Doors? / Scissor Door / Lamborghini Door / Gullwing Door / Sliding Door

[eddie66]

Here's one of those "one in a millions" you have never seen This guy on a motorcycle gets broadsided by a car who turned on a red light and walked away. Caught by a red light camera in Tampa recently. I don't think he even had a helmet on.

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/weird/2014/06/19/motorcyclist-cartwheels-through-air/10840933/

 

[fpelsdca]

Here's one of those "one in a millions" you have never seen This guy on a motorcycle gets broadsided by a car who turned on a red light and walked away. Caught by a red light camera in Tampa recently. I don't think he even had a helmet on.

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/weird/2014/06/19/motorcyclist-cartwheels-through-air/10840933/

Hard to tell if he has a helmet or not, but he was very dased after the crash, and could have been killed by walking into the path of another driver not paying attention.

Motorcycles do not have seat-belts, so drivers use a helmet instead. And leather clothing so their skin is not torn off when sliding on pavement. The previous post was referring to people riding in cars with seat-belts.

 

[karl]

And now back to vertical doors. The Lamborghini's that first put them in peoples minds where very wide cars and you needed them to get in and out in a typical parking space. So need for them seems like none. will someone make a hinge for our cars, most likely, if they ever get into full production. That dang "if" word again.

 

[Lil4X]

Lamborghini introduced the swing-up door on the 1974 Countach because the car was extremely wide, particularly for European parking spaces of the day. The long door would be almost impossible to open in a confined space if it opened conventionally. Previously, the 1952 Mercedes SL 300 racing car used the signature "gullwing doors", not for parking considerations, but to accommodate the large frame rails that ran down both sides of the car about the height of the seat bottom. They continued through the SL line through the '50's and are still a Mercedes icon, now carried over into their current SLS-AMG.

The disadvantages of both the "Lambo" doors and the "gullwing" are they are really heavy and expensive - two factors that fly in the face of the Elio concept. The Elio wouldn't benefit in terms of parking space because the conventional door is well within the wheel track. You shouldn't have any trouble getting "pinned" in your Elio by someone parking too close, despite the rather long door. While the doors look cool, the mechanism required to operate one, with hinges and balancing struts and torsion springs mounted to the roof frame (gullwing), or the monster articulating hinge used in the Lambo (even the Konigsegg that uses something roughly similar) wouldn't be appropriate for anything but a show car.

 

[RogWild]

A 'problem' with Vertical Doors is low ceiling parking garages and overhead obstacles at home. Much better is a 'sliding' door like the Invisi-Trak (has no external or internal 'rails' or 'tracks', all mechanism is in the door). The driver's door could slide to the REAR (avoiding the front wheels), and a future model could have a right side passenger door that slides to the FRONT. This concept, would allow the present 'roll cage' support to remain in place, and provide 'curb side egress' for those that 'demand' it.

 

[Rickb]

I like that door concept, but I wonder if it would weaken the Elio's roll cage if there was a passenger door on the right side too. Tesla used this single door option on one of their prototypes......very nice look.

Obviously, would have to slide back on the Elio.

 

[Edward]

I want the entire car to split in half like an egg to let me in and out.

 

[Rickb]

I want the entire car to split in half like an egg to let me in and out.

I hope the Elio design team doesn't see that creative idea.........it may delay production until they figure it out.

The suicide door on the new BMW i3 is cool too.

Since my drive will be single occupant along with 90 % of all other Elio commuters........the current single door option is perfect.