Gullwings without torsion bars

[BladeBronson]

I'm not much of a car guy (just a DeLorean guy), but somehow I've found myself at Monterey Car Week. I've gotten to see some unconventional doors close-up. I've noticed that all the Lamborghinis and the Enzo Ferrari use single gas struts to raise their doors. The doors also look like they're nicely balanced and appear easy to close (much more effortless than our cars). Yesterday I saw a Mercedes SLS AMG with gullwings. It uses 2 gas pistons per door. Unlike our cars, the pistons are connected to the body right beside the hinges - instead of further toward the edge of the body like on the DeLorean. When the owner closed the door from outside, he just reached beneath the door to the inside handle, pulled the door down about half way and just let go. The door closed on its own from there.

Has anyone attempted to make a DeLorean door operate on gas pistons alone?

[Elvis]

I disagree.

all the other gullwings I saw so far were not as great as the Delorean doors.

I would not want to push the door open.

Remote opening is for sure not possible with just gas struts.

I think we have the better solution.

Of course today one would install electrical openers like many cars have on
their trunks which can open and close by remote.

[Soundkillr]

Ive driven several sls Mercedes, and door operation is leaps and bounds better than the deLorean.
I don't know that the deLorean doors could function well without torsion bars. The last countach I was in, the doors were also easier to operate than the deLorean as well, but it's all different engineering and design.

[DMCVegas]

The thing about many modern Gullwing Doors is that the still do use torsional springs. They just have a compact spring setups hidden inside of the thicker rooflines.



Now IMO, while I prefer the dual latch w/Bellcrank design that DMC used (because I believe it is far safer for offset collisions), Mercedes absolutely perfected the mounting upper brackets for the doors. Emergency disconnects for the doors to make egress easier, as well as an easier alignment by shifting the mounting points to the bottoms instead of the sides to make door alignment much easier. Intigrate the torsion bar into the front hinge bracket, and you'd have the perfect Gullwing Door.

Which BTW, if you have a difficult time closing your doors, something is wrong with your car. I can close & latch my doors with a single finger. But I also lubed my locks, rods, & latches on doors that were properly aligned. Which alignment is a key thing. It's not an improved design, but instead just properly aligned doors. No matter how well the Mercedes doors work, they're not just "Plug & Play" as you can see here:

[Michael]

Keep in mind that that our doors weigh as much as a small planet when compared to these supercars.