The present invention relates to a car.
A car presents a chassis which supports a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels: between the front wheels and the rear wheels a passenger compartment is obtained, which is accessed through at least a pair of front doors, each of which is hinged to the chassis by means of a hinge to turn about a rotation axis between an opening position and a closing position of the passenger compartment.
In most cars, the rotation axes of the hinges of the front doors are vertical and the hinges of the front doors are fixed to two corresponding vertical pillars of the chassis arranged in retracted position with respect to the front wheels (i.e. at a certain distance from the wheelhouses of the front wheels). Such a configuration of the front door hinges ensures an excellent accessibility to the passenger compartment of the cars widely present on the market. However, such a configuration of the front door hinges does not allow a good accessibility to the passenger compartment of a top-performance sports car, particularly when the engine is arranged in central position.
In a top-performance sports car, it has been suggested to use a horizontal rotation axis arranged longitudinally for the front doors (in actual fact the only doors of the car): in this case, the hinges are arranged in upper position to obtain a so-called “gull wing” door (such a solution was used for example on the Mercedes 300 SL made in the years from 1954 to 1957). In a top-performance sports car, it has also been suggested to use a horizontal rotation axis arranged transversally for the front doors (in actual fact the only doors of the car): in this case, the hinges are arranged in front position (such a solution was used for example on the Lamborghini Countach made in the years from 1973 to 1990).
However, none of the solutions suggested until now allows to obtain a good accessibility to the passenger compartment of a top-performance sports car, particularly when the engine is arranged in central position.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a car which is free from the above-described drawbacks, and which is at the same time easy and cost-effective to make.
According to the present invention, a car is provided as disclosed in the attached claims.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a non-limitative embodiment thereof, in which:
In
A passenger compartment 7 is obtained between the front wheels 3 and the rear wheels 5; a pair of front doors 8 (in actual fact the only doors of the car 1) are provided to allow access to the passenger compartment 7, each of which door is hinged to the frame 2 by means of a hinge 9 to turn about a rotation axis 10 between an opening position (not shown) and a closing position of the passenger compartment 7.
As shown in the accompanying figures, the hinges 9 of the front doors 8 are arranged in proximity to the rotation axis 4 of the front wheels 3 so that the projection on a horizontal plane of the hinges 9 is within the rectangular area 11 (indicated by the dotted line in
As shown in
As shown in
Preferably, as shown in
With specific reference to
The above-described car 1 presents many advantages, because it is simple and cost-effective to make and above all offers excellent accessibility to the passenger compartment 7. It is worth noting that the excellent accessibility to the passenger compartment 7 is ensured both when the car 1 presents the engine arranged in front position (as shown in the accompanying figures) and when the car 1 presents the engine arranged in central or rear position.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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BO2008A0229 | Apr 2008 | IT | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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2777728 | Barenyi | Jan 1957 | A |
2785921 | Barenyi | Mar 1957 | A |
4678198 | Nomura | Jul 1987 | A |
6030025 | Kanerva | Feb 2000 | A |
7178853 | Oxley et al. | Feb 2007 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
20120816 | Mar 2002 | DE |
0129067 | Dec 1984 | EP |
2869633 | Nov 2005 | FR |
61-155021 | Jul 1986 | JP |
05-071260 | Mar 1993 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20090261618 A1 | Oct 2009 | US |