Targa top

[beltax90]

[Tokay444]

Originally Posted by JesseG

I don’t want to give up the double bubble roof for a sunroof or targa top. Not to mention you introduce more flex into the car. No thanks! There is a reason the coupe version of the MkIV Supra is the most sought after.
Don’t get me wrong I think sunroofs and targa tops are fun, but the cars I’ve owned with them I found I never used them much.


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Adding a big heavy slab of glass to the highest point on the car is counter-productive to anything a sports car is trying to achieve also.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by pallen

The slicktop Z32 was lighter. People wanted them for track cars. I get that.
The reason they were rare and the reason Nissan didn't make a slicktop TT is because they didn't sell well when they were new - because the TTops were awesome The slicktop was the budget Z.

I think they didn't sell well because Nissan didn't make many of them, I don't think they even offered it at all in the US some years! For sure if they'd made a twin-turbo slicktop for a discount vs. T-top, they would have sold more. And we would have had a stiffer Z32 TT that weighed 3400 lb. instead of nearly 3600 lb. Doh! This is making me think I might need an LS3 slicktop Z32 in my life...

[Red-86]

Originally Posted by Willpower

The RF is a targa. It’s just a targa with mechanical actuation.

As ZDan said, I consider a targa to be car where the rear hood/C-pillar is fixed in place like a coupe, and only the roof section is detachable. The RF only looks like a targa, but as the rear C-pillar section is part of the overall mechanism that folds when changing it doesn’t add much rigidity or any real rollover protection. Conversely, a proper targa does, which is part of the appeal over a regular convertible i.e. they are safer in a crash.

In any case, I doubt a proper targa is in the twins’s future. It would likely be a small proportion of sales, so they are better off focussing on the coupe from a sales and production rationalisation POV.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by ZDan

I think they didn't sell well because Nissan didn't make many of them, I don't think they even offered it at all in the US some years! For sure if they'd made a twin-turbo slicktop for a discount vs. T-top, they would have sold more. .

Well, they would have sold the same number of cars, but maybe more of them would have been slicktops. In the end though most people buying new during that era sought out the ones with removable panels. If you couldn't get the T's then you either went to a car you could get them, or you settled. Remember most of the buying public couldn't give a flip about things like stiffness. They buy for the coolness factor, and nothing was cooler than t-tops.

[Red-86]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Remember most of the buying public couldn't give a flip about things like stiffness. They buy for the coolness factor, and nothing was cooler than t-tops.

Do you think they have the same cool factor in 2020 they had in 1990? I’m not sure they do. I think the sports car market has largely solidified on full coupe or convertible as the popular options nowadays.

[AnalogMan]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Aerospace structural engineer here
The thin, lightweight shear panel that is the outer roof contributes significantly to roof shear stiffness and chassis torsional stiffness. Removing this shear panel leave you with an open picture-frame that is relatively free to deform as a parallelogram (even with the central "T" brace). Shear panel weighs very little but gives a LOT in terms of shear and torsional stiffness.

Oh well, I guess I should give up hoping for a targa or T-top BRZ. I would never cut up a car, I'd only buy a factory version.

I certainly appreciate that a fixed roof would always have greater structural rigidity than any kind of holes cut into it (T-top, big sunroof, targa, whatever). As long as it wasn't ridiculously floppy, that's a trade-off I'd happily make. At my age there are no more 'track days' before me. All my driving is solely on the street. I'd trade some chassis rigidity for the fun of some kind of open (even if semi) roof experience.

To a point... one of the cars I owned back in the day was a Honda del Sol. It was a full targa top, and provided a terrific near-convertible open-air experience (even the back window lowered electrically). But the car had chassis rigidity somewhere between wet toilet paper and cooked ramen noodles. It would seem like the cowl would twist and shake through 25 degrees of arc (exaggerating of course, but it felt like that!). As much as the targa top was great fun, that was too much flexi-flyer even for me.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by AnalogMan

This is the Supra, but if this was done for the BRZ/86, I'd be the first one in line to buy one (regardless of whether it was the first or second gen car):

https://jalopnik.com/the-2021-gr-sup...-ne-1845929374

The world needs more removable roofs...

My first A80 Supra was a targa. My second one was a hardtop. So much better. Lighter. Less chassis flex. The chassis flex with the targa off while aggressively driving in the canyons was ehh. Also, the car got sooooo dirty with the targa off when I would leave it off parked for a while. Pollen, dirt, dust, bird shit, etc.

I would never own a convertible, even a hardtop convertible either. I would barely use a sunroof. We rarely use our Q5's panoramic roof. It is rare. I prefer the windows down or cracked anyways.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Red-86

Do you think they have the same cool factor in 2020 they had in 1990?

Well, no, unless it's in crossover or a Jeep.

[AnalogMan]

Originally Posted by Red-86

Do you think they have the same cool factor in 2020 they had in 1990? I’m not sure they do. I think the sports car market has largely solidified on full coupe or convertible as the popular options nowadays.

I'll take the contrarian view (as I usually do...) that a targa top, T-tops, or even a big removable sunroof might be especially cool in 2020 because it would be different. No one else sells a car with T-tops, or an affordable targa (the Porsche 911 aside).

Retro can sell. Why not a retro style top? I might be the only one, but I'd buy one in a New York minute (as long as the chassis was reinforced enough so that the car wasn't as floppy as overcooked spaghetti).

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by AnalogMan

I'll take the contrarian view (as I usually do...) that a targa top, T-tops, or even a big removable sunroof might be especially cool in 2020 because it would be different. No one else sells a car with T-tops, or an affordable targa (the Porsche 911 aside).

Every non-convertible Corvette is a targa...

Retro can sell. Why not a retro style top? I might be the only one, but I'd buy one in a New York minute (as long as the chassis was reinforced enough so that the car wasn't as floppy as overcooked spaghetti).

That chassis reinforcement and the removable top(s) add both weight and cost. For me, that'd be like adding insult to injury: "here you go, we gave it T-tops so it's both heavier and more expensive!" >

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

...nothing was cooler than t-tops.

Maybe from 1975-1985ish, when almost no convertibles were available.

By 1990, many sports car enthusiasts were *over* ubiquitous, heavy, clumsy, often leaky and rattly "T-tops". I was anyway...

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Every non-convertible Corvette is a targa...

I'll be honest, I don't even see the point of the new Corvette Convertible. Other than the fact it stows itself, there convertible isn't much more than a targa anyway.

[Stephen W.]

Originally Posted by ZDan

Maybe from 1975-1985ish, when almost no convertibles were available.
< snip >

Almost NO convertibles??? How quickly we forget. Every division of GM had a convertible model. Ford and Chrysler also had built convertible models during that period. Do a search, you'll be surprised just how many different ones were out there.