Supercars have a unique look and feel preferred by some elite class people. Today, some new cars with gullwing doors also compete with these supercars.
The best-known examples of gull-wing door trams are the Bricklin SV-1 from the 1970s, the DMC DeLorean from the 1980s, and the Tesla Model X from the 2010s, all of them are expensive cars that require a lot of money. Money on it to give it a glamorous look.
So few cars are inaccessible to ordinary people. However, you don’t have to spend millions to get a cool door on your commute that gives you the daily wow factor or the flair of a futuristic spaceship.
Today there are some cheap cars with gullwing doors 2023 so you don’t have to worry about buying them.
Which Cars Come With Gullwing doors?
Gullwing doors that, in contrast to the sides of the vehicle, are hinged on the roof. Instead of opening straight forward, they open the upper side.
The first gullwing vehicles date from the 1950s and the design was chosen to give high-end luxury vehicles a unique feel that sets them apart from the competition. Gullwing doors make it easier to lift a bag for storage behind the driver’s seat, increase the view over the driver’s shoulder and make it easier to get in and out of cars.
SLS AMG, Mercedes-Benz 300SL, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and Pagani Huayra were awesome cars with gullwing doors. Take a look at the best cars with gullwing doors in 2023.
- Mercedes-Benz 300SL
- Lamborghini Marzal
- Melkus RS 1000
- De Tomaso Mangusta
- Bristol Fighter
- BMW i8
- Bricklin SV1
- Aston Martin Bulldog
- Mercedes-Benz CIII
- Pagani Huayra
- Apollo Gumpert
Why There are Rare Cars With Gullwing Doors?
Gullwing doors can look immensely cool. From the legendary Mercedes 300 SL to the DeLorean, it’s a sight to see when done right.
Automakers have been toying with this concept for more than 50 years. Some examples come from short-lived start-ups like DeLorean and Bricklin, although Mercedes-Benz got involved early in the game as well.
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But why don’t we see them more often? Yes, they still appear in some supercars, but certainly not all, despite the obvious cosmetic benefits.
There are several reasons why there are not more cars with gullwing doors in the automotive world.
Safety Is the Main Issue In Them
Safety is probably the biggest obstacle to the proliferation of double doors. Federal safety standards require that doors be designed to open after a rollover, and swing doors can be a little tricky to comply with.
There is also the challenge of protecting yourself from side collisions; It is possible to make the doors strong enough to withstand a direct T-boning as well as a regular door, but hinged doors must also be light so that they are easier to lift.
They Can Be Very Inconvenient
While normal doors can be awkward at times, there are times when they are more convenient than your cars with gullwing doors.
Some rise too high in the air when opened, forcing the owner to reach out and pull them down. If you’re looking for a quick escape, gull wings aren’t necessarily the answer.
Design Is Complicated
One of the biggest problems with gullwing door design is combating the natural gravitational forces that have shaped much of the overall vehicle design.
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These overhead doors have to be designed to lift weights and that is a challenge. After designing the transportation system, engineers need to find a place to set it up, which can reduce the space in the vehicle cabin.
Roof Problem
Let’s go back to the problem of a damaged ceiling. We see that the gull wing problem doesn’t just end with water leakage. Instead, the weight of the doors and the reduced amount of solid roofs remaining can significantly affect safety.
Every car’s hull must be strong enough to withstand rigorous safety testing, but with some gullwing designs, the prospect of structural failure or collapse was all too real.
11 Cheap Cars With Gullwing Doors – High Performance Cars
Since its inception, wing doors have been known by different names. Whether you call them “Hawk Wing Doors”, “Front Doors” or even “Butterfly Doors”, the basic concept of these doors is the same.
Basically, any type of gull-wing door is defined as a vehicle door that rotates on the roof as opposed to the sides of the vehicle. Cars with butterfly doors are also similar to these cars.
Instead of opening horizontally, they open vertically. Double doors add value to a car. They make it look spectacular and it is much easier to enter with the doors open.
Below you can see the 11 most beautiful cars with gull-wing doors in 2023.
1. Mercedes-Benz 300SL
The Mercedes-Benz 300SL is a great coupe that was first introduced in 1952 and appealed to the minds of sports car enthusiasts with its unique design and extraordinary power.
Its sleek looks and innovative doors helped cement its status in the annals of cars with gullwing doors history. Only 1,400 were built during its nine years of production.
In 1955, these double doors sparked crowds with “Golly-Gee” and “Gee-Willikers.” Its 215-hp 3.0-liter in-line six engines were the first series-produced fuel-injected engine that allowed it to outperform any vehicle in its class at the time.
- Production time: 1954 -1963
- Body style: 2-door Coupe, Roadster
- Engine: 3.6 L/V6
- Top Speed: 160 MPH
2. Lamborghini Marzal
The Lamborghini Marzal was an impressive prototype with all the glass doors. The Marzal was presented by Lamborghini at the Geneva Motor Show in 1967 and you will be surprised that Lamborghini only produced one Marzal. It was powered by a 2.0-liter in-line six-cylinder engine with 175 horsepower coupled with a 5-speed manual transmission.
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This car was only driven once in public, by Princess Grace and her husband, as the Monaco Grand Prix Safety Car the same year it was designed. If you’re thinking about what happened to the car, RM Sotheby’s sold it for $ 20.4 million in 2011.
- Production time: 1967
- Body style: 2-door coupe
- Engine: 2.0 L/V6
- Top Speed: 118 MPH
3. Melkus RS 1000
The Melkus RS 1000 is a popular sports car in the GDR and tops the list of gull-wing door cars. This car was produced in a very limited edition of only 101 copies during its lifetime.
Most of them had a 1.0-liter three-cylinder two-stroke gasoline engine with 70 horsepower. Some called it the Ferrari of the Soviet bloc, mainly because of its resemblance to the Ferrari 250 GTO.
The shape of the headlights and their plastic cover, the wheel arches, and even the roofline was inspired by the legendary Italian supercar.
- Production time: 1969 – 1979
- Body style: 2-door coupe
- Engine: 1.0 L/V3
- Top Speed: 102 MPH
4. De Tomaso Mangusta
The De Tomaso Mangusta is a sports car produced by the Italian automaker De Tomaso between 1967 and 1971.
The Mangusta has a centrally mounted V8, in this case, a 302 cubic inch Ford. This impressive super sports car from the late 1960s is the brainchild of the former Formula One 1 racing driver Alejandro de Tomaso.
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This car is easy to recognize by its gullwing doors. With a declared top speed of 155 mph, the De Tomaso Mangusta was an attractive and affordable high-performance GT.
- Production time: 1967 – 1971
- Body style: 2-door coupe
- Engine: 4.7 L/V8
- Top Speed: 159 MPH
5. Bristol Fighter
Launched in 2004, it was a supercar, with all its Bristol quirk with a gull-wing GT coupe fitted with an 8.0-liter Viper V10. The V10 develops 525 horsepower at 5,600 rpm with a torque of 515 pound-feet (698 Nm) at 4,200 rpm in the Bristol Fighter.
Bristol Fighter names appear on some of the more notable Gullwing car names. The new car also featured a redesigned chassis structure, redesigned intake grille, new side exhaust pipes, and a rear diffuser.
There is a considerable amount of cargo capacity behind the seats and, in particular, there is a full spare wheel hidden under the carpeted cargo floor.
- Production time: 2004 – 2011
- Body style: 2-door coupe
- Engine: 8.3 L/V10
- Top Speed: 123 MPH
6. BMW i8
The I8 was BMW’s flagship hybrid supercar. The exotic and at the same time futuristic design established the car as the manufacturer’s first step into a generation of new cars with gullwing doors BMW and luxury combined with the plug-in hybrid experience.
Since its world premiere at the IAA 2013 in Frankfurt, the iconic BMW i8, which paved the way for sustainable driving, is nearing the end of its production.
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Instead of a supercharged V8 or a loud V12, the BMW i8 gull wing car is powered by a 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbo engine in combination with an electric motor and an 11.6 kWh battery.
- Production time: 2014 – 2020
- Body style: 2-door coupe
- Engine: 1.5 L/V3
- Top Speed: 155 MPH
7. Bricklin SV1
The Bricklin SV1 is a Canadian-made two-seat sports car that was manufactured from 1974 to the end of 1975. The car was characterized by its double doors.
Due to its respectable performance and sporty chassis setup, the Bricklin SV-1 offered a driving experience that was not entirely different from low-emission but on the level of hypercars.
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Despite their rarity, the Bricklins are still fairly affordable, with cars in condition averaging around $ 15,000, making them one of the cheap cars with gullwing doors.
- Production time: 1974 – 1976
- Body style: 2-door hatchback
- Engine: 2.5 L/V4
- Top Speed: 111 MPH
8. Aston Martin Bulldog
The Bulldog is a mid-engined, gull-wing supercar that Aston Martin launched as a concept in 1980. The Bulldog has a 5.3-liter twin-turbocharged V8 that develops between 600 and 700 horsepower, an incredible figure for the time. The interior is upholstered in leather with walnut trim and uses various LED buttons like the Lagonda.
A top speed of 191 mph was reached in 1981, well below the estimated top speed of 237 mph. In 1984 Aston Martin sold the Bulldog to a Middle Eastern collector for $ 176,084.
- Production time: 1979
- Body style: 2-door hatchback
- Engine: 5.3 L/V8
- Top Speed: 192 MPH
9. Mercedes-Benz CIII
The C111 was the supercar icon of the 1970s and, over the years, it has become an important research tool for Mercedes Benz. Its bodywork served as a testbed for future Mercedes-Benz bodies and panels for future models.
This car uses advanced features like luxury leather upholstery and air conditioning in 1970 when rare cars did.
The C111-II had a four-rotor Wankel engine with a maximum output of 350 hp. The car went from 0-100 km / h in 4.8 seconds and reached an even crazier top speed of 186 km / h.
- Production time: 1970
- Body style: 2-door hatchback
- Engine: 2.4 L/V4
- Top Speed: 186 MPH
10. Pagani Huayra
The beautifully crafted Huayra serves super sports car excess in the best tradition of new cars with gullwing doors. Under the pretty body lurks a 720 hp Mercedes V12 Biturbo, which accelerates the Pagani to 238 mph.
It produces a whopping 730 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. In order to save weight, an automatic double clutch was bypassed in favor of a sequential automatic clutch.
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Its double doors open and you will be greeted by an interior like no other in the world. Visible carbon fiber, leather, and billet aluminum feature in the most amazing display of automotive art ever seen in new gullwing cars.
- Production time: 2012- Present
- Body style: 2-door hatchback
- Engine: 6.0 L/V12
- Top Speed: 235 MPH
11. Apollo Gumpert
The Apollo Gumpert is a lightweight and essential hypercar that was built between 2005 and 2012. The distinctive aesthetic lines ensure excellent drag, while the design with triangular headlights and gull-wing doors goes very against the trend.
This Apollo is powered by the Audi 4.2 L V-8. It has two overhead camshafts and is equipped with two turbochargers. With its gull-wing doors, massive wing, and aggressive roof scoop, it’s a great car to take a spin. When you have a Gumpert Apollo, you are driving one of the coolest cars ever made.
- Production time: 2005- 2012
- Body style: 2-door hatchback
- Engine: 4.2 L/V8
- Top Speed: 223 MPH
Top FAQs About Cars With Gullwing Doors
What cars have gullwing doors?
When there are rare cars now available with gullwing doors. We are here with 8 Most beautiful cars with gullwing doors
- Gumpert Apollo
- De Tomaso Mangusta
- Melkus RS 1000
- Mercedes-Benz SLS
- Autozam AZ-1
- Lamborghini Marzal
- Lamborghini Marzal
- Bricklin SV-1
What new car has gullwing doors?
Here are our favorite top new cars with gullwing doors:
- BMW i8
- Pagani Huayra
- Bristol Fighter
- Mercedes SLS AMG
- Gumpert Apollo
- Tesla Model X
What are cheap cars with gullwing doors?
The Toyota Sera, which was only sold in Japan in the early 1990s, is probably the cheapest car from a modern manufacturer with gullwing doors. Bricklin SVI is also available as a used car at a lower price.
Can any car have gullwing doors?
Yes, many car enthusiasts install these striking doors specifically to draw attention to their sports cars or to earn points when they are displayed in the custom category of car shows. But do your research to find out if this is possible.
If you still don’t know or are unsure, the best thing to do is contact your local auto department and ask them about it.
How much does it cost to get a gullwing door installed?
Well, of course, they’ll all charge different prices. You can search between $ 500 and maybe $ 1000! But that can always change. The work is what gets you there. We encourage you to look for a business that knows what they’re doing and doesn’t overwhelm you.
Why don’t more cars have gullwing doors?
Because gullwing doors are difficult and cumbersome to open and close simply due to the weight of the door panel. The struts that help and allow the doors to open and close also wear out fairly quickly, so replacing them is usually quite expensive. Therefore, most manufacturers stick to normal doors.
Which SUV has gull-wing doors?
The Lincoln Navigator SUV has gull-wing doors and a luxurious appearance. The Navigator’s doors are modeled on the DeLorean’s seagull wings. The single-wing door of the navigator opens to the front and rear seats.
Who made the first car with gullwing doors?
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL was the first car with gull-wing doors. The 300 SL Gullwing was built on the W198 platform and is one of the most iconic and famous cars ever built. With its striking gull-wing doors and beautiful, slim design, the 300 SL gullwing is one of the most sought-after collector cars.
Final Thought
There are a handful of gullwing cars still in service today, and most of them can be found in supercars and the like. Some are more eye-catching than others, but they all make cars special and that’s what we should celebrate and promote.
They attract the most attention, but their luster is replaced by their simplicity and elegance, and even the most conservative of viewers can enjoy the event that French doors create. What is your favorite car with gullwing doors?