Door handles are overrated
06/14/2023
Sometimes with old cars you are amazed that things you are used to are suddenly missing. Door handles on doors are one such "thing". Yesterday we had the opportunity to drive an MGA and naturally noted the missing door handles. There is nothing on the outside of the doors to indicate how they could be opened.
A handle in the opening on the inside leads to a cable that you can pull and the door opens. Simple, but functional. Regardless of whether you are in or next to the car, there is only one way to open the door. And if the plug-in windows are on, you just reach through the opening.
Let's fast-forward about 50 years. Once again we are faced with a car without visible door handles. In the Spyker C8 Spyder, however, you don't have to reach into the interior to open the door. A button on the aluminum mirror housing allows the butterfly doors to be opened electrically. Inside, there are conventional door openers like in any large-series sedan.
MG and Spyker were of course not the only manufacturers to dispense with visible door handles for a long time. Ferrari and other exotic cars also offer a wide variety of solutions for unlocking doors.
P.S. Of course, we will soon be reporting more on our impressions of the MGA TwinCam and the Spyker C8 Spyder ...
