How does an EB110's window open?

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 02/06/2019 at 18:04 • Filed to: None

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I was watching endless !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! recently and I’ve made a sickening discovery.

Look at this cheeky bastard, flexing on us all with the secret knowledge that BOTH the little hatch and the main window roll down ! I suspect this is some sort of prototype and the feature was changed. In my travels I’ve only ever seen the little part rolled down - surely, that’s why there is a little part at all .

As a side note I’m a bit miffed about the whole idea of the little window. It’s one of those car things where you hear endlessly conflicting reports whereby people present a theory which makes sense in their head or seems logica l as if it’s hard fact. Sort of like snow tyres vs AWD and warming up an engine vs driving it immediately and engine braking and skipping gears and so on and so forth.

I’ve long thought it was because the shape of the door wouldn’t allow the whole window to slide down far enough to be acceptable . But I’ve recently heard that for this car, it was because the larger side glass couldn’t hold up against the pressure of the aerodynamics at max speed - never mind the windshield I guess which is right in the thick of it.

Special mention to my man Doug who made an excellent vid on the SVX recently, but specifically mentioned he’d get into why the windows where done that way, and never got around to menti o ning it.

Mystery I suppose.

Boxer_4 > Nauraushaun 02/06/2019 at 20:43

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I’m thinking that was a prototype. There are a few pictures with the full door glass.

And one of possibly the same prototype with the new glass.

It looks like one of the really early prototypes didn’t even get the luxury of partial roll-down windows:

I would imagine there is info out there somewhere, though I imagine finding it would be difficult. I do wonder if part of it has to do with the fact that the windshield is likely laminated glass, while the rest of the windows would be tempered glass. Just a thought.

As for the SVX;

Doug’s video was pretty good, though it did have some incorrect information ( No, Doug, the SVX was not Subaru’s first H6. That honor goes to the XT6, the predecessor to the SVX... )

I was disappointed a bit that he didn’t dive into the styling beyond “ it’s quirky ”. There are a few good resources on the styling history and its evolution. The Road and Track Guide to the SVX has a great section on it ( DropBox link, go to page 16 ), showing some early sketches. You can see how curved the canopy was at that point. Auto & Design has some good info, too ( DropBox link ), showing some early concepts; some possibly earlier than what is shown in the R&T guide.

It’s interesting to note that the “ window within a window ” design element appeared pretty early in the idea phase. R&T does talk a bit about the windows ( p21 of the document ). Effectively, due to seeking aerodynamics and distinctive styling ( especially the greenhouse section of the car appearing to be completely glass; i.e. hidden pillars & blending into the roof ) , the upper glass was fairly curved. Not nearly as curved as in the design sketches, but curved enough that it was not practical for the the entire window to roll down. Personally, I think the designers ( Hiroshi Sarukawa, also Giorgetto Giugiaro ) also just liked the idea as part of the canopy theme they were incorporating ( however, that is personal opinion ) .

Subaru spent a lot of time on the glass, going as far as to develop new processes and technologies around it .

Nauraushaun > Boxer_4 02/06/2019 at 23:12

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This is the best comment I’ve ever read.

Those pics you posted are incredible, good evidence that this was a prototype thing. One of them with the doors up even shows the window wound down - you can see how far it goes down, as compared to the final design which I imagine goes down all the way.

Weird how he missed the XT6. It’s not like it’s some edge 70s car that nobody knows about - it’s the direct predecessor.

He also missed the weird tinting the SVXs had , though perhaps he knew about it and left it out since his car appears to have no tint at all.

I think that whole glass thing is a missed opportunity. It’s like they set out to make this real curved glass house canopy style thing, but ended up with virtually none of it. There isn’t that much curve in the final product , the roof isn’t glass, the sunroof isn’t even glass. The pillars are sort of cool, but all they really ended up doing was painting the roof black and making the side windows worse .

With that said, it’s much easier to stomach if you know the design history and what they were trying to achieve :) Will read those links, thanks for posting.

Must have pissed them right off when the Sera came out for far cheaper, doing everything with the glasshouse they wanted to do, but doing it properly.