Quote:
Originally Posted by Dadhawk
By that same token though, if you have some type of lightweight (say CF) roof panels in place, wouldn't they provide that same rigidity, even if they didn't when removed?
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The manufacturer is going to have defined *minimum requirements* for strength and for stiffness, which will have to be met in all configurations. So chassis/frame structural design will be driven by the "no-roof" configuration. So even with structural roof-panel(s), you'll still have the additional structural mass built in and just enjoy added stiffness with it installed. An the customer is gonna want an *easily* removable panel or panels, not one that they have to bolt in to make it a rigid part of the chassis structure.
IMO best to let convertibles be convertibles, and let fixed-roof coupes be fixed-roof coupes and enjoy the weight benefits. Corvette has suffered a massive weight penalty since 1968 introduced T-tops. C5 and C6 Z06 enjoyed a bit of a weight reduction with fixed roofs. Then for C7 they decided "who cares about weight, we'll supercharge it!" Now for the C8 they've decided they *really* don't care about weight
