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Ferrari is working on a new kind of door aimed at improving passenger and driver access to its vehicles.

The firm has filed a patent application for a door that includes part of the front wing and hinges upward, so that when it’s opened the occupant can place their foot directly behind the front wheel.

See the Ferrari patent drawings

According to the application, this makes it...Read the full article

Does it look like an Aston Martin DB7 with a current Jag XK air intake or is it only me?

Autocar:

Ferrari is working on a new kind of door aimed at improving passenger and driver access to its vehicles

Which proves the owners are getting older, soon the F1 team will be sponsered by Stannah......

CarDesign:

Does it look like an Aston Martin DB7 with a current Jag XK air intake or is it only me?

Nope, but a slight tweak to the front bumper and it would be identical to the DB7 with the straight six supercharged engine.

The new Ferrari is the Aston Martin!   What a compliment to Aston....

It's the new Anglo-Italian collaboration for the ageing cocktail set .......

the Aston Martini ;o)

a. This is a lead story?

b. Creates horribly unsightly shutlike along the top of the wing

It does look like an old DB7 but that is probably so they don't reveal the look of a new model coming out.  Car companies are always disguising their prototypes to look like other brands.

This feature doeas prove that Ferraris are mainly bought by oldies with vast pension funds and this design has come out of their own market research.  Maybe they could also design a Ferrari with a cigar holder and bracket to hold a champagne flute!!

If it wasn't mid November i'd have been sure this story and the picture was an April fool joke. Seems a bit bizarre to me. What about the ugly shut lines on the front wings? Why do they feel the need after all these years to create an answer to a problem that doesn't exist? Just because someone's 50 odd doesn't mean they are incapable of clambering into a low slung sports car. And that is definitely a mid 90's Aston DB7 outline. Couldn't their design department have come up with a slightly more interesting picture to release to the press? Odd.

I don't think it was a press release.  Looks like a patent application diagram freely available to the public, so unlikely they would reveal a future design.  Presumably they will make it look better when it reaches production...

At least it shows they are thinking, not just building impractical cars with no consideration for their customers like they did back in the 80s/90s Testarossa and 348 era.

I bet Ian Callum is having a good old chuckle to himself seeing his design coming out from Maranello!

Patents are used by car manufacturers to swap and share with others.   It then allows them easy access to other technologies another company has invented.   Hence why this may never be found on a Ferrari, but you may see it on a MPV instead.

 

 

Symanski:

CarDesign:

Does it look like an Aston Martin DB7 with a current Jag XK air intake or is it only me?

Nope, but a slight tweak to the front bumper and it would be identical to the DB7 with the straight six supercharged engine.

The new Ferrari is the Aston Martin!   What a compliment to Aston....

Oh! I was going to comment, but I've been beaten to it yet again!

 Unless the car has a backbone-chassis and unstressed body , this kind of door opening will seriously weaken the structure.