welcome back. I know the frequency of my post's has dropped significantly as of late. Some things have been happening that have been unfortunately taking me away from all of my amazing readers, bear with me. It will pick up soon. Now to the topic at hand.
As you know (if you have read my early posts) I have been interested in cars for my entire life, I have seen countless reviews on thousands (if not millions) of cars, trucks and everything in between. I fancy myself a person who is partial to closed roof motoring. I find roofless cars gorgeous, don't get me wrong. The only gripe I have is that I have always heard and seen that once you take the roof off a vehicle, it looses structural stability and becomes "floppy".
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| http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5956626-What-Makes-a-Car-a-quot-Cool-quot/page2 |
That is a beautiful car. I would not however want to take it around a corner at 100MPH. That is the debate though is it not. Should a roofless car be as capable as it's closed brother. What is a convertible for? cruising? or carving with the top down.
Modern manufacturers have recently began producing drop-top versions of their cars that actually come very close to rivaling there stable mates in the rigidity department.
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| http://www.dieselstation.com/McLaren/12C-Spider-2013/McLaren-MP4-12C-Spider-2013-widescreen-wallpaper-ds42-i5083.html |
Whenever I think of a roofless car that does not sacrifice stability, The 12C Spyder is the first car that comes to mind. Through computer controlled wizardry and some bracing this car has managed to perform just as amazingly as the normal 12C. In fact according to Mclaren Automotive, the accelration times are the exact same at 3.2 second (3.0 with Corsa tires). The hard top convertible has come along way since the old Fairlane Skyliner.
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| http://richfiddelke.blogspot.ca/2012/11/1957-ford-fairlane-skyliner.html |
Another point of interest to me over the years has been the differences in nomenclature between the different variations of roofless cars. Let's see there are convertibles, spyder's/spider's, roadster's, drop-head coupes, cabriolet's, speedster's, hardtop convertible....and targa's. Why is there so many names, it's confusing. To quantify all that jargon, my interpretation is as follows
Convertible- A car that was originally designed as a hardtop whether it's a four seat car or not.
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| http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2013-ford-mustang-gt-50-convertible-first-drive-review |
Spyder- from what I can tell a term used by company's instead of the word roadster, they seem to be the same.
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamborghini_Gallardo_Spyder_-_Flickr_-_The_Car_Spy_%2823%29.jpg |
roadster- used to be a term to describe a roofless car with out windows. Now it seems to mean a car which allows you to completely remove the roof. Although some just have folding soft tops.
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| http://www.passatworld.com/forums/56-anything-auto/293805-class-crass-2009-pagani-zonda-cinque-roadster.html |
Drop-head Coupe- that is a slightly confusing one, from what I can gather it is just a British term for a convertible.
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| http://autospeedcars.com/2008-rolls-royce-phantom-drophead-convertible-hyperion-by-pininfarina-wallpaper/ |
Cabriolet- This a a french word that German company's use in place of the word roadster. They usually have soft-tops.
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| http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/volkswagen/golf-mk1-cabriolet/ |
Speedster- This car has a roof you have to assemble to the frame and is able to be taken off completely, it also has a slightly cut down windshield.
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| http://silodrome.com/57-porsche-speedster/ |
Hardtop convertible- This one is self explanatory. A hardtop that fold's into the trunk. (my favorite).
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| http://imotorlist.com/blog/2009/08/05/the-best-of-both-worlds-hard-top-convertibles/ |
Targa- A car where a small section of the roof above the driver and passenger's head's can be removed, high end cars favour this layout due to it not having a large effect on wind movement over the car.
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| http://www.ctvnews.ca/autos/porsche-picks-detroit-for-911-targa-debut-1.1632626 |
A roofless car in whatever variation you so choose to have is a wonderful thing. It allows you to become one with the car in a way nothing else can, You can feel the engine note vibrate through your ears, you become one with everything the car is doing. It can be full sensory envelopment.
The way a car with no top has advanced over the years is staggering, They are gorgeous like a women or a piece of art and now if you show up to a stop light against the introverted brother of you're machine, there is no advantage on either side.
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| http://www.astonmartin.com/cars/vanquish-volante |
