The first Mercedes-Benz to have butterfly doors was the Mercedes Benz CLK GTR. Since then, this design has appeared on the Mercedes-AMG ONE and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

If you’re looking for a car that really turns heads, having one with butterfly doors is sure to impress people. You could try finding one of the rare Mercedes models that have been built with this uncommon door design, or you could get the next best thing with an aftermarket vertical door modification for several other models.

Here, we’re breaking down everything you need to know about which Mercedes models have butterfly doors and how you can add them to ones that don’t.

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What Mercedes-Benz has butterfly doors?

Three Mercedes-Benz models came with butterfly doors, but only one of them is still in production. Those models, in order from newest to oldest, are the Mercedes-AMG ONE, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.

Only 28 street legal CLK GTR Straßenversion (Street Version) models were ever produced, from 1998-1999. These rare cars are worth about $10 million. The SLR McLaren was made for the 2004 to 2009 model years and they currently fetch an average price of about $400,000.

And if you’re in the US, you won’t be able to get your hands on the Mercedes-AMG ONE supercar because it does not meet American road standards. In the end, the ONE has proven itself to be a seriously expensive over-commitment to the proverbial bit—putting “a Formula 1 engine into a road car.”

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What are butterfly doors?

There is often confusion regarding what actually counts as “butterfly doors.” Butterfly doors open up and out on diagonal hinges mounted to the car’s A-pillar—the part of the frame that starts at the bottom of the windshield. They first appeared on the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, of which only 18 were produced, from 1967 to 1969. The

Toyota

Sera was the first mass-produced car with butterfly doors. If you’re looking for them, you’ll see butterfly doors most commonly on high-performance sports cars like the

BMW i8

, McLaren F1, and Enzo Ferrari.

But don’t mistake scissor doors for butterfly doors—everybody’s doing it! Scissor doors swing straight upwards and are often referred to as Lamborghini doors or “Lambo doors,” since that’s where more people recognize them from.

Where you’re likely to get confused when it comes to Mercedes-Benz is the gull-wing door. These roof-hinged, out-swinging doors were first mass-produced in the early ‘50s on the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupe and 300 SL Roadster. More recently, gullwing doors have appeared on models such as the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the rear passenger doors of the

Tesla Model X

Then we have suicide doors, which have rear hinges and open the opposite way of conventional doors. They’re common on rear passenger doors of luxury cars from Rolls-Royce,

Lexus

Nissan

, and

Porsche

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Can you add butterfly doors to a Mercedes-Benz?

No. The most popular choice for aftermarket bolt-on vertical door conversion kits is Vertical Doors, Inc. (VDI), but they only offer scissor doors (Lambo doors) for Mercedes-Benz models. This is ironic since VDI has its own brand of butterfly car door conversion kits for other models that they refer to as ZLR doors, in reference to the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren itself!

If you choose to modify your Mercedes-Benz with a vertical door kit, remember that it may affect your vehicle warranty or

car insurance

policy. It’s always a good idea to check in with your dealership and insurance provider before making any major modifications.

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