Today I will... discuss, let’s say, Convertible stuff. More specifically, I will try to make a couple of considerations regarding roof arrangements, as there are two dominant approaches these days: the trendy, practical folding steel roof and the classic fabric top. Which is best?
The classic convertibles and roadsters are visually recognized mainly because of the predominant black fabric roofs. It’s the cheapest, lightest, less complicated solution to cover the heads of open-air driving lovers.
As time passed by, their remarkable evolution went from a simple layer of fabric and a couple of steel tubes (pretty much like my Smart Roadster’s…), later with a plastic screen at the back for improved rear visibility and a gutter over the doors. Electric motors were introduced for added comfort, back in the Sixties (remember the movie ‘Bandits’, from 2001?), after multi-layer fabric tops making their appearances, perhaps the biggest and more relevant evolution in their lives. This way, a roof-up convertible could provide saloon-like levels of insulation, regarding both noise and heat, allowing all-weather use.
Plastic screens gave way to heated glass, a further milestone in the soft top road, as this meant no dark, sun-burned plastic and no steamed-up windows during winter. Even lightning-conductors have been added to some soft tops, and I can assure that, in some cases, the car’s rigidity is way improved with the roof up, a sign of a very strong structure (try the four-seater Audi A4 Cabriolet).
Their shapes also improved dramatically over the years. Of course, there always have been good and bad examples over time, with prestigious brands, like Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz, never presenting the car scene with hideous arrangements, as a direct consequence of expensive developments.
Even so, who can classify an MGA, MG Midget or Triumph Spitfire as unappealing cars? I don’t, that’s for sure! These were cheap, simple cars focused on the driving joy, so their tops were correspondingly… unpretentious. Furthermore, as time passed by, even cheap roadsters, such as the 1989 Mazda MX-5, brought with them neat-looking soft tops.
However, the convertible world was about to be shaken up in the mid-Nineties.
The New Era
Back in the Summer of 1996, Mercedes-Benz surprised the world with its new baby roadster: the SLK. Internally known as the R170, the first generation SLK was an unexpected step from one of the most conservative car manufacturers at the time. The looks and, especially, the proportions were reminiscent from the Fifties three pointed star roadsters, but the gold touch was, definitely, the pioneer folding Vario roof, an hardtop which allowed a magnificent-looking roadster to become a dynamic sports-coupé.
Mercedes-Benz pointed out the versatility of the car as its pièce de resistance. You could have the charisma of a two-seater roadster with the practicality of a coupé, in other words, brilliant noise insulation, security and thermal efficiency.
Of course, the skeptics immediately questioned the roof’s reliability, and rightly so. For such a complex arrangement of hydraulic cylinders, hinges and plastic covers to be able to stand the test of time, especially given the known fact that Mercedes-Benz had started to save money on development (blame shareholders and a man called Jürgen Hubbert) was a tough task, to say the least.
Mercedes-Benz knew this, so the press release also highlighted that they had tested the system over 20 000 cycles, with absolutely no problem. Less exposed were the boot capacity figures, which at 348 litres (coupé configuration) was as good as its 145-litre in top-less condition was bad.
Finally, the tiny (for MB Standards) dimensions and relatively small-capacity engines allowed an empty weight ranging from 1270 to 1325 kg, so the comparatively high weight of the roof was unnoticed.
The advantages also included added rigidity in coupé-shape, even if the solid wheelbase already made a case of itself in roadster configuration. Maintenance-free metal, in place of fragile fabric, simple rubber joints and a heated glass window at the rear completed the row of attributes of this sensational concept.
The long-term reliability of the Vario-roof proved to be first-class, with very few cases of malfunctioning being reported, some of them being caused by improper use, such as opening or closing while parked with opposite wheels at different ground levels, which means a chassis subjected to torsion (seems common-sense, doesn’t it?).
The seed spreads…
Well, enough of time travel. The reason which made me write this post is other than some history-class-wannabe. You know, sometimes my eyes cross such ugly shapes that I just cannot avoid squeaking and moaning about what the hell were designers thinking of. This happens because many car manufacturers, while trying to be cutting edge, trendy, up to date or just stupid, tend to put a folding hardtop everywhere, from small hatchbacks to big family cars.
Of course, It’s always nice to have the safety of a hardtop if you leave the car parked, but if the car ends up looking like Shrek, who’s gonna buy it in the first place?
Apparently, many people. You see, watching the Mercedes SLK phenomenon while outside the party must have been tough. So, many car manufacturers started to plan copies of its roof concept, in an urge to present one of their own as fast as possible.
The result is plain to see: in 2000, Peugeot presented the 206 Coupé-Cabriolet, of which I show the following pictures.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m convinced this side view just doesn’t work. Roof-down profile look is barely acceptable, the high and boxy back disconnected from the front. Peugeot tried to mend this by lifting the bonnet a little bit and by lowering the windscreen, which also needed to be stretched, in order for a shorter and smaller roof to be able to fit in the boot. So, they almost designed a saloon, in order for the boot to be able to accommodate the roof, and story tells that no hatchback-derived saloon works aesthetically (remember the Skoda Fabia Saloon?). Closing the roof worsens things a step further, as the roof looks like an egg. By the way: what the hell are those back ‘seats’ for? For an amputated child, perhaps? Unless the driver is 1,5 metres tall, no one can seat in the back…
Peugeot was the second car maker to offer a folding hardtop, but couldn’t still make a single one which looks good. What an impressive effort from the carmaker which gave the world so many beautiful cars, such as the 206 itself, still produced 13 years after being first launched. I’m sorry Peugeot, but your convertibles look like cars which were designed to be driven backwoods: an XS engine compartment and an XXL boot. The 307 CC looks like a Porsche 911 in reverse…
Their French rivals from Renault did a better job. They didn’t rush to make a 2+0,5 seater convertible from the Clio, instead took the bigger Mégane and successfully integrated a proper-looking folding hardtop on it. Roof up and it did look like a sleek coupé, roof down a classic convertible. That applies to both generation Mégane CC’s.
Volkswagen entered this world with their Eos, but it looks like they took inspiration from Peugeot. Of course, truth be told: it’s not as horrible as, say, a 307, but a Mégane CC looks way better…
Volvo and BMW did proper jobs, both with four-seaters first, which made their tasks amongst the harder. The 2007 3-Series Convertible and C70 are dynamic coupés and beautiful cabriolets, both proving that a big, folding metal roof can also look great.
The risk here is long-term reliability: for such big hardtops to be able to fit inside their boots, such complexity has been required that the original Mercedes SLK’s Vario roof looks like kid’s work. I’m utterly skeptic about them and their expensive rubber joints.
And that neatly brings me back to Mercedes-Benz.
Their second Vario-iteraction was the 2001 R230 SL, a faster, lighter evolution from the original concept. It also allowed to save more space in the boot, via a rear window that decouples from its frame. Aesthetically not as perfect as the original I think (too long windscreen), but still beautiful.
From there on, each new iteration looks neat, but a further milestone for Mercedes happened when they started designing the replacement for the 2003 A209 CLK: the return of the E-Class Convertible.
The inventor of the retractable hardtop roof thought that the winning concept should fit such an important reborn, and started developing a solution. However, a few time after the first prototypes hit the road for hard-weather testing (in 2008), they gave a second thought to the idea, and ended up trashing it. Did the big Vario roof not stand the cold weather tests as required? Did Mercedes realized that the production costs of such a solution would be too much high? Perhaps it has something to do with Karmann becoming bankrupt (it seems that Karmann was the magic hand behind the original Vario roof), so, some months later, E-Class Convertible prototypes started being spotted with soft-tops.
Looking at the finished product, and I can only be happy with that! Just look and feel the charisma of this car. It has such finesse that I cannot even imagine it with a folding hardtop.
Where do we stand?
This my point: does any convertible really need a trendy, practical folding hardtop?
The answer is simple: no.
An open-top car, be it a sexy two-seater roadster or a classic four-seater cabriolet, is all about emotions. No one buys such a car looking for the best practicality, or performance, or value for money. Who mistakenly does, only does it once. These kind of cars are targeted to your heart, they are bought by people who admires them, who just don’t mind to make concessions regarding rationality. I can say all this because I am a roadster owner, and I will always be.
Such a feeling is enhanced if a proper roof is fitted, be it a soft top or a folding hard top.
But, more important, one which doesn’t look ridiculous.
