What are suicide doors or backward opening doors, and why are they called so?

You must have seen these symmetrical doors on old or vintage cars. Ever wondered why they were so, and what they are called?

Well, these doors were colloquially called 'Suicide doors'. Sounds weird, but that's what people called it and, as it has a negative connotation, automobile companies would call them 'freestyle doors', 'coach doors', 'rear-hinged doors' etc. However, it's barely seen on modern cars as they, apparently, are less safe than conventional or front-hinged doors. Initially they happened to be factory-fitted on all the cars but later, they remained limited within the custom car business.

There were mainly two combinations of suicide doors :

1) Front doors hinged at the front-end, and the rear doors hinged at the rear-end.

2) Front doors hinged at the rear-end, and the rear doors hinged at the front-end.

Why are suicide doors not used anymore?

Everything remains normal and smooth until you realize, it's not working out. What's the point having doors on a car if they can't save you from danger?! After several accidents took place, it is noticed that if those doors are accidentally opened, while the car is in motion, a passenger is more vulnerable to falling out of the car than that of a car with conventional doors, as the air flow would push the door open, even more, resulting in having the passenger at a greater risk. Hence, the companies came up with the idea of front-hinged doors that turned out to be much safer and convenient for the passengers.

What are the advantages of rear-hinged doors?

Although rear-hinged door is riskier than the conventional door, it has its own set of advantages. It makes entering and exiting a vehicle much easier for a passenger. One can open the door and straight away get into the car without having to walk past the door and step up. Also, rear-hinged doors provide you much bigger entering area than the front-hinged door, and the driver has a better access to the passengers sitting in the back seat.

Which modern cars have suicide doors?

In spite of the safety issues, there are some cars which still use these doors to retain their historic values. Of course, they have addressed the safety concerns and reduced the vulnerability, to a great extent. They have implemented high-quality seat belts and also, they are engineered in such a way that the rear doors can't be opened without the permission of the front doors. 

Some of the modern cars that continues to have suicide doors, are as follows :

1) Lincoln Continental

Lincoln Continental

2) Rolls-Royce Cullinan

Rolls-Royce Cullinan

3) Rolls-Royce Dawn

Rolls-Royce Dawn

4) Rolls-Royce Ghost

Rolls-Royce Ghost

5) Rolls-Royce Phantom

Rolls-Royce Phantom

6) Rolls-Royce Wraith

Rolls-Royce Wraith

There are a few more door types, you would like to know about :

1) Canopy door

A Canopy door or Vehicle canopy or Articulated canopy is a type of door that rests on top of the car body and lifts open for passengers' entry and exit. It is quite similar to the cockpit opening of a jet fighter. It could be hinged on any side of the car, but front-hinged canopy is the most common. Canopy doors are hardly seen on regular cars, and normally used on custom cars.

Sterling Nova

2) Butterfly door

Butterfly doors are usually hinged at the bottom of the A-pillar of a car and moves up and out while opening. This is mainly used on sports car to retain its aerodynamic shape, and was first used on 

Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

3) Scissor door

Scissor doors are quite similar to the butterfly doors, but they move strictly up and down without any outwards movement. The first car to introduce this type of door was

Alfa Romeo Carabo

Lamborghini Countach

4) Swan door

Swan doors are usually used on high performance cars. They are pretty much like the conventional doors but they open at an angle with the ground, so that the doors of the cars with low ground clearance, don't hit the road or the pavements while being opened.

5) Gull-wing door

This type of doors facilitate much better ingress-egress in congested parking spaces. They are an integral part of the roof and hinged with small section of the fixed roof at the centre. This door was first used by the Mercedes Benz-300SL in the year 1952. Later, many other cars such as, Bricklin SV-1 and DMC DeLorean have used this type of doors.

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