Gull-wing door
Encyclopedia
Gull-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
Mercedes-Benz 300SL
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL was introduced in 1954 as a two-seat, closed sports car with distinctive gull-wing doors. Later it was offered as an open roadster...
race car (W194) and its road-legal version (W198) introduced in 1954.
Opening upwards, the doors evoke the image of a seagull's wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
s. In French they are portes papillon (butterfly doors). The papillon door, slightly different in its architecture from a gullwing door – which Jean Bugatti designed in 1939, fourteen years before Mercedes-Benz produced its similar, famous 300SL gullwing door - is a pre-cursor, but is often overlooked when discussing "Gull-wing" design. Conventional car doors are typically hinged at the front-facing edge of the door and the door swings outward in a horizontal plane.
Apart from the Mercedes-Benz 300SL
Mercedes-Benz 300SL
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL was introduced in 1954 as a two-seat, closed sports car with distinctive gull-wing doors. Later it was offered as an open roadster...
of the mid-1950s and the experimental Mercedes-Benz C111
Mercedes-Benz C111
The C111 was a series of experimental automobiles produced by Mercedes-Benz in the 1960s and 1970s. The company was experimenting with new engine technologies, including Wankel engines, Diesel engines, and turbochargers, and used the basic C111 platform as a testbed...
of the early 1970s, the best-known examples of road-cars with gull-wing doors are the Bricklin SV-1
Bricklin SV-1
The Bricklin SV-1 was a gull-wing door sports car assembled in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The body panels were manufactured in a separate plant in Minto, New Brunswick. Manufactured from 1974 until early 1976 for the U.S. market, the car was the creation of Malcolm Bricklin, an American...
from the 1970s and the DeLorean DMC-12 from the 1980s. Gull-wing doors have also been used in aircraft designs, such as the four-seat single-engine Socata TB
Socata TB
|-Specifications :-Specifications :-See also:...
series built in France.
Practical considerations
Despite the common misconception that the gull-wing doors are mere stylistic affectations, the design is a very practical one in tight urban parking space. When properly designed and counterbalanced, they require little side-clearance to open (about 27.5 cm, or 11" in the DeLorean) and allow much better entrance/egress than conventional doors. The most obvious downside to having gull-wing doors is that, should the car roll over and come to rest on its roof, exit by the doors would be impossible, requiring a large wind screen opening to escape. The DeLorean had a windscreen that was able to be kicked out of place in the event of a roll-over.In comparison to the flat immobile style of roof associated with standard doors, gull-wing doors also sacrifice the ability of the car's roof to temporarily hold a beverage cup (while the driver handles his keys) or to transport a large flat item like a mattress.
A Volvo concept car (Volvo YCC
Volvo YCC
The Volvo YCC was a concept car presented in 2004 at the Geneva Motor Show with the stated goal of meeting the particular needs of women drivers. In order to do so, Volvo assembled a design team entirely made up of women, some time in the Fall of 2001. It was a major exercise in ergonomics from...
) that was designed by and for women had gull-wing doors to make it easier to lift shopping bags or children into the car.
Design challenges
Gull-wing doors have a somewhat questionable reputation because of early examples like the Mercedes and the Bricklin. The 300 SL needed the door design as its tubular frame race car chassis design had a very high door sill, which in combination with a low roof would make a standard door opening very low and small. The Mercedes engineers solved the problem by also opening a part of the roof. The Bricklin was a more conventionally-sized door but the actuation system was problematic in day-to-day use and led to unreliable operation until an aftermarket air-door upgrade was installed in all Bricklins. In addition, there was some concern that in making the doors as light as possible they wouldn't provide adequate protection in side-impact accidents. There was, however, no indication that this concern was justified.The DeLorean solved these problems by using a solid-steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
torsion bar (supplied by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U.S. producer of military and civilian aircraft...
) to counterbalance a full-sized door and then used simple pneumatic struts similar to those found in hatchback
Hatchback
A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...
cars to open the doors and dampen their movement.
Other disadvantages of the system were not so easy to address. For example, the gull-wing design makes creating a convertible
Convertible
A 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 harder, as the hinges would be removed with the roof, and standard doors would be needed for the convertible. Mercedes did so when replacing the gullwing coupe altogether with the 300SL roadster in 1958. It was never a concern for DeLorean since no convertible version was ever planned.
It also makes sealing the car against water leaks more difficult because of the shape and movement path of the door itself. Many DeLorean owners report leakage when taking their vehicles through automated car-washes because of the high-pressure water jets, though in ordinary rainfall the seals are more than adequate.
List of automobiles
Production cars
- Autozam AZ-1Autozam AZ-1The Autozam AZ-1, known as the framecode PG6SA, is a mid-engined two-seat sports coupé kei car, designed and manufactured by Suzuki but sold by Mazda under its Autozam brand. It debuted in October 1992 until production ceased in 1994, and was perhaps most noted for its gullwing doors...
(a Kei carKei carKei cars, K-cars, or , are a Japanese category of small vehicles, including passenger cars, vans, and pickup trucks. They are designed to comply with Japanese government tax and insurance regulations, and in most rural areas are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking is...
) - Bricklin SV-1Bricklin SV-1The Bricklin SV-1 was a gull-wing door sports car assembled in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The body panels were manufactured in a separate plant in Minto, New Brunswick. Manufactured from 1974 until early 1976 for the U.S. market, the car was the creation of Malcolm Bricklin, an American...
- Bristol FighterBristol Fighter (car)The Bristol Fighter is a British sports car, manufactured by Bristol Cars in small numbers from 2004, and described by commentators as a supercar....
- DeLorean DMC-12
- De Tomaso MangustaDe Tomaso MangustaThe De Tomaso Mangusta is a sports car from Italian automobile manufacturer De Tomaso produced between 1967 and 1971.-History:The Mangusta replaced the Vallelunga model, on which its chassis was based. The word "Mangusta" is Italian for "Mongoose", an animal that can kill cobras...
(engine compartment) - Gumpert ApolloGumpert ApolloThe Gumpert Apollo is a sports car produced by German automaker Gumpert Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH in Altenburg.-History:In 2000 Roland Gumpert proposed a new generation sports car. One of the first concerns of this car was that it would be a street-legal car, ready for the race track. Gumpert...
- 1986-1989 Honda Accord AeroDeck (rear hatchback)
- Isdera Commendatore 112iIsderaISDERA or Ingenieurbüro für Styling, DEsign und RAcing is a privately-run automaker based in a small workshop in Hildesheim, Germany. The company was formerly based in Leonberg, Germany. Each high-performance sports car is hand-built by a small team of craftsmen, and the only way to purchase an...
- Melkus RS 1000Melkus RS 1000Melkus RS 1000 was a sports car from Melkus. It was a sleek sports car powered by a tuned mid-mounted Wartburg 3-cylinder 2-stroke engine from the Wartburg 353. Most of the cars used the 992 cc version giving a top speed of 175 km/h, but some of the later cars had the 1200 cc version...
- Mercedes-Benz 300SLMercedes-Benz 300SLThe Mercedes-Benz 300SL was introduced in 1954 as a two-seat, closed sports car with distinctive gull-wing doors. Later it was offered as an open roadster...
- Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
- Pagani HuayraPagani HuayraThe Pagani Huayra is an Italian mid-engined sports car produced by Pagani. Succeeding the company's previous offering, the Zonda, it will cost £850,000 when it goes on sale in Spring 2012. It is named after Huayra-tata, a South American wind god.- Performance :Like the Zonda, the Huayra uses a...
- Suzuki CaraAutozam AZ-1The Autozam AZ-1, known as the framecode PG6SA, is a mid-engined two-seat sports coupé kei car, designed and manufactured by Suzuki but sold by Mazda under its Autozam brand. It debuted in October 1992 until production ceased in 1994, and was perhaps most noted for its gullwing doors...
Kit cars
- AMTAluminum Metal ToysAluminum Model Toys, or AMT for short, was a Troy, Michigan based company that manufactured various pre-assembled plastic promotional models starting in 1948, when attorney West Gallogly, Sr. started it as a side business. Later, a variety of kits became very popular. Most of the company's vehicle...
Piranha - BradleyBradley AutomotiveBradley Automotive was created by Gary Courneya and David Bradley Fuller and sold the Bradley line of kit cars from their facility in Plymouth, Minnesota....
GTII - Dare DZ
- EagleEagle Cars LimitedEagle Cars Limited was an English company, based in Lancing, West Sussex, originally operated by Allen Breeze, although it has undergone a number of ownership changes since. Originally making a Jeep lookalike called the RV, between 1981 and 1998 they built several iterations of a gull-winged car...
SS Mk1 - FiberfabFiberfabFiberfab was a kit car manufacturer founded by Warren "Bud" Goodwin in 1964. They got their start building street rod parts and body panels for Mustangs before moving on to kit cars....
Aztec 7, also known as Charger II and the Carebee (made in only 12) - Foers Ibex
- GP Talon
- Innes Lee Scorpion K19
- Pelland SportsPelland EngineeringPelland Engineering was a British engineering company that produced kit cars and made an attempt on the world land-speed record for steam cars.-The Pelland Sports:...
- Replicar Cursor
- RPBRacing Plast BurträskRacing Plast Burträsk was a Swedish company in Burträsk that made racing cars and kit cars. It was founded in 1965 by Kjell Lindskog.- Formula Vee cars :...
GT - Manta Cars Mirage
See also
- List of cars with unusual door designs
- Suicide doors
- Scissor doorsScissor doorsScissor doors are automobile doors 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...
- 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...
- Car door