My daughter today shut her thumb in the car door. A common occurrence, all children do this at some time, one just learns to be careful.
But why are car doors made with such a powerful closing action, and why do they have to be slammed shut?
The Triumph Roadster I owned years ago had beautiful doors. They closed with a gentle click, and if I didn't want to make any noise at all I could turn the handle, close the door gently, and then release the handle. Just like doors in a house in fact. No slamming, no bruised thumbs.
So why do car doors have to be so shoddy and noisy?
|
|
Ford Corsair doors used to close with a nudge. Ah! My GT.
|
|
|
I'm not sure about the noise and shoddiness: typically, car doors are designed to remain closed in the event of a collision, the door being an important structural component of the occupant safety cage.
The weight of the window and (manual or electric) raising mechanism, the locking system, and the engineering structures within the door all conspire to make the door heavy to close.
You also have to force the door tight against the rubber seals around the door apertures, ensuring that unwanted rain and wind will not enter the cabin space when you're driving or have left your car outside in torrential rain day after day after day (I've lived in Sunderland).
A great deal of work and effort is expended on getting doors right (and left!) in the way they close, the effort required to close them, and the sound a door makes when it closes. They're probably less shoddy and more safe than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago.
|
|
|
|
I am sure car doors are designed, as many things, to minimize claims in the sueage society.
|
Cliff,
Most car doors will close OK if you push them too and bump them with the bum/hip. The "midnight" method. Not so good after following a beet trailer in the Fen though!
As others say I guess they close more tightly for a better seal. Do remember all those 60s cars with the "click to close" doors would roar like the devil from wind noise over 50mph.
Funny how some makers bother that the doors are for access and others don't. Look at a Mondeo beside a Xantia, both with the back doors open. Getting in the Mondeo is like climbing through the letter box.
I seem to remember the Triumph 2000 was highly regarded in this respect compared with the Rover 2000. The doors on the Triumph would open to nearly 90 degrees.
David
|
|
The Bum/Hip method isn't so good if your car is, as some of mine have been, made from heavy-duty baking foil. You get a nice row of dents at hip height!
|
|
Heavy duty baking foil? Surely you've been driving a turkey?
|
|
|
|
The old Roadster doors were in fact enormously heavy. They were of heavy wooden construction, a bit like a piano frame, and had a very solid (brass) door winding mechanism and retracting frame. True, they were panelled in aluminium, but it was about an eighth of an inch thick. The original SIP in fact! And they had to hold shut because they opened backwards.
Yes, my current Triumph 2000 (1964)is not bad. The doors open wide, and they shut with a loudish click.
The accident occured with a Volvo. It has doors built like a bank vault. Once the closing action is started, nothing will stop it and it crunches everything in its path. A car load of people getting in late at night makes a noise like a burst of heavy artillery.
|
|
|
