MINI gets Lambo-style scissor doors
Hypercar door system now available for BMW Group's smallest modelsJust when you thought MINI’s epic options list couldn’t get any more outrageous, it has now engineered Scissor Doors to fit all of its three-door models.
The €1959 ($A2910) option will initially be available only for the MINI hatch, the little-loved Paceman and the upcoming Convertible, before it is offered for the five-door hatch, the Countryman and the six-door Clubman next year.
MINI claims the Scissor Door option is perfect for people living with crowded parking spaces, with a pair of wing doors opening upwards, more than outwards.
The electrohydraulically actuated doors reduce the parking footprint of a MINI from 2681mm to 1930mm, a reduction of 30 per cent, in a car that’s 1727mm wide.
“The MINI three-door thus fits in virtually any parking space, however tight, and allows convenient entry and exit,” MINI Head of Special Equipment Managment, Dalf Rietmann, argued.
“From the engineering point of view, the wing door concept has been fitted with numerous comfort features as standard and also has selective technical preparations for the installation of new technologies in the future.
“The doors can be opened and closed as standard via remote control. In conjunction with Comfort Access (which is subject to an additional charge), the MINI can be opened and closed by means of a button on the door-handle without having to use the remote control.
“It is sufficient for the ignition key to be in the user’s trouser pocket, for example. In the future the idea is to enable opening and closing of the car via smartphone using the MINI Excitement App.”
One problem its engineering team has had to overcome is the safety factor, particularly in the case of rollovers.
“In order to achieve maximum passive safety, the wing doors not only feature highly rigid side impact protection elements, but also a pyrotechnical emergency opening system known as ‘Pyrotechnic Emergency Exit’, or PEE for short” said Malph Rahler, Head of MINI Production Innovations.
“Here, powerful propellants ensure that the doors are reliably blasted off within milliseconds in the event of an emergency, giving rescue workers fast access to passengers, for example.”
The new door system can only be fitted on the production lines in Oxford, and therefore cannot be retrofitted to existing MINI models.
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