Topless doors

[Geert-Jan]

At the Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring I saw several GT40s with topless doors.
The top of these doors are removable.

I haven't seen them before, but I was just wondering about the experience.
How is the ride? Air turbulence, noise, other disadvantages?
Is it maybe something German?

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I even saw one GT40 racing with both tops off!

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[David]

I know Tornado offer then as an option, although never seen then in the flesh so to speak.

Certainly look pretty good and would help with the tight parking problem that all GT40's suffer from!

Seems GTD had them too, from http://archive.shawthing.com/GT40.asp

You can just see in this photo that I recklessly cut the door tops at one point during that year (the cars got very hot inside). The doors include virtually all the roof, so I cut them off, and ended up with a nice breezy targa style roof. GTD made up a nifty pin arrangement so that I could slot them back into the doors, and no-one would ever know.

 

A friend here in UK has them on his Safir and which were a standard option back in the 80's when Peter Thorp produced his beautifully engineered continuation run of cars. They are an excellent, practical and effective solution to the GT40 bugbear of cabin heat soak and when not in use the removable door tops are stored in individual protective bags under the front clip.

 

[Chris Coote]

Hi.Looks like 2 different methods of attaching to the doors.Does anyone have any pics of the "other half " ??
Cheers

 

[Ben]

I've honestly thought about building a second set of half doors. Only the main body of the door, and the front edge (A-pilar) to hold the rear view mirror. Now, to get the car, and maybe I can actually make some progress on my dreams...

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Back in the mid 90s it seemed that every kit we made had the removable tops. Lots were sold in Germany.
We have not done any for a while but still have all the jigs and fixtures etc.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Geert-Jan]

How much are we thinking of for 2 doors?
But I guess they won't fit my GTD?

 

[Ellis Hubbard]

GJ,

The split doors are great, I've had two cars with them and I would be hard pressed to go back to the old style doors. Safir GT40 Spares Ltd. sells them, you can contact them at gt40.com or [email protected] for a cost. Good luck!

Ellis

 

[Andy Sheldon]

We convert your existing doors.
Cost is £995 pair.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Geert-Jan]

Andy,

Interesting, let me think that over.
Do you have pics of how the joint line will look?

 

[René]

oh, its for sale too
In Germany, its LHD but does also has LHD shifting :-( there looks enough room for centershift I guess...

anyway more lovely pics of that car here>>

Einmaliger GT40 MKI 5.0 V8 mit abnehmbaren Targa Dachhälften | CAR special

 

[Mike S.]

Interesting but has anyone looked into separating them at the bottom of the window instead? Seems to me that it would be more practical & asthetic to take off the window too. When I take the T-tops off my Corvette. I usually run with the windows down anyway (did it with my T-top Camaro too). With the fixed windows in a GT40. Just removing the whole top of the door would seem to be the way to go? If they had movable windows with frames now that would present some problems like on my Lotus Europa. It has elect. windows & frame. But have thought about going to fixed hinged ones & doing something like this. Might think about two sets of doors.
Mike S

 

[René]

if you want also a easy way to get the windows out, maybe you can make a system like this guy did on his GT40, a bit mk3 style... http://www.gt40s.com/forum/gt40-tech-exterior-interior-ac-trim/18734-quick-release-side-windows.html

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Rene

The yellow MKI is one of our cars.

Looks nice and is currently for sale at 69,000 Euros

LHD should have left hand change.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Scott Calabro]

A yellow MKII would look good wearing those doors.

 

[Kelly]

I must confess, I didn't think too much of the idea initially but the practicality of it certainly can't be overlooked. It's the best of all worlds that leaves structural integrity in tact, yet summertime friendly airflow without removal of windows, yet the ability to close up the coupe in teh winter and retain traditional lines.

The other cars look nicely done too but the detailed pictures on the Yellow car show how very nicely it can be done. Just a couple of twists of the knobs and off they come. -Nice. I suspect there may have been some structural mods internal to the door to reinforce at the attachment points? Yes? Any details available on that?

On a different note, I was able to download the pictures of the yellow car fine but the pictures of the cars in the starting post download with a distorted aspect ratio whether I do it directly from the thread or from the enlarged picture. Anyone else have that problem and/or the solution to downloading them?

Best,
Kelly

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Kelly

A lot of time and effort went into the development of the conversion to make sure that when the door top was attached it was as strong or stronger than a standard door and that the fit of the door remained unchanged.

A steel frame is bonded into the top part of the door to which the pins are attached.

A special male and female mating plate is used to face the open ends of the door mouldings to ensure perfect alignment of the two door parts when attached together.

Thanks

Andy

 

[Ian Anderson]

Andy

On your topless doors is it possible to store your door tops inside the car?

Say as normal in the UK you leave home in the sun and later it comes on rain will you have the roof panels in the car?

Preferably not behind the seat as my seat is hard up against the bulkhead due to leg length

Ian

 

[Geert-Jan]

@Kelly
If interested I can e-mail the pics from my first post!

 

[Andy Sheldon]

Ian

The door tops are stored under the front hatch in padded bags

Thanks

Andy