An Amazing Design Concept:
This website claims to be able to retrofit its door as a modification of existing car models as well as a design for production cars. The website looks hinky and this blog and comments are skeptical. Perhaps readers know more about this product. As a concept, however, it is very cool.
I haven't done enough work in this area to say with certainty that such an argument would succeed. Has anyone else?
Yeah, I know: when the battery goes dead, you just have it towed away and buy a new car.
Plus, I'd be really skeptical about the side-impact engineering. The doors on a car with good side-impact tests are fairly thick and heavy, this looked like the equivalent of a full length power window.
Eric: When the battery isn't working, you use your key to unlatch the door/window and operate them manually -- the doors need counterbalancing anyway (car-door-size electrical motors just aren't that powerful), so they're easy to move. The door on the Olds could be closed manually by pulling up sharply on a built-in handle until the door hit the latches.
If you're concerned about driving around with the doors "open", on the other hand...
But for that, it strikes me that this also could have been a very clever and subtle marketing campaign for Coca-Cola given the distinctive use of the can toward the middle of the clip.
either:
(a) the entire dorr (not just the bottom half, like on an Olds wagon) including the side-beam or girder, the glass window, and the power window operator (watch the driveway scene) would have to rotate and slide under the floor into either a pocket built under the floor, or into an unprotected space under the floor;
or
(b) the door and window would have to be made of flexible material, or slats like a roll-top desk or roll-up garage door.
The claimed ability to do this as a retrofit drives the last nail into the coffin. Retrofit "gull-wing" doors and after-market sun-roofs are problematic enough, and not NEARLT the challenge this would be...
You are thinking of the BMW Z1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Z1
The Z1's doors were quite small and did not rotate; they simply slid straight down into a very high sill piece, the same way that car windows retract.
Slick car, though. It was not officially imported into the US, but there are some over here.
The prototype was in pretty rough shape. Lots of scratches on the doors. Interesting concept, though.
I like it. I'm sure the same was said about suicide doors and whatnot when they first came out. I find it hard to believe that it's a fake and heres why: prior to the door opening, a small lip reveals itself underneath the door and forms a pseudo sleeve for the door to fit into. The door slides into this sleeve, which i assume would protect it from gravel or whatever. When it closes, the door slides out and as the door closes shut, the lip closes the sleeve.
Now, I'm pretty sure that there is an element of exaggeration just as you would see whenever a radically new car design hits the street, however I think the choice of vehicle used speaks volumes. This door (and if someone has some general specs I would appreciate it) seems to be pretty short which would eliminate the need for the door and window to have "slats" in order to roll underneath the car. Just a cursory thought of the geometry involved makes this idea seem doable if the door is short enough and the lip deep enough to insert a car door. I assume the interior floor is nothing but a thin sheet of material to allow the door to fold under.
That's my plausible argument. Which I'm sure can be/will be poked thoroughly with holes, but the innovation and creativity is a nice touch. When was the last time a door was modified?
Anonymous Reader
My only qualm is why not use this idea on a truck, van, or SUV with a higher clearance?
Anonymous Reader