Another Lambo Door Question

[transio]

"Rice" and "ricer" evolved from that term to refer to tasteless, functionless modifications like cheap body kits and tin can tailpipes.

Right. That's the derivation that I was using.

I'd classify these as purely aesthetic, and therefore "bling" if done in a professional way that improves the look of the vehicle. I don't think anyone actually believes these mods will improve performance.

Actually, the mods are intended to mimic other mods that actually DO improve performance, like upgraded brake calipers (often painted bright colors by the manufacturer to help market their products) and aftermarket race wheels (which are often powdercoated, anodized, or painted black to decrease maintenance for brake dust cleanup). The idea behind painted calipers and wheels is to get the "racy look" without actually improving performance. They are, therefore, "rice" to the core.

body kits and and painted calipers add looks to a car.. add uniqueness to a car... anyone (especially VX owners) can appreciate making your car unique... i think lambo doors have the same effect... making the car unique

Unique? You mean except for the 1000s of other ricers with lambo doors at all the kids' car meets, right? Even if I conceded to the unique argument, that is independent of the taste argument. In short, being unique isn't always a good thing. As evidence, I present:

The way a car door opens has no effect on the cars performance and according to you they are only aesthetic, since you say they serve no functional purpose; therefore, vertical doors would be "bling" not "ricer" according to your definition.

Actually, I said that vertical doors DO have a purpose for the cars that come with them. Read up on the Mercedes SL 300 Gullwing for a little more information on how and why vertical doors came to be. The function is to better enable ingress/egress in sports cars with high/wide sills. If your car doesn't have big sills (the VX doesn't) then vertical doors serve no purpose, and in fact, often INHIBIT ingress and egress, because the doors on "normal" cars aren't DESIGNED to be opened vertically. They don't have the proper shape or connection to the vehicle, and therefore wind up covering half of the opening, making it more difficult to get in and out. Note that this is the OPPOSITE of why vertical doors were invented!!! THAT is why they are "ricer" in my opinion - the same as huge wings bolted onto your trunk.

Some more info from Wikipedia:

• "The gullwing doors, hinged at the roof and so named because the open doors resembled a bird's outstretched wings, were implemented as such to accommodate for the car's tubular chassis, designed by DBAG's chief developing engineer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut. Part of the chassis passed through what would be the lower half of a standard door. This tubular chassis was a necessity, as the original car was designed solely for racing and needed to be as light as possible while still providing a high level of strength. This required the driver and any passengers to do some gymnastics to get in or out of the car, usually by sitting on and sliding across the wide door sill. A steering wheel with a tilt-away column made the process considerably easier."

Note the height of the sills in the pic below... this is to accomodate the spaceframe chassis, which is very rigid while also being very light.