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Suicide door
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Suicide door
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 front-hinged doors.
If the vehicle were moving and the rear-hinged door opened, aerodynamic drag would force the door open, and the person would have to lean out of the vehicle to reach the handle to close it. As seat belts were not commonly used in the early days of cars having suicide doors, the person could easily fall out of the car and into traffic, hence the name "suicide door".
Initially standard on many models, they later also became popularized as a modification on custom cars. Automobile manufacturers call the doors coach doors (Rolls-Royce), flexdoors (Vauxhall), freestyle doors (Mazda), rear access doors (Saturn), clamshell doors (BMW), or simply back-hinged doors.
Rear-hinged doors were common on cars manufactured in the first half of the 20th century, including the Citroën Traction Avant. In the era before seat belts, the accidental opening of such doors meant that there was a greater risk of falling out of the vehicle compared to front-hinged doors, where airflow pushed the doors closed rather than opening them further.
Rear-hinged doors were especially popular with mobsters in the gangster era of the 1930s, supposedly owing to the ease of pushing passengers out of moving vehicles with the air around the moving car holding the door open.
After World War II, rear-hinged doors were mostly limited to rear doors of four-door sedans. The best-known use of rear-hinged doors on post-World War II American automobiles was the Lincoln Continental four-door convertibles and sedans (1961–1969), Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (1956–1959) four-door sedans, and Ford Thunderbird (1967–1971) four-door sedans. The British Rover P4 used rear-hinged doors at the rear. German Goggomobil saloons and coupes had two-door bodies with rear-hinged doors until 1964.
In 2003, the new Rolls-Royce Phantom car reintroduced independent rear-hinged doors in luxury vehicle applications. Other luxury models with rear-hinged doors include the Spyker D8 and the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe four-seat convertible. Some recent mass-produced models with such doors are the Opel Meriva, followed by the Rolls-Royce Cullinan in 2018, and a few Chinese electric vehicles including the Singulato iS6 in 2018 and HiPhi X in 2020. Lincoln announced that 80 limited-edition 2019 Continentals would be made with "coach" doors, marking the Continental's 80th anniversary. The 2020 Citroen Ami electric vehicle is unusual in having a suicide door for the driver but a conventional door for the passenger, as the doors are identical units that are not differentiated by side.
At the end of the 20th century, companies experimented with doors: rear-hinged rear doors that are held closed by the front doors, and cannot be opened until released by opening the front door on the same side (hinged at the front). Such doors may be referred to as clamshell doors.[citation needed] Porsche created a prototype in the late 1980s based on the 928 "Study H50". In the 90s, concepts with such doors were released - 1990 Pontiac Sunfire, 1997 Pontiac Rageous and Mercury MC4. In the early 2000s, have appeared on a number of vehicles. Examples include extended-cab pickup trucks, the Saturn SC, Saturn Ion Quad Coupe, Honda Element, Toyota FJ Cruiser, BMW i3, Mini Cooper Clubman, Mazda RX-8, Mazda MX-30 and Fiat 500 3+1.
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Suicide door
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 front-hinged doors.
If the vehicle were moving and the rear-hinged door opened, aerodynamic drag would force the door open, and the person would have to lean out of the vehicle to reach the handle to close it. As seat belts were not commonly used in the early days of cars having suicide doors, the person could easily fall out of the car and into traffic, hence the name "suicide door".
Initially standard on many models, they later also became popularized as a modification on custom cars. Automobile manufacturers call the doors coach doors (Rolls-Royce), flexdoors (Vauxhall), freestyle doors (Mazda), rear access doors (Saturn), clamshell doors (BMW), or simply back-hinged doors.
Rear-hinged doors were common on cars manufactured in the first half of the 20th century, including the Citroën Traction Avant. In the era before seat belts, the accidental opening of such doors meant that there was a greater risk of falling out of the vehicle compared to front-hinged doors, where airflow pushed the doors closed rather than opening them further.
Rear-hinged doors were especially popular with mobsters in the gangster era of the 1930s, supposedly owing to the ease of pushing passengers out of moving vehicles with the air around the moving car holding the door open.
After World War II, rear-hinged doors were mostly limited to rear doors of four-door sedans. The best-known use of rear-hinged doors on post-World War II American automobiles was the Lincoln Continental four-door convertibles and sedans (1961–1969), Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (1956–1959) four-door sedans, and Ford Thunderbird (1967–1971) four-door sedans. The British Rover P4 used rear-hinged doors at the rear. German Goggomobil saloons and coupes had two-door bodies with rear-hinged doors until 1964.
In 2003, the new Rolls-Royce Phantom car reintroduced independent rear-hinged doors in luxury vehicle applications. Other luxury models with rear-hinged doors include the Spyker D8 and the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe four-seat convertible. Some recent mass-produced models with such doors are the Opel Meriva, followed by the Rolls-Royce Cullinan in 2018, and a few Chinese electric vehicles including the Singulato iS6 in 2018 and HiPhi X in 2020. Lincoln announced that 80 limited-edition 2019 Continentals would be made with "coach" doors, marking the Continental's 80th anniversary. The 2020 Citroen Ami electric vehicle is unusual in having a suicide door for the driver but a conventional door for the passenger, as the doors are identical units that are not differentiated by side.
At the end of the 20th century, companies experimented with doors: rear-hinged rear doors that are held closed by the front doors, and cannot be opened until released by opening the front door on the same side (hinged at the front). Such doors may be referred to as clamshell doors.[citation needed] Porsche created a prototype in the late 1980s based on the 928 "Study H50". In the 90s, concepts with such doors were released - 1990 Pontiac Sunfire, 1997 Pontiac Rageous and Mercury MC4. In the early 2000s, have appeared on a number of vehicles. Examples include extended-cab pickup trucks, the Saturn SC, Saturn Ion Quad Coupe, Honda Element, Toyota FJ Cruiser, BMW i3, Mini Cooper Clubman, Mazda RX-8, Mazda MX-30 and Fiat 500 3+1.
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