This configuration has the advantage of allowing unobstructed access to the rear seats whilst also enabling the doors to open in a tight space because the door can initially open upwards before spreading outwards with a gap as small as 8-inches to adjacent vehicles.

  • Scissors – rotate vertically at a fixed hinge at the front of the door, and open by rotating on a horizontal axis, perpendicular to the vehicle's length. Scissor doors that also move outward while rotating are called dihedral synchro-helix actuation doors.
  • Sliding – mounted to or suspended from a track, and open by sliding horizontally alongside or into the vehicle sidewall, or open by sliding vertically into the vehicle sidewall or floor. Sliding doors that disappear into the floor horizontally are called rolling doors.
  • Suicide – hinged on the rear end of the door-frame, and open horizontally towards the rear.
  • Swan  – opens outward like either a conventional door or a suicide door, but on an axis slightly tilted from vertical, or via articulation in the hinge to angle upward for better ground clearance 

Some custom limousines have enlarged doors.

Scissor doors
Scissor doors open on a Lamborghini Murciélago

Racing cars

Concept cars

Butterfly doors
Butterfly doors open on a McLaren F1

Racing cars

A common door design on Group C, IMSA GTP cars of the 1980s and early 1990s and recently on Daytona Prototype and Le Mans Prototype cars, this list does not include cars categorized as such. This list only includes purpose built race cars.

Concept cars

Gullwing doors
Gullwing doors open on a Mercedes-Benz 300SL
Gullwing doors open on an Eagle SS

Racing cars

Concept cars

Suicide doors
Delahaye Type 135 with its front suicide doors open
Saturn Ion Quad Coupe with its suicide half-rear doors open

Models of automobiles that featured suicide doors (i.e., doors hinged at the rear) include most full-sized extended-cab pickup trucks (rear doors only), and some vehicles categorised:

Canopy doors
Lifting canopy on a Sterling Nova
Canopy doors on a Saab Aero-X

Swan doors
Aston Martin Vantage with swan doors

They open outward like either a conventional door or a suicide door, but hinge slightly upward as well for better ground clearance, includes some vehicles categorised:

Dihedral Synchro-helix actuation doors
Koenigsegg CCX with dihedral doors open
Main article: Dihedral Synchro-Helix Actuation Doors

Dihedral doors are a type of doors found on all Koenigsegg cars. They open by rotating 90° at the hinge.

Other door types
AMC Pacer passenger door is longer than driver's side and disguised by the broad B-pillar while the door's opening cut into the roof also hides the rain gutter
1973 Mohs SafariKar outward sliding door on four centrally mounted rods
  • AMC Pacer  – Aircraft-style doors improve sealing and reduce wind noise, top of door wraps into the roof, hinges provide an outward arc for the top of the door for easier egress when open, rain gutters are hidden in the roof cut outs, the passenger door is four-inches (101 mm) longer than the driver's and the difference disguised by the broad B-pillar design[4][5][6][7]
  • BMW 600  – Left-side-mounted front door
  • Chevrolet Testudo  – Canopy hinged at the front
  • Chrysler ME Four-Twelve  – Conventional front doors, but no door handles
  • FMR Tg500  – Aircraft-style canopy doors, hinge on right side
  • Ford GT (first generation), Ford GT40 and Ford GT90  – Conventional front-hinged doors that have panels extended to the roof of the car (also called aircraft doors)
  • Hudson Italia  – Doors cut 14 inches (356 mm) into the roof (also called aircraft doors)[8][9]
  • Hyundai Veloster  – Driver side of the car has one coupe-sized door, but the passenger side has two smaller, sedan-sized doors for front and rear occupants
  • Lincoln Futura  – Glass roof canopy hinged at the rear
  • Lincoln Mark VIII Concept  – Doors "rolled" into underbody of frame (also called disappearing doors)[10]
  • Messerschmitt Kabinenroller  – Aircraft-style canopy doors, hinge on right side
  • Mitsuoka MC-1  – Plastic doors that can be removed when opened
  • Mohs SafariKar  – Doors slide outward from the body on four linear rods mounted behind the front row of seats providing egress from both the front and rear of the car when opened[11]
  • Peel Manxcar  – Suicide rear-hinged doors that open until it touches the body of the car
  • Peel Trident  – Flip-top door that opens like a canopy
  • Smart Crossblade  – Minimal "sword-like" door
  • Suzuki CV1  – One single door in the car's fiberglass body
  • Suzuki Pixy + SSC  – The SSC has its doors hinged at both the front and rear of the car, but the Pixy has a glass roof canopy hinged at the rear
  • Tata Magic Iris  – All three doors are conventional doors, 2 doors on the passenger's side and 1 door on the driver's side
  • Toyota i-Unit  – Glass roof canopy hinged at the rear
  • TVR Tuscan Speed Six  – Conventional front doors, but door handles are in button form under the side mirrors
  • Zündapp Janus  – Front- and rear-mounted side-hinged doors

Sliding doors
1954 Kaiser Darrin with its sliding pocket door opened

Sliding doors are common on minivans, leisure activity vehicles, light commercial vehicles and minibuses. A few passenger cars have notably also been equipped with sliding doors, such as the Peugeot 1007, the Suzuki Alto Slide Slim, the BMW Z1 and the 1954 Kaiser Darrin. Many concept cars use the design as well

Concept cars

No doors

Some cars – generally those of a very open design – have no doors at all.


References
  1. "For Your Information". Car and Driver. 13: 80. 1967. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  2. "Lancia Stratos Prototipo". videodigitalpixel. youtube.com. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  3. "Photograph". sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014.
  4. "Test driving the new Honda and Pacer". Kiplinger's Personal Finance. 29 (7): 29–30. July 1975. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  5. "Design Notes: 1975 AMC Pacer". GM Inside News. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  6. Montgomery, Andrew (2003). Illustrated Directory of American Automobiles. Salamander Books. p. 311. ISBN 9781840655346. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  7. Koch, Jeff (March 2012). "1975-'80 AMC Pacer: The Pacer pointed the way toward modern car-design priorities". Hemmings Motor News. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  8. Lyons, Dan (2005). Cars of the Fantastic '50s. Krause Publications. pp. 58–61. ISBN 9780873499262. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  9. Vance, Bill (29 January 2010). "Motoring Memories: Hudson Italia, 1954". Autos Canada. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  10. Massy, Kevin (18 July 2007). "Entrancing: Lincoln's disappearing-door concept". cnet. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  11. McCabe, John (21 December 2014). "The Mohs SafariKar: There's Nothing Like it (and for Good Reason)". DrivingLine. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
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