Lambo Doors by Vertical Doors Inc
Lambo, vertical, scissor, suicide, gullwing, butterfly, OEM, regular.... What is all this about!? It's not hard to get your door type mixed up. Here's the all knowing, all seeing guide to which doors are what.
OEM just means it's what came on the car (Original Equipment Manufacturer). As almost every car in the world opens with a hinge at the front side of the door, swinging out, that type has become synonymous with "OEM" and "regular". Your mom's Taurus... it swings regular.
Car manufacturers decided on this way to enter a car because it really is the most practical way to get in and out of a car. Do we like practical? No. Is it hot? No. Does it ever almost cause accidents because people are rubber necking? No. But it's good for putting groceries in the car, and that's good.
Scissor Door Lamborghini. Notice it goes straight up, low profile from the front. Scissor, aka lambo, vertical.
The most well known of the different doors, our friends at Lamborghini have probably made this door the most well known of exotic doors. The name scissor comes from the way it comes straight down like a pair of hand scissors. Because Lamborghini knew that their door would be opening this way, they have the A-pillar out of the way, and the door comes straight down, just like the blade on your scissors. The pivot point is usually at the top corner of the door, near the A-pillar. It is assisted by a shock to raise the weight of the door.
Gull Wing Delorean. Looks like it's ready to flap, just like a seagull - Gullwing. Even if you don't think you know what this is, you do. Marty McFly drove a gullwing Delorean in Back to the Future, making it one of the most well known cars in the world. The gullwing name comes from the profile of the doors open when looking straight at the car. They rise up as if a seagull in mid flight, about to swing its wings down. The pivot point for these doors is above the passenger compartment, where the roof is. This means the roof needs to be nicely supported because the weight of the door will be placed squarely on the top. If you think about it though.... the gull wing setup is actually pretty common on vehicles... just not for the passenger compartment. Yep, you guessed it... SUV's use this setup for their hatchbacks. The door pivots on the roof, opens straight up, out of the way. Good for loading, but not really what were talking about here.
Butterfly Mclaren. Notice you see the side of the door because it has rotated forward on the A-pillar angle. Well, if we have seagulls, we need butterflys, right? Yes, your mean $400,000 dollar Supercharged V8 618 HP McLaren SLR has cute butterfly doors. Don't feel bad though... they look incredible. Butterfly wings are close to scissor doors in that there pivot points are very close, and the doors end up in the same area. The difference is that with butterfly the pivot is usually on the a-pillar so that the doors turn towards the front, exposing more of the side of the door towards the front. The profile of a scissor door would be much less from a front angle... a butterfly lets you see the side of the door as it pivots sideways and turns up.
Import Precision VLS. Direct Bolt on Scissor / Vertical Door Conversion. So what is a VLS then? The VLS most close resembles a scissor door configuration, because the pivot gets the door up and out of the passenger compartment, and puts it where the Lamborghini door is. The biggest difference is that it opens up slightly to allow for using the stock latching mechanism, and to clear the A-pillar. Remember how Lamborghini knew it was going up, so it moved the A-pillar out of the way? Well, us conversion guys weren't so lucky, so we have to go around it. There is some angle out to clear it when up, but because the profile is small, it comes straight down with no rotating, scissor is the best designation.
