Thought the gullwing sprouted wings due to the MASSIVE door sills that made ingress egress very difficult with normal doors.
The large door sills should make the 300SL chassis decently stiff.

 

Under the door sills was the tubular space frame. The body was simply a light weight skin , function defined form.

 

Bingo

 

I'm not a big fan of gullwing doors for safety reasons. If the car flips and lands on the roof, there is no way getting out. Unaccepatable to a rollover survivor who has had to get out of a car that was upside down.

Scissor doors would be OK, if there was an emergency release to open them sideways after a colission.

 

Personally I'd rather have lambo doors.

 

Tht high sill with tubular frame could probably save some injury.

tino

 

Nicole,
I have no experience or expertise, I am asking a sincere question:
In a roll over, aren't your windows broken anyway?

 

That's actually a very good question!

Regular windows often break, or can be broken when necessary. More and more modern cars have laminated side windows (like windshields), but in this case it's to reduce wind noise. Those you can't break as easily. Tinting film might make it a bit harder also.

But even if they break - there is no guarantee that the door frame isn't deformed to the point that it blocks your way. The legal requirements for roof strength are pretty low; if you bounce a few times in a rollover, even a slim person might not be able to get-out. I was not able to get out on my side after a 1.5 times rollover in a 911, because roof and window frame had collapsed and the door did not open!

The only other glass that you could escape through on a 928 would be the hatch glass.

Another risk is fire. If the car catches fire, you don't have unlimited time and less options on what direction to go on your way out.

Granted, some of these are worst case scenarios, but I do believe they should be taken into consideration.

I don't rely on higher powers to protect me, so I'm rather a bit too careful. Others might be willing to take more risk.

 

Well, the joint of gullwing could have a quick release. The pressure piston would do the rest to pop it away if the door isn't too much bent and crush... which would stop it from openning even on a normal door.

 

Although you'd have to be pretty careful in a multi-storey car park (parking lot)