You read that right. Click the pic above to see a video of it in action and the story behind it. Then check out the eBay listing for more info.
And I thought my old split window Subaru SVX was cool!
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I REALLy have a problem with this…
If you have a side impact, CAN you get the door open.
And how much to repair that DENT, that Freezes the door SHUT…
2. “If you have a side impact, CAN you get the door open.”
And if a meteorite smashes through the roof, will the radio still work? God, get a grip. If you’re agonizing over hypothetical accidents in a car you’ll never even see, let alone own, you should consider taking a long vacation some place very quiet.
#2 – ECA
I suspect that the Lincoln execs shared your concerns, which is why it didn’t fly.
There is no doubt that It will happen; the only question is ‘when?’ Not for at least another 8 to 10 years is my call, although it might be done sooner on some cost-no-object exotic like a Bugatti or such.
3,5…
Considering my car is older then the one shown…OK…
EVEN if its RARE… The only way to protect it is to NOT drive it.
3, Hypothetical?? When most Bump, and crashes have an impact on the sides of the car…Including Offset collisions which would JAM the door shut…
I wont mention that NOT driving a car, Can and will damage the engine, unless you are willing to take the time to Start it at LEAST 1 time amonth for 15-30 minutes.
WOW!!! this forum is just full of ass-bags with nothing better to do than bitch at people who leave a light hearted post. Being a size extra large human being I rarely get bitched a in public, but its amazing how many complete pussies will get on a forum and act like bad asses. On behalf of the human race, my apologies to post #2,
NOW this is a great change in manufacturing.
This would be awesome for new cars now.
More than likely the real reason for scrapping it was the fact that manufacturing a door like this on a standard assembly line would be cost prohibitive due to new machinery for JUST this model.
I am myself have an intense dislike for these leftover machines from
the 19th century, but this way of getting in and out of the vehicle was
awesome to me. A bit loud which for a concept and 1993’s tech
was not bad.
Again the manufacturing could be an issue. But for the high end
luxury cars like Austin-Martin, Porsche and the rest, this would be
a great modification to the car.
Cursor_
7,
Accepted,
No problem there…
As i asked a question, NOW a premise.
2. Despite my name, I didn’t really mean to be that much of a jerk. It’s just that this is a concept car. The point of a concept car is not necessarily safety, or even any sense of pragmatism. The point is to make people say “Wow, that’s fricken cool!” To analyze a concept car, which was never intended for consumer release, in any other way is just pointless.
Wait, I’m still coming across as a jerk. Well, at least I picked an appropriate user name.
Car manufacturers have been teasing the easily impressed with alternative door styles on show cars forever. Gull wing doors, suicide doors, scissor doors etc etc.
With very few exceptions (Lambroghinis, Mercedes Gullwing SL’s and a few years of Lincolns) they have stuck with the good old front hinged door.
Why? Because it is the best, easiest safest way to provide access to most cars. Suicide doors got their name for a reason. Gull wing doors dump 3 gallons of water on the inteiror of the car when opened while they are wet. Any kind of door that requires electricity to open is just stupid.
The doors in the article probably add a thousand pounds to the car and god knows how many feet of hydraulic tubing, pumps, servos etc. The concerns some other posters had about safety are valid.
Psst – Cursor_
People have been making the same mistake for the last 40 years, since they first heard of the car, so don’t feel alone – but there is the Austin automobile, for a while there was the Austin-Healey. But ASTON-Martin has nothing to do with them…
Word up.
Thats Sweet! Now, if they could just add some legroom in the back…
The car door is just like Americans: showy on the outside but no aesthetics on the inside (not to add utility).
10,
A concept is a WISH, and idea that is in the making.
But, as I can see it didnt make the show room floor. And I know why. Then WHY spend all that money for a 1 off car…That YOU and I will pay for, out of increased pricing on a NEW car.
Even the cars that run the Salt flats, are concepts, but they WORK, and run, and WE dont pay for them.
In the end, this is a FAILED concept car. And i wouldnt want to see what Else failed.
ECA – The door on the other side is normal.
16,
DOOR on the other side is BROKEN, and May need hydraulic repair, Which tends to Void what you just said. And if you look at the pictures, They are the same design on both sides.
QUOTE from Ebay:
What about the Drivers Door?
At the moment, the drivers door is not operational. A skilled mechanic was able to get the passenger door functioning perfectly. The drivers door will require some tinkering as well as knowledge of electronics and possibly hydraulics to get it to function. It is being sold “as is.”
#11With very few exceptions (Lambroghinis, Mercedes Gullwing SL’s and a few years of Lincolns) they have stuck with the good old front hinged door.
I think the only gullwing-door model that actually had any kind of “mass market” success was the Delorean.
Anyone remember the joke videos showing people trying to stick their arm out that tiny mini-window to get a parking garage ticket, or pay a toll at a tool-booth.
How you couldn’t park anywhere that didn’t have clearance for the doors to open?
Just watch the first 30-seconds of this video:
http://tinyurl.com/2an9a4
They show a row of Deloreans parked “side-by-side”, but only someone familiar with the gullwing doors would know why there is so much space between each car. 🙂
The DeLorean’s Achilles Heel was that you’d fuck up the door lift mechanisms big time if you made the mistake of opening both at the same time.
Needless to say, that’s a mistake a new DeLorean
victimowner only made once…18,
I understand that….
But, its a STUPID concept.
As i mentioned earlier….
If anything happened to that door or the frame around it, it would make it a TRAP.
OK. Got you. That’s why I mentioned earlier that that might be the reason why it was scrapped…
But in the way of info, doors stuck shut after an accident can certainly be a bad thing – but doors that come open in an accident cause far more deaths…
If they were 1/2 intelligent they would have thought about it BEFORE they spent $100,000 for the concept.
Then forwarded the Cost to the consumer.
That’s pocket change compared to what they spend on print ads alone…
24,
YEP, and they charge US for those also…
Every car on the speedway, every label on a shirt, every advert and Mag advert…WE pay for…
Can you wonder what the cost would be, IF they cut it all…
The easiest way to get around the door opening issue for cramped areas would be to have sliding doors, much like those on mini-vans. Of course, this would only be acceptable on 2-door models. 4-doors/sedans would be screwed.
Honest to God I am not making this up, I worked for Joalto in developing this car, or should I say doors, in the early 90’s. It took about 3 years to get a working model, we had 4 of them, all Lincolns, all indepenantly funded. The OEM’s wanted nothing to do with it. They just kept asking us to come in for a dog a pony show just to see it, but the whole design was impractical. If you open the trunk, if it’s an earlier model, it is FILLED with circuit boards, wire clusters and pnuematic circuits to operate this thing. The amount of hardware needed to make this functional was so astonomical, it could not be packaged into the vehicles system.
NTSTA did approve the side impact requirements, ude to an over sized Nadar Bar (the bar that runs the lenth of your door for protect from impact).
There is a release button on the inside if you ahd a power cell failure, but then you has to manually roll the dorr down yourself, which wasn;t difficult as long as the door was still on it’s track.
The 100K mentioned for development is BS, they spent probably 20 times that amount.
It was VERY hush-hush, the shop we did this in was actually part of a wharehouse owned by the city of Detroit, shared with Chrysler. The building was 2 doors down from the Chrysler axle building off 7 mile and Van Dyke and is part of the same wharehouse the the city uses to store their floats for the Thanksgiving Parade. There was one in and one way out with security guards.
As far as beign able to get out if you get hit, get over it, you get hit in any car from the side, the door is toast, and if it’s bad enough you get the jaws of life. The purpose of the Nadar bar to prevent the passenger from getting mangled not to keep the door functional. The way the track runs, the door is released from the locks (there a four of them) and track brings the door about an inch (25mm) out from the body prior to travel to the compartment it is stored in. Beleive me we had plenty of dents in these things, never prevented the door from opening.
Coincidentially, the doors weighted approx 500 lbs a piece.
I don’t normally participate in forums, but this one caught my eye when my friend sent it to me, all in all, I wouldn;t touch that thing with a tow truck. Cool yes, servicable, no unless you have a masters in Electrical Engineering. Worth 15K, probably, if it all worked, pending on what happened to the others. One of a kind no, one of three yes, I’m sure the director that was in charge of this project is keeping one in storage.