Climbing into your car through the driver’s side window may look cool if you’re a Duke boy or a NASCAR driver, but most of us really need opening doors. (Yes, I see you Jeep guys, “Or no doors!” we get it, it’s fun to take the doors off). And for most cars, this taken-for-granted feature is largely taken for granted engineering-wise. You put hinges at the front of the door, install a latch at the back, presto: a car door.
But there are other ways, as we all know. Specifically, billionaire doors (see below). You know, your gullwings, your scissors, your butterflies. They’re all pretty cool, and if I’m choosing, I think gullwings just slightly edge out scissors, because they really impart a “closing the hatch on a spaceship” vibe.
So, gullwings are the coolest for me, of those three. But are any of them THEE coolest? I say no!
My jam is sliding doors, like the BMW-Z1 getting DeMuro’d below. Doors that snick up and down like on Star Trek, but turned 90 degrees? Yes please. But the Z1 doesn’t have my favorite sliders. For them, we must go farther back in auto history, into an era and vehicle category one likely does not associate with cool doors.
I give you the GM clamshell tailgate and glass of 1971-1976, a truly fantastic bit of engineering that combines needless complexity with dubious utility, which is always a great combo.
How about you? What are your favorite doors? Maybe Dutch? See you in the comments!
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
My favorite are doors are light and easy to work on.Nothing with GM “Jesus” clips or wiring harnesses that don’t disconnect at the jamb.I really don’t like the old hinge springs that want to take your eye out or the terrible brass bushings that always wear out because the door is 5’ long and weighs 350lbs.Japanese vehicles have the best doors and old American cars with power accessories are the worst.
Other than the already mentioned requirement of mechanical actuation, I am partial to clamshell doors on extended-cab pickups and coach doors on big comfortable sedans. Just gimme doors that open toward the back, I guess.
Nobody uses it, but a rear-sliding canopy. Second would be scissor doors, then gullwing. I have an irrational hatred for standard doors and I like almost anything more.
Rear sliding canopy – like the Envoy XUV?
Like a WW2 fighter plane.
Ah ok the closest thing I can think of is the KTM X-Bow
Or maybe like a fighter jet cockpit bubble?
Renault Avantime
This question is helping me realize I’m a sucker for needless complexity. That Buick tailgate is the business and Koenigsegg has the best super car doors. But for the purposes of this question, I’m going to say the half hatch-half barndoor on later Chevy Astros and GMC Safaris. I’ll emphasize my point with a Torch article from this very site about how stupid they are. I love them.
What doors?
my favorite doors are the ones that have an obvious handle that’s actually connected to open the door and not some hidden button that doesn’t work if the battery dies and you need some Car-nami code to get in or out.
BMW Isetta – don’t pull too far into the garage though!
Oooh, that’s a good answer.
Fiat Topolino Dolcevita
You know what, regular doors are great, ones with a nice handle to grab that open how you would expect. It’s nice to try to be different, but at a certain point it’s like asking what shape of wheels is your favorite.
I joke that we have a four-door 2005 Wrangler Unlimited – and all four doors fit in the garage.
For those who don’t know Wranglers, the 4-door Wrangler Unlimited came out in 2007. The first “Unlimited” was a stretched 2-door and was produced from 2004-2006. We have a set of full doors and half doors we can swap out; but most of the year all four of them sit in the garage and the Jeep is open. Those are my favorite doors, the ones you can take off. As Clarkson put it “Why don’t all cars have no doors?!”
Lotus 7, who needs doors?
Jeep: “See? This guy gets it.”
It’s hard to beat the Mohs Safarikar’s doors when it comes to being weird. Naugahyde doors that slide open horizontally on linear rams.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-mohs-safarikar/
Sliding doors, suicide doors and splitgates are my favorites.
Edit: Forgot about the drop downs like the BMW Z1. Always loved those.
Ford B-Max with the conventional front, sliding rear with no b pillar. Had so much lust for one some time ago.
Toyota Sera (gullwings on a cheap hatchback!) and Honda Stepwagon (both split barn doors AND a liftgate)
I don’t know if I’d call the stepwagon split barn doors as only one side opens and it opens on a hinge in the middle not the edge.
Still cool, though!
Sera have butterfly doors not gullwing, but they are definitely amazing, especially for the price point!
B/c so insanely purpose-driven, Ford GT (40 and contemporary) doors.
Designed purely for ease of a driver jumping right down into the cockpit during a race change, they’re horrendous for any actual real world use. I’d be constantly worried about slamming my head with them.
And even more purpose driven, bonus if the drivers side one has the blistered roof to accommodate Dan Gurney wearing a helmet.
Well it’s gotta be those Koenigsegg ones, no? “Dihedral Synchro-Helix Actuation”, apparently.
They go >ehh> and then they go >woop>. Lambo ones go Woop but they don’t go ehh first.
Honda Element of course.
Edit: To clarify, this is a vehicle not only with suicide doors but also a split tailgate! Some cars have a novel door setup, or novel hatch, but this car has both! A vehicle with only cool doors.
Gullwings.
Also the door on the Lancia Stratos Zero.
Also also, the Meyers Manx has to be the best minimalist door design.
Just citing one example of this, but I have tons of respect for a ’66 Bonneville with two doors doing all the work for a gigantic full-sized car. Those doors were longer than a lot of peoples’ hoods.
60s lincolns
Slab side Lincolns with suicides are just the best!
Those clamshell tailgates from GM are a neat party trick, but I prefer the relative simplicity of Ford’s “Magic Doorgate” like on my folks’ Gran Torino wagon.
Shown here on a LTD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpVn238SbYs
Sliding doors on minivans and side double barn doors on full size vans and the backs of older SUV like the suburbans.
I like the barn doors on the full size vans because the side sliding door on full size vans will break before the rest of the un-killable cockroach that is the rest of the van.
Ones that open mechanically.
Came here to say the same, but I knew in my heart it would be one of the first comments.