Butterfly doors

This article is about the type of car door. For the Lil Pump song, seeButterfly Doors.

Side view of butterfly door on aToyota Sera

Butterfly doorsare a type ofcar doorsometimes seen on high-performance cars. They are slightly different fromscissor doors.While scissor doors move straight up via hinge points at the bottom of a car'sA-pillar,butterfly doors move up and out via hinges along the A-pillar.This makes for easier entry and exit, at the expense of requiring more side clearance than needed for scissor doors.

History

TheAlfa Romeo 33 Stradalewas the first car with butterfly doors.

Butterfly doors were first seen on theAlfa Romeo 33 Stradalein 1967.

These doors were commonly used inGroup CandIMSA GTPprototypes,as they preserved the aerodynamic shape of the canopy while allowing the driver to enter and exit the car more quickly than conventional and gullwing doors.

TheToyota Sera,made between 1990 and 1995, was a limited-release car designed exclusively for the Japanese market and the firstmass-producedvehicle with butterfly doors. TheMercedes-Benz SLR McLarenis one of the few open-top cars to use butterfly wing doors. This is made possible by having hinge points along the side of the A-pillar instead of at the top.

Butterfly doors have been an adopted design of modern prototypes and sports cars such as theMcLaren F1,Toyota GT-One,Saleen S7,Enzo Ferrari(and itstrack dayversion, theFXX),Bentley Speed 8,Peugeot 908 HDi FAP,McLaren Senna,Maserati MC20,andBugatti Tourbillon.

TheMcLaren 12Chas a unique system wherein the butterfly doors do not use a top hinge. This allows the car and its convertible version to use frameless windows.

• Examples
• 
  1969 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale: close-up with integrated side / canopy door-window glass
• 
  Toyota Sera
• 
  1996McLaren F1
• 
  Porsche 911 GT1
• 
  Ferrari Enzo
• 
  Mercedes-Benz SLR McLarenRoadster
• 
  Ferrari LaFerrari
• 
  BMW i8
• 
  Frameless butterfly doors onMaserati MC20

See also

• Gull-wing door
• List of cars with non-standard door designs
• Scissor doors
• Sliding doors
• Suicide door
• Swan doors
• Vehicle canopy