Something funny about fast cars is that you often end up paying more for less. Less weight and fewer seats than your average car, sure, but also fewer standard features, and I’m not just talking about long options lists. The McLaren MP4-12C and Dodge Viper both launched without a common feature that pretty much every car regardless of price tag has, a fascinating shared quirk.
Perhaps surprisingly, this missing feature doesn’t have to do with luxury. Even though the Dodge Viper is known to be the antonym to luxury, the McLaren MP4-12C was well equipped, with dual-zone climate control, touchscreen infotainment, bi-xenon headlights, and a proximity key. Not uncommon stuff in mainstream cars, but you certainly won’t find some of these things on new base models, let alone classic cars.
It doesn’t have to do with safety, either. Although the Viper’s safety features consisted of seat belts, and, um, tires, the McLaren MP4-12C had multi-mode stability control, anti-lock brakes, six airbags, hill hold assist, and brake assist – genuine modern car stuff with no small-batch supercar quirkiness here.
This commonality that I write of isn’t a general trait, but it is a feature, or rather the absence of one. Something that was rectified mid-way through the production run of each car — a lack of exterior door handles. You’d think these would be critical features, but both Dodge and McLaren had their own solutions for omission, each reflective of their respective company’s philosophy.
Yes, the original Viper was so pared-back, it even deemed exterior door handles to be fripperies. How did it pull this off? By also not taking windows, or indeed security, particularly seriously. Instead of panes of tempered glass like you’d expect on, you know, a car, the original Viper featured, well, tent material. Soft transparent plastic set into zippered textile stretched over a frame. No hope of rolling these down, just slide them into where a normal window would go, fit the tabs on the removable windows into their slots in the door card, and that’s as good as the windows got. Wanted to get inside? Simply unzip the plastic window and reach in for the interior door handle.
In contrast, the McLaren MP4-12C doesn’t look like it’s wearing a toupee, and the windows aren’t made of old tent materials, so how do you get in without exterior door handles? Is it like a 1990s show car with shaved door handles and remotes to pop the doors open? Not quite. See, instead of exterior door handles, the MP4-12C initially featured capacitive touch panels underneath the bodywork that you’d swipe on to pop the doors open. Just slide your hand under the character line on the door, swipe toward the rear of the car, and the door latch releases. Want to lock the car? Place your hand beneath the same character line, but this time behind the door and just in front of the side air inlet.
Granted, it was only a matter of time before door handles joined each respective model line. In 1996, Dodge unveiled the Viper GTS coupe, and exterior door handles joined the party, necessitated by the coupe body style’s hard roof. For 1997, those exterior door releases spread to drop-top models, marking the end of an era. Things lasted shorter at McLaren because the MP4-12C entered production in February 2011, and in 2013, McLaren replaced its swipe-based door releases with rubber buttons. Still, for two brief period of time, two separate supercar makers deleted exterior door handles, and there’s something gloriously bonkers about that.
(Photo credits: Dodge, McLaren)
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Wow, that article felt like a click bait listicle. Can we please not let the autopian turn in jalopnik? I’m tired of finding a new car site to read every two years.
The Series 1 Land Rover had a triangular cut-out on the door, with a canvas flap covering it, so you could reach through and grab the interior door handle. Or you could remove the top part of the door entirely.
The Series 1 was more of an agricultural vehicle than a car though.
yep, no door handles but i have the 96 which has the weird single year only plexiglass sliding windows. Such a weird car, for one year only before they put glass in the doors they engineered a brand new window and soft top for the car.
I just keep the top off, and cabin empty. if it rains, meh i guess i’m wet
Not having door handles on doors has always been, to me, a type of pinnacle of stupidity. There shouldn’t be a process you need to learn, or a device you need to have, or a series of electronic functions that need to occur, in order to open a f’g door.
Edit: It seems they’ve since revised this.
Recently had a ride in a Cadillac Lyric. It has no door handles. I was speechless. Those things that look like door handles? Yeah those are buttons. Push them and the door pops out a little. You are then expected to grab it by the edge of the sheet metal.
Luxurious.
The later 12C’s had a push button where the capacitive sensor usually was, the same push button that was used on the 570 family. The original sensor was sometimes a bit hit or miss, so a button modification was offered.
I only clicked this link because of the incredible pun in your graphic.
Owners with large pe… never mind I’ll read the article.
TVR has entered the chat.
The Duke boys confirmed you don’t need door handles.
This brings to mind something that popped into my consciousness the other day while discussing (of course) the Cybertruck with a non-enthusiast:
What are the current FMVSS regs on side mirrors? Do you actually have to have one on each side, or can you still get by with a single one on the driver’s side, as was not uncommon back when?
Not positive, but I’m 90% sure the legal requirement is still just for the drivers mirror.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.111
linked from a now-four-year-old ANPRM:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/10/2019-22036/federal-motor-vehicle-safety-standard-no-111-rear-visibility#footnote-6-p54535
I’m on a call but it looks like a lot of the regs are “we’re looking into it [as of 2019] but it’s still section 111 regs in the meantime.”
Aha! And we could still, in theory, have those awesome old school staggered side fairing-mounted passenger mirrors too!
I love these quick-read articles! They’re perfect for people who only have a few minutes to pop onto the site while at work. Keep ’em coming!!
I remember that door locks were federally required on the Viper, even though it had no window., Bob Lutz used to tell that story.
I remember Car and Driver pointing out that the Viper, due to government regulations, has door locks, but no outside door handles, because those WEREN’T required.
I seem to recall they said that regulations also required cars to have windshield wipers, but did not require a windshield.
My Europa doesn’t have door handles, just a lock button you press with your thumb while pulling on the door. It’s always fun watching first-time passengers panic trying to get in.
Elises, Exiges, 340Rs, 2-Elevens and 3-Elevens also don’t have door handles, although three of those don’t even have doors.
Say what you want about McLaren and their amenities, but between a zipper and a capacitive touch panel exposed to the elements, I know which one I’d bet on working for longer.
The manufacturer is the wild card. I’d trust a capacitive panel made by Toyota longer than I’d trust a hook and eye made by Chrysler.
The dirty secret for a part like that is they are probably buying them from the same supplier.
They still have to be screwed or glued in so one will rattle off sooner than the other.
I once had a friend who worked for a Valeo factory in Belgium. They had a line where they made fog lamps for lots of different manufacturers – the product was essentially the same, and each car manufacturer would then mount the lamp onto their own surrounding assembly to make it look different for each model/maker.
He told me that despite the product being essentially the same, they had three different sets of QC standards and three different prices, as different car manufactuers had different quality standards for their products.
That makes sense too.
Our Ford Flex had a capacitive number pad on the driver door for keyless entry. I used it on more than one occasion, and it was reliable up til we sold it when the engine broke.
Dunno if that says anything “transferable” though.
Which engine did it have that broke? I’m Flex-curious, but they seem to somehow break even more than the Volvos that their platform is based upon. So far I’ve stuck with the devil I know.
2010 Flex, the NA V6 Duratec. Apparently the cooling pump or something to that effect is under the “engine cover”? I don’t quite understand it, but basically, around 180,000 miles (despite regular maintenance) something broke that resulted in coolant getting into the engine and it would’ve basically needed a new engine at that point. Apparently not an uncommon problem.
It very much had its ups and downs, but a similar model year Sienna is more space and better fuel economy while still being adequately peppy. And, you know, a Toyota.
One other memorable (but avoidable) Flex problem–the latch on the 60 side of the middle row 60/40 bench seat will break eventually and is stupidly expensive to replace: ~$700 and it broke 3 different times while we had ours and we just left it despite the huge compromise that is to flat storage space.
On the other hand, if you get the 40/20/40 middle row with either an open space or a console, that doesn’t happen; the 40 seat latches are fine.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure we had our transmission replaced under warranty…so there’s that.
Having said all that–it’s comfortable (especially for the overweight, which was why we bought ours), has fantastic middle row legroom, and can reportedly haul ass (even though I never pushed ours to the limit).