body and interior Rationale for the different armrest designs.

[7502]

I have a '75, I'm wondering why the drivers and passenger arm rests are different. Is the only thing I can come up with is the passenger can used as a grab handle for stability since he doesn't have a steering wheel to grab onto.

[Son of Marty]

You got it the passengers side is shaped so you can discreetly put a death grab on it while looking calm and cool as your driver barrels into a turn. 

['76mintgrün'02]

on the passenger side, that part of the arm rest interferes with the seat, when it is tipped forward with the door closed.

 

is this a typical problem, or is my 76 special?

[tzei]

L model has that same grab handle for driver side as passenger.

[02Les]

RHD '02s (like my Touring) have the same armrest both sides. Grace goes with symmetry!

 

 

[OriginalOwner]

my '74tii has a grab handle on both doors.  The driver's door does not have the up-swoopy thingie that the passenger door has.

 

Mint,

     yes, my passenger-side grab handle assembly interferes when the seat tips forward with the door closed.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

Edited October 17, 2016 by OriginalOwner

[John_in_VA]

31 minutes ago, OriginalOwner said:

my '74tii has a grab handle on both doors.  The driver's door does not have the up-swoopy thingie that the passenger door has.

 

This is typical for the USA models.  I sourced a left-side door pull from the UK like that shown by Les, but haven't had the stones to put new holes in my door panel to attach it!

[TobyB]

That was a brilliant feature.

 

About the E36, they radished it really well- so there are whole generations of lapping day instructors with ruined right

wrists because they took a really good design and absolutely screwed it up.

You could cozy yourself right into the door handle and feel every twitch your victim... errr, 'student'... made,

and not look like you were about to get hurled out the sunroof.

 

Moral of the story?

 

About 1992, the Ultimate Driving Machine became the Ultimate Posing Machine.

EXCEPT for the ti!! The ti still got a real handle!  Go frikkin' figure!

 

Haven't sat right seat in the latest generations, but... well, Bangle, right?

 

t

 

Edited October 18, 2016 by TobyB

[kbmb02]

35 minutes ago, TobyB said:

That was a brilliant feature.

 

About the E36, they radished it really well- so there are whole generations of lapping day instructors with ruined right wrists because they took a really good design and absolutely screwed it up.

You could cozy yourself right into the door handle and feel every twitch your victim... errr, 'student'... made,

and not look like you were about to get hurled out the sunroof.

 

 

One of the first things I do when preparing to instruct from the passenger seat is reach down with my right hand, gently, and find an area under the seat / seat rail which won't slice my hand open when gripping. Tightly. -KB

[LimeySteve]

I too sourced an inside handle from England I too like the symmetry of matching doors

[Simeon]

Still can't see what warrants the difference. Are all LHD like that? (Misshapen and lacking symmetry?)

 

Used to have a a W123 Mercedes Benz wagon that had the fly off handbrake on the extreme right hand of the dash. This meant that you had a different door grip handle because you wouldn't be able to pull on the handbrake otherwise. That made sense. 

[2002Scoob]

Now I need to go out and look at mine, but my car is a euro-car and I'm pretty sure it has symmetrical handles.

[TobyB]

The driver's side handle on a LHD car gives you a bit more room when you're flailing away at that big bus steering wheel...

 

t

 

[2002Scoob]

1 minute ago, TobyB said:

The driver's side handle on a LHD car gives you a bit more room when you're flailing away at that big bus steering wheel...

 

t

 

 

Man... so your saying there was no need to buy a 320mm steering wheel? bummer.

[Simeon]

5 hours ago, TobyB said:

The driver's side handle on a LHD car gives you a bit more room when you're flailing away at that big bus steering wheel...

 

t

 

 

I suppose, conceivably, the steering column is not symmetrically located between the two. No problems in using a bus wheel (well, 4 spoke stock wheel) in my car. Seems odd to me that the LHD would be the compromise model but RHD not so much.