Comments on: Lambo Doors Are So Last Year: Disappearing Car Doors Are Fresh http://www.ridelust.com/lambo-doors-are-so-last-year-the-disappearing-car-doors/ - Motion + Mobility Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:26:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: #1 Kaiser Darrin Fan http://www.ridelust.com/lambo-doors-are-so-last-year-the-disappearing-car-doors/#comment-10398 #1 Kaiser Darrin Fan Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:38:34 +0000 http://www.ridelust.com/?p=6141#comment-10398 The Darrin was the first, and only, production car to date with forward sliding pocket doors. The BMW mentioned had doors that slide "down" into the car, and the video clip of the FORD product here isn't new... It has been around the block for the past several years. I believe it is/was based on a 2002 or 2003 Mark VII, but I wouldn't swear to it. - Someone even tried to sell it on eBay. - Sorry, but I want to see something NEW if your claiming the NEW thing is sliding doors. The Darrin was the first, and only, production car to date with forward sliding pocket doors. The BMW mentioned had doors that slide “down” into the car, and the video clip of the FORD product here isn’t new… It has been around the block for the past several years. I believe it is/was based on a 2002 or 2003 Mark VII, but I wouldn’t swear to it. – Someone even tried to sell it on eBay. – Sorry, but I want to see something NEW if your claiming the NEW thing is sliding doors.

]]> By: Fuji http://www.ridelust.com/lambo-doors-are-so-last-year-the-disappearing-car-doors/#comment-4603 Fuji Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:29:09 +0000 http://www.ridelust.com/?p=6141#comment-4603 Ooops- I mean Z1. Damn alphanumeric vehicle names! If it was called the BMW MegaFox with superslide doors I would not have forgotten that. Ooops- I mean Z1.
Damn alphanumeric vehicle names! If it was called the BMW MegaFox with superslide doors I would not have forgotten that.

]]> By: Fuji http://www.ridelust.com/lambo-doors-are-so-last-year-the-disappearing-car-doors/#comment-4602 Fuji Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:15:04 +0000 http://www.ridelust.com/?p=6141#comment-4602 This is so 1980s...lookup the BMW M1 This is so 1980s…lookup the BMW M1

]]> By: Terry Parkhurst http://www.ridelust.com/lambo-doors-are-so-last-year-the-disappearing-car-doors/#comment-4593 Terry Parkhurst Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:42:21 +0000 http://www.ridelust.com/?p=6141#comment-4593 The 1954 Kaiser-Darrin, a fiberglass bodied sports car, was, in point of fact, the first car with sliding doors. That car was designed in late 1952, by "Dutch" Darrin, an American specialty car builder who worked with Kaiser automobiles and Packard to produce special bodies. Dutch Darrins' unique sliding door concept - the doors slid into the body, manually - was patented and first tried out on a prototype built way back in 1946. The Kaiser-Darrin was designed for the 100 inch wheelbase of the Kaiser Henry-J and carried the in-line, flathead six cylinder engine of that car; rated at just 90 horsepower. It listed for $3,668 in 1954. Nonetheless, Kaiser was struggling only 435 Kaiser-Darrins were built before Henry J. Kaiser himself pulled the plug on the Kaiser automobile company. With 100 leftover Kaiser-Darrins, Dutch Darrin retrofitted some of those with the overhead valve Cadillac V8 and sold those editions for $4,350. Running with a Caddy V8, the Kaiser-Darrin was reportedly capable of 140 mph. So back in the Fifties, there was a sliding door car of which the Beatniks of the day would've said, "Cool, Daddy-O." Yes, the word "cool" goes way back, too. The 1954 Kaiser-Darrin, a fiberglass bodied sports car, was, in point of fact, the first car with sliding doors. That car was designed in late 1952, by “Dutch” Darrin, an American specialty car builder who worked with Kaiser automobiles and Packard to produce special bodies.

Dutch Darrins’ unique sliding door concept – the doors slid into the body, manually – was patented and first tried out on a prototype built way back in 1946.

The Kaiser-Darrin was designed for the 100 inch wheelbase of the Kaiser Henry-J and carried the in-line, flathead six cylinder engine of that car; rated at just 90 horsepower. It listed for $3,668 in 1954. Nonetheless, Kaiser was struggling only 435 Kaiser-Darrins were built before Henry J. Kaiser himself pulled the plug on the Kaiser automobile company.

With 100 leftover Kaiser-Darrins, Dutch Darrin retrofitted some of those with the overhead valve Cadillac V8 and sold those editions for $4,350. Running with a Caddy V8, the Kaiser-Darrin was reportedly capable of 140 mph.

So back in the Fifties, there was a sliding door car of which the Beatniks of the day would’ve said, “Cool, Daddy-O.”

Yes, the word “cool” goes way back, too.

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