Lamborghini is a prestigious Italian automaker known for making loud and outrageous vehicles. “Lambos” come in bright colors and with deafening exhaust notes, and their iconic “scissor doors” are another feature that makes their cars stand out. So, are these doors actually practical compared with regular car doors and why are they designed this way in the first place?
The origin of the ‘Lambo Doors’
These vertical-opening doors were originally introduced on the Countach, which was first released in 1974. Since then, they have been included on every generation of their V12 lineup. The designer that brough these doors to life, Marcello Gandini, was involved in creating several Lamborghini vehicles such as the Countach, Diablo and Miura along with other cars from the brand.
The original idea for these doors was to allow the driver to reverse the vehicle into a parking space easier. The striking design of Lamborghinis makes it really hard to see out of them, so the doors would open vertically to offer a better view out of the car when reversing.
Lamborghini provides an explanation for their scissor doors in a news release. “The car’s upward opening doors would enable the drivers to lean their upper body out of the hatch in order to see behind the car while reversing, thus remedying to the car’s poor rear visibility — and parking in tight spaces!”
While you may look really cool while reversing this way, I have only seen one Lamborghini driver do this in real life.
Scissor doors vs butterfly doors
A lot of people tend to think all vertical-opening doors are the same and refer to all of them as butterfly doors. Scissor doors open straight up or angle slightly to the side when they are opened, similar to how scissors move up and down. Butterfly doors open up and outward, imitating the wings of a butterfly. Scissor doors are unique to Lamborghini while butterfly doors can be found these days on select models from Ferrari, Maserati, all McLarens and the Ford GT.
So are they actually useful?
After driving a Lamborghini Revuelto for a week I got used to how the doors work. While there is a backup camera, 360 camera and advanced parking sensors, I wouldn’t need to look outside of the car while backing up.
Compared to standard doors on other cars, or on a non V12 Lamborghini, the scissor doors don’t offer a massive advantage over besides looking really cool when entering and exiting the car. If you happen to park in a garage, parking structure or close to another vehicle, the scissor doors can make it very easy to get in and out of the car without bumping the door on anything. But if you are really tall or carrying a few extra pounds, you may struggle a bit to get in.
Keenan Thompson is a car culture reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Keenan at kthompson@freepress.com. Follow him on Instagram at @keenanautos. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Are Lamborghini doors actually practical or just for show?
Reporting by Keenan Thompson, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Keenan Thompson, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
