Swan doors or swan-wing doors are a type of door on performance cars or concept cars. Swan doors operate in a similar way to conventional car doors, but they open at an upward angle. [1]
Swan doors or swan-wing doors are a type of door on performance cars or concept cars. Swan doors operate in a similar way to conventional car doors, but they open at an upward angle. [1]
The design helps to clear curbs, especially on lower sports cars, by opening slightly upward and away from the curb. [2] The name comes from their resemblance when open to a swan with its wings open. Although there is no formal definition, swan doors are generally considered to be different from butterfly or scissor doors as they are hinged below the A pillar, open both upward and outward, and do not tilt outward like butterfly doors.
The most well known usage of swan doors is by Aston Martin, and their sister company Lagonda, who have used the design on many of their models, starting with the DB9 in 2004. [3] A number of cars from other manufacturers have also used the design, such as the Hennessey Venom GT and Vencer Sarthe. [4] Some concept cars have used swan doors as well, including the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 and EXP 12 Speed 6e, Nissan URGE, Bertone Nuccio, and Lamborghini Asterion.
A suicide door is an automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front. Such doors were originally used on horse-drawn carriages, but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are less safe than a front-hinged door. Being rear-hinged, if the vehicle were moving and the door opened, aerodynamic drag would force the door open, and the driver/passenger would have to lean forward and out of the vehicle to close it. As seat belts were not in common use at that time, the risk of falling out of the car and into traffic was high, hence the name "suicide door". Another reason could have been that while a door was open on a city street, a speeding car moving in the same direction as the parked car could rip a front-hinged door off the parked car but someone inside the adjacent seat, even if moving to leave the car, could not get scratched. However, with a suicide door, someone inside or partially outside the passenger compartment would get struck by the suicide door forcefully swinging back to a shut position due to the impact of the speeding car on the door.
The Aston Martin Vanquish is a grand tourer introduced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin in 2001 as a successor to the Aston Martin Virage (1993).
The Aston Martin Bulldog, styled by William Towns, is a British, one-off concept vehicle produced by Aston Martin in 1979. The code name for the project was DP K901. Initially, a production run of 15–25 cars was planned, but the project was deemed too costly and only one was built.
The Aston Martin DB7 is a car that was produced by British luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin from September 1994 to December 2004. It was designed by Ian Callum and Keith Helfet as a grand tourer in coupé and convertible bodystyles. The prototype was complete by November 1992 and debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1993. The six-cylinder DB7 was positioned as an "entry-level" model below the hand-built V8 Virage introduced a few years earlier. This model was the most-produced Aston Martin automobile up to that point in time, with more than 7,000 built before it was replaced by the DB9 in 2004.
Shooting-brake is a car body style which originated in the 1890s from horse-drawn carriage origins. The first automotive shooting brakes were manufactured in the early 1900s in the United Kingdom. The vehicle style became popular in England during the 1920s and 1930s, and was produced by vehicle manufacturers or as conversions by coachbuilders. The term was used in Britain interchangeably with "estate car" from the 1930s but has not been in general use for many years and has been more or less superseded by the latter term.
In the automotive industry, a gull-wing door, also known as a falcon-wing door or an up-door, is a car door that is hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and was designed by a Maxwell James Harris, first as a race car in 1952 (W194), and then as a production sports car in 1954.
Butterfly doors are a type of car door sometimes seen on high-performance cars. They are slightly different from scissor doors. While scissor doors move straight up via hinge points at the bottom of a car's A-pillar, butterfly doors move up and out via hinges along the A-pillar. This makes for easier entry and exit, at the expense of requiring more side clearance than needed for scissor doors.
The Aston Martin Virage is an automobile produced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin as a replacement for its V8 models. Introduced at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1988, it was joined by the high-performance Vantage in 1993, after which the name of the base model was changed to V8 Coupe in 1996.
The Aston Martin Vantage is a series of hand-built sports cars from the British automotive manufacturer Aston Martin. Aston Martin has previously used the "Vantage" name on high-performance variants of their existing GT models, notably on the Virage-based car of the 1990s. The modern car, in contrast, is the leanest and most agile car in Aston's lineup. As such, it is intended as a more focused model to reach out to potential buyers of cars such as the Porsche 911 as well as the exotic sports and GT cars with which Aston Martins traditionally compete.
Scissor doors are automobile doors that rotate vertically at a fixed hinge at the front of the door, rather than outward as with a conventional door.
A glossary of terms relating to automotive design.
The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is a mid-engine sports car built by Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo. It was the fastest commercially available car for the standing kilometer upon its introduction. 18 examples were produced between 1967 and 1969. "Stradale" is a term often used by Italian car manufacturers to indicate a street-legal version of a racing car; indeed the 33 Stradale was derived from the Tipo 33 sports prototype. Built in an attempt by Alfa Romeo to make some of its racing technology available to the public, it was also the most expensive automobile for sale to the public in 1968 at US$17,000.
A car door is a type of door opening, typically hinged on its front edge, but sometimes attached by other mechanisms such as tracks, for entering and exiting a vehicle. Doors most often integrate side windows for visibility from inside the car and can be locked to secure the vehicle.
A sliding door is a type of door that is mounted on or suspended from a track for the door to slide, usually horizontally and outside. It is a feature predominantly found in minibuses, buses, minivans and vans, so as to allow a large unobstructed access to the interior for loading and unloading of passengers or cargo without the doors interfering with adjacent space.
The Aston MartinAtom is a prototype automobile built by Aston Martin (AM). Construction of the car began in 1939 and was completed in 1940. The Atom is one of the first fully functional concept cars ever built. Aston Martin explored several new technologies with the Atom, and its chassis design was the basis for the platform used by AM's post-war models well into the late 1950s.
The BMW Z models are a line of roadsters manufactured by German automaker BMW. The Z stands for Zukunft, and has been produced in four different series with six generations consisting of roadster, coupé, sports car, and concept variants.
The Aston Martin CC100 Speedster is a concept car produced by the British car company Aston Martin to celebrate its 100th anniversary, announced in May 2013 at the ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring race. Only two were produced and both were sold to very loyal customers. One of the owners plans to keep it in his private collection, while the owner of the second car plans to get regulatory approval so it can be driven on public roads.
The Aston Martin Vulcan is a two-door, two-seat, high-performance lightweight track-only car launched in 2015 by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is a limited production hybrid sports car collaboratively built by British automobile manufacturers Aston Martin, Red Bull Racing Advanced Technologies and several other parties.
