There's not a handle to be seen on the McLaren MP4-12C (top). The Audi R8 (left) hides its handle under a panel, and the Hyundai Veloster hides its third-door handle in the C-pillar.
The Chevrolet Corvette (top) and the Cadillac XLR, bottom, have similar discreet handles.
Automobiles seem to want to lose their old-fashioned door handles.
Flush, sleek handles that are as discreet as possible, or handles replaced by hidden electric releases, have long been concept-car staples. Now, more and more of the designs are making it into production.
Peter Horbury, the design director for Volvo, says designers operate on the assumption that in the future doors will just magically open. Until thought-actuated operation becomes feasible, however, designers are hiding the means of access.
Cadillac has devoted a whole advertisement to this feature: "The door handles are invisible," the company boasts in an ad for the CTS-V performance coupe.
Conveying a feeling
- A door handle is like a handshake: it's how a car introduces itself. So it's fitting that handles reflect the personalities of the vehicles to which they are attached. The Volkswagen New Beetle's were as round and cute as Mickey Mouse's gloved hands.
- The Nissan 350Z of 2003 introduced an upright handle that resembled a door in a home or a lab. It was designed to provide a mechanical accent in contrast to the softer body of the sports car.
- The chrome accents on a Mercedes S-Class speak of its luxury, while the rugged black handles of a Jeep Wrangler have the quality of camping tools.
- The latest Honda Odyssey minivan suggests kinship with luxury vehicles; its chrome close-set handles resemble the paired handles on vintage cars with center-opening suicide doors.
The CTS-V is not the first Cadillac with hidden handles. The company succeeded in transferring the concealed door handle of the 1999 Evoq concept car to the production car that it inspired, the 2004 XLR. The Corvette, a kissing cousin of the XLR, offers a similar hidden handle.
Other companies are hiding the handles on more mundane models. To retain the Hyundai Veloster's svelte coupe-like lines, designers hid the handle of its third door by making it black and flush. The Nissan Juke similarly disguises its two rear door handles in the dark frame of the rear glass.
This trick of hiding the handle in the C-pillar has been played before, in the four-door versions of the Nissan Pathfinder of 1990 and the Alfa Romeo 147 of 2001.
Generally, the more expensive a vehicle, the less visible its handles.
There is no visible means of access on the new McLaren MP4-12C; to unlatch the door, one sweeps a hand under a ridge that extends forward from the rear air scoops.
The handles on the Mercedes SLS AMG remain flush to its sleek sides unless they are popped up with the remote key fob. The trick pays homage to the 1955 Uhlenhaut coupe, which also had flush handles for its gullwing doors.
And the Audi R8 hides its handle in a touch spot under a panel in its side.
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