Hardtop Convertibles

Hardtop Convertibles

Newport Convertible Engineering – NCE will design and engineer your vehicles, cars, automobiles to a Hardtop Convertibles.

NCE is a leader in automotive innovation and design.

Hardtop convertibles provide the benefits of a convertible cars with the comfort and protection of a coupe. With the top up a hardtop convertibles has the all-weather appeal of an enclosed car, but once the top goes down it’s all convertible.

 Chrysler Crossfire Hardtop Convertible by Newport Convertible Engineering!

Other Hardtop Convertibles:

$1,985,000 Sport Hardtop Convertibles

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport The 2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport is a hardtop roadster, a convertible with 2 passenger doors and seating a maximum of 2 people, with a price starting at $1,985,000. Running on Premium, the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport gets 8 MPG City, 15 Highway MPG, for a combined 10 MPG.

Complete specs: 2011 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Hardtop Roadster 2011 (Current  Ferrari California Hardtop $194,000

Ferrari California The 2011 Ferrari California is a hardtop convertible with 2 passenger doors and seating a maximum of 4 people, with a price starting at $194,000.

Complete specs: 2011 Ferrari California Hardtop Convertibles (Preview Model) Fisker Karma S Convertible Hardtop TBD

Lexus IS 250 C The 2011 Lexus IS 250 C is a hardtop convertible with 2 passenger doors and seating a maximum of 4 people, with a price starting at $41,560. Running on Premium, the IS 250 C gets 21 MPG City, 30 Highway MPG, for a combined 24 MPG.

Complete specs: 2011 Lexus IS 250 C Hardtop Convertibles 2011 (Current Model) LexusIS 350 CHardtop$45,840
Lexus IS 350 C The 2011 Lexus IS 350 C is a hardtop convertible with 2 passenger doors and seating a maximum of 4 people, with a price starting at $45,840. Running on Premium, the IS 350 C gets 20 MPG City, 27 Highway MPG, for a combined 22 MPG.

2011 (Current Model)Mercedes-BenzSL550 Roadster Hardtop$102,600
Mercedes-Benz SL550 Hardtop Convertibles, The 2011 Mercedes-Benz SL550 Roadster is a hardtop roadster, a convertible with 2 passenger doors and seating a maximum of 2 people, with a price starting at $102,600.

Volvo C70The 2011 Volvo C70 is a hardtop convertible with 2 passenger doors and seating a maximum of 4 people, with a price starting at $39,950. Running on Regular, the C70 gets 20 MPG City, 28 Highway MPG, for a combined 23 MPG.

Complete specs: 2011 Volvo C70 Hardtop Convertible

Retractable hardtop roof

A retractable hardtop, also known as coupé convertible or coupé cabriolet, is a type of convertible that forgoes a folding textile roof in favor of an automatically operated, multi-part, self-storing hardtop where the rigid roof sections are opaque, translucent or independently operable.

The first retractable hardtop was from France when in 1934 Peugeot introduced the 601 Éclipse, designed by Georges Paulin.^[13][14]

The retractable hardtop solves some issues with the soft-top convertible, but has its own compromises, namely mechanical complexity, expense and more often than not, reduced luggage capacity.

A 2006 New York Times article suggested the retractable hardtop may herald the demise of the textile-roofed convertible,^[15] and a 2007 Wall Street Journal article suggested “more and more convertibles are eschewing soft cloth tops in favor of sophisticated folding metal roofs, making them practical in all climates, year-round.”^[16]

Construction

Retractable hardtops can vary in material (steel, plastic or aluminum), can vary from two to five in the number of rigid sections and often rely on complex dual-hinged trunk (British: boot) lids that enable the trunk lid to both receive the retracting top from the front and also receive parcels or luggage from the rear – along with complex trunk divider mechanisms to prevent loading of luggage that would conflict with the operation of the hardtop.

The retractable hardtop convertible trades higher initial cost, mechanical complexity and, with rare exception, diminished trunk space – for increased acoustic insulation, durability and break-in protection similar to that of a fixed roof coupe.

Pro: The retractable hardtop’s advantages are:

• More practical in all climates year-round, compared to soft-tops which are more prone to leakage in heavy rain or winter. In addition, hardtops minimize wind noise and are more secure (the cloth of certain soft-tops can be slashed by a knife).^[22][16]
• Increased structural rigidity over a soft-top.
• Eliminates the need for a storage-consuming, manually-from-outside-the-vehicle-installable, separate or integral, rigid or foldable, tonneau cover to conceal the mechanicals of a folded textile top.
• Eliminates the need to protect the vulnerable underside of a folded textile top from UV fading.
• Eliminates the need for a separate rigid hardtop requiring space-consuming off-season storage and a cumbersome twice-yearly, two-person manual installation and removal – a system popularized, for example, by the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class of 1963 to 2001.
• May enable consolidation/simplification of a manufacturer’s car lineup; for instance the current BMW Z4 (E89) is offering only as a coupé-convertible (hardtop), compared to the preceding E85 generation that had separate coupé and cabriolet (soft-top) variants.
• Part of a popular trend that automakers have been following in the late 2000s. Hardtops are nicknamed “metal origami” and top-up they are considered more attractive than soft-tops.^[23] A 2006 New York Times article suggested the retractable hardtop may herald the demise of the textile-roofed convertible,^[15] and a 2007 Wall Street Journal article suggested “more and more convertibles are eschewing soft cloth tops in favor of sophisticated folding metal roofs”.^[16]
• Soft-top convertibles are often considered by the automotive press to not be in the “same league” as more complex hardtops.^[24]

Con: In addition to higher initial cost, increased mechanical complexity – and thereby potentially higher repair cost, hardtops have the general disadvatages of:

• Diminished passenger and trunk space compared to a soft-top convertible. Indeed some hardtops have a nearly unusable trunk once the roof is down.^[25][26][27] Even some soft-top models use the trunk for storage of top.
• Hardtops typically have a higher weight and center of gravity which reduces handling dynamics, so the Audi R8 Spyder, Porsche Boxster and 911 Cabriolet have retained soft-tops. Audi has yet to produce a hardtop convertible as of 2011, since they include quattro as standard equipment in their convertibles (after the discontinuation of the 2007 Audi A4 2.0T cabriolet) which already adds extra weight.^{[25][26][27][28]}
• decreased structural rigidity compared to a fixed-roof coupe. The 2010 Infiniti G37 Convertible tries to solve this problem with a folding steel roof, however this adds considerable mass to the vehicle.^[29]
• The retractable hardtop may lift the articulating sections of the roof during retraction, requiring increased vertical clearance. For example, the Volvo C70 requires 6.5 feet (2.0 m) of clearance during operation.^[30] The Cadillac XLR requires 6′-10 ¹⁄₂” of vertical clearance.
• The retractable hardtop may, such as in the case of the Mercedes SLK, require additional rear clearance behind the car during operation of the top, the trunklid extending rearward while retracting or raising the top.
• The retractable hardtop relies on battery power, and in the event of battery failure, can leave a retracted roof vulnerable to a downpour. Volvo includes an emergency roof cover with each Volvo C70.^[30] The Cadillac XLR owners manual contains seven pages of detailed instructions on how to manually raise the top. This problem is not unique to retractable hardtops since some soft-tops rely on battery power as well.
• With numerous articulated sections, each joint or seal is an opportunity for water leakage.
• Failure of hydraulics or electrical systems may result in substantial repair bills, though some models of ragtops have similar setbacks when they employ a powered top-down sequence.