The other day I read the explanation about 1969 Thunderbird my father ever drove .




The car has a eccentric rear doors called "suicide" doors.

As I'm not English (American) native, I don't understand the meaning of "suicide" door .

I know the word "suicide" has not good meaning.

Anyone tell me why ? and the real meanig of the word which has no good luck.

Suicide means to kill ones self. How this applies to a 'suicide door' is by just imagining what would happen if you opened the rear door while the car is moving......the door would get slammed open by the wind and if you're hanging on to it you're going to thrown out! Some old Lincolns had that style of door also, maybe others also.

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Thank you for your quick reply, gtscayman!

I understand you well.
While moving , the door has the danger to be opened by itself without the passenger's will.

Mazda RX-8 has the same doors yet?

Yes except the RX-8 rear door can NOT open unless the front door is open.

Exactly - Except that the Mazda is a Newer, Safer car.

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Cheers Karel

'Power is Nothing without Control..........'

but the mazda doors have also been called suicide doors.

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Well the doors of the RR phantom drophead are "suicide"

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"Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!"

A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

It seems that most of the modern cars that have this configuration of doors (great for access to rear seats BTW (see Honda Element) - have additional safety features (comapred to the car in OP). Namely, the rear door opens only when front is opened, and when there are extra latches for the rear door (on top and bottom of the door).

So teh name sticks, although it may not be warranted any more.

We've probably all seen the sketches - one set shows "suicide doors" on the Panamera. The appearance is rather symmetrical, and some folks I've talked to like it. But only time (and the winter auto shows) will tell...

i believe the Rolls Royce Phantom has suicide back doors also, what is it's safty feature ?

not that umberrlla in the door is it

Here is an interesting example of a 2 door car with reverse opening "suicide" type doors, a 1948 Delahaye Type 135c. You can see the advantage, easy entry and exit.



The 1971 4 door Thunderbird was the last US car with suicide doors. One interesting feature of the Thunderbird was a Landau bar, the "s" shaped bar on the rear roof panel to the rear of the rear side window (at the rear) (Ha I squeeze 4 "rears" in there). This was associated with vinyl covered roofs to simulate a convertible, not an enduring styling feature in my book.





Here is a quote from wikipedia on suicide doors.

The name reflects an increased danger of the door falling open if it becomes unlatched while the car is moving. The potential risk is obvious, when driving at speed the fast moving air around the car creates an area of low pressure, this low pressure acts as an outward force on the doors; trying to open them. This usually doesn't matter as the latch or lock is keeping the door closed. If for some reason the door becomes unlatched on a conventional car, the fast moving air around the car, which is going the opposite direction to the car, forces the door closed. Where as on suicide doors, the fast moving air, which is still moving in an opposite direction to the car, pushes the door open. This can be dangerous if the occupant is not seat-belted.

This problem is greatly increased when driving around a bend, with lateral g-force combined with the low-pressure air moving around the car, the unlatched door will be flung open, and the occupant will be thrown out (if not wearing a seatbelt). In reality, this is very unlikely to happen because the locks for suicide doors are specially built to withstand greater forces than most locks. Most modern cars with rear suicide doors have their front doors overlapping the rear doors so they can't open unless the front door is open. Another way of doing this is to use a lock that prevents the rear doors being opened unless the front doors are open.

Some erroneously believe that the name stems from the fact that if in an emergency, the user exits the vehicle whilst it is moving, the door will hit them upon exit.

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RobMason

You have to remember that all of the older cars did not have seat belts and up to about the late fifty's I believe they did not even become an option, also most seats were of the bench seat type. Also the door locks were not of the best design and the body flexed a lot so the doors would just pop open when the body would flex, like going around a curve. So out the doors you would slide.

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Is that 35mph corner 45, 55 or a ..... corner?

I always thought the term came from the ganster era where the mob (or whoever it was) would drive around with those doors open because they gave clear fields of fire for drive by shootings.

These explanations make more sense.

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