Gullwing doors are back...sort of

[ryanjm]

You guys are going to want to check out what Tesla just announced. Not quite gullwings, but damn close. They fold in the middle of the door to minimize the outward swing. Final result? A horizontal clearance of one foot -- just like the DeLorean with its non-folding gullwings.

[dvonk]

hm, "falcon wing" doors, eh? interesting...

[Nicholas R]

Lol, a friend just posted this on my facebook.



Gullwing doors aren't just back; they're in the back.

Here's the Jalopnik article:
Tesla Model X Looks Like a Fat Electric DeLorean

[dmc6960]

Oh the irony. Elon Musk has stated in the past he does not care for the DeLorean. Yet he puts gulling doors on his latest car and calls them Falcon Wings. Must have renamed them as a shoutout to his Falcon rockets at SpaceX.

[Karin]

Meh, Ford is sort of bringing back gull wing doors, too. I literally made out some profanity just looking at how weird the future might end up.

http://www.automobilemag.com/feature.../photo_06.html

[Jimmyvonviggle]

So many people try to put gullwing or switch blade doors on cars, either from the manufacturer or after market. Personally I think only the Mercedes and DeLorean pull it off (and the Lamborghini only pulls off the switch blade doors).

[deloreanz]

Someone on this forum mentioned that car makers will do a concept with gull wings just to give it flair but they're never intended for production. I'm not sure how far along Tesla is with this model, but it sort of makes sense that gull wings can't be used on anything other than a pancake sports car due to the height requirement. Could you imagine a mini-van or even a tall mid-sized car with gull wings? The Tesla here seems pretty tall too so I can't imagine doors similar in function to gull wings would be practical on this car considering you might not be able to open them in your garage without hitting the garage door rail.

[dvonk]

So many people try to put gullwing or switch blade doors on cars, either from the manufacturer or after market. Personally I think only the Mercedes and DeLorean pull it off (and the Lamborghini only pulls off the switch blade doors).

+1. ill add the Bricklin to the "pulling it off" list... but as badass as gullwing doors are, its (apparently) hard to make them look good on a vehicle; especially when you take into account how ugly most modern cars are these days.

[timothymoore]

in my opinion and not being bias towards the DeLorean but i think the DeLorean prefected the gullwing doors and will be hard to do it again.

[Farrar]

Over the years, quite a few concept cars with gullwings have ended up with normal doors in production.