10 Cool Cars With Wickedly Pimping Doors

10. All Aston Martins

With the introduction of the original DB9, Aston debuted its "Swan" doors. Tug on the handle, and the doors rise smoothly upwards and outwards, away from any protruding kerbs. Moreover, special struts mean the doors won't open or shut without a decisive push, at whichever angle they may be. Simple, cool, and befitting of Aston.

9. All Rolls-Royces

70 Years after mob bosses began throwing informants from pre-war Cadillacs through their suicide doors, Rolls-Royce has finally mastered them. Vauxhall has since tried a similar thing with the Meriva, though we hope no criminal worth his shackles would go for one of those.

8. Ford GT

The GT wins the award for the least practical set of doors ever. A fine feature on the original GT40 they may have been, but try and park a modern GT anywhere within the confines of a typical parking space, and you'll struggle to get out - let alone back in. Why you'd want to stop driving to park up, however, is a mystery.

7. Most Lamborghinis

It all began with the Countach in 1974. Believe it or not, the reason Lambo' decided to implement scissor doors wasn't that they'd been to the pub the night before. Weirdly, they were a necessity. The car's tubular chassis meant the sills were abnormally high and very wide, making getting in difficult even with the swish doors. Plus, adding conventional doors would have made the Countach impossible to park - given the width, and the method owners developed to get around the lack of rearward visibility.

6: Mercedes 300SL

Later mimicked by the SLS, the 300SL's doors were - like the Countach's - a necessity. The car's tubular metal skeleton passed through where a normal door needed to be installed. Hence, the "Gullwing" was born. Yet, thanks to frighteningly high sills, the 300 was still a pain to either get in or out of. Mercedes therefore added a tilting wheel to make slipping your legs under the dashboard just that little bit easier. Dignified, it isn't.

5: BMW Z1

http://youtu.be/nYZ7lAk-BdQ

Had it not been for its doors, the Z1 may have disappeared into the realms of obscurity. And that's a shame, because it was an otherwise incredibly high-tech - albeit expensive - largely bespoke machine. The doors though, are its defining feature. They retract electronically into the sills, and can even be raised or lowered while driving. What they don't do is make getting in or out any easier, as former owner Jeremy Clarkson demonstrates here.

4: All Koenigseggs

Koenigsegg isn't a company that does things by halves. Take the "dihedral syncro-helix" doors, for example; wonderfully complex, beautifully impractical (watch out for low-lying kerbs), and hopelessly expensive. The result? Possibly to coolest doors fitted to any production car.

3: This Lincoln MK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtkoje4-eM

Ingenious though these "disappearing" doors may be, and despite all of the manufacturer's evangelical claims, you can't buy them yet. Sorry.

2: Peugeot EX1 Concept

Built to celebrate the marque's 200th anniversary, the EX1 Concept's seats are integrated into the doors. Put simply, when you open the door, you don't climb into the car, you climb into the door. Very 22nd century. Shame they didn't make it onto the 208, mind...

1: Maserati Birdcage 75th Concept

The original Maserati "Birdcage" was so nicknamed because of its intricate, partially visible tubular chassis. With that in mind, Masser's 75th anniversary tribute may as well have been called the "Greenhouse"; such is the vast expanse of glass that forms its lone canopy aperture, and the effect it had on its drivers. Achingly cool nonetheless.

Any amazing car doors we've missed?