A retractable hardtop — also known as "coupé convertible" or "coupé cabriolet" — is a car with an automatically operated, self-storing hardtop, as opposed to the folding textile-based roof used by traditional convertible cars.

The benefits of improved climate control and security are traded off against increased mechanical complexity, cost, weight and often reduced luggage capacity.

A 2006 New York Times article suggested the retractable hardtop may herald the demise of the textile-roofed convertible,^[1] 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."^[2]

History

1919 Ben P. Ellerbeck conceived a retractable hardtop – a manually operated system on a Hudson coupe that allowed unimpeded use of the rumble seat even with the top down^[3] – but never saw production.^[4]

1934 Lancia introduced the first production, power-operated retractable hardtop in 1934, the Belna Eclipse,^[5][6][7] designed and patented by Georges Paulin.^[1] The Belna was a French-built Lancia Augusta. The French coachbuilder, Marcel Pourtout, custom-built examples of Paulin's designs on other makes like Panhard and Peugeot 402, 401 or 601.^[1]

1941 Chrysler introduced a retractable hardtop concept car, the Chrysler Thunderbolt.^[3]

1953 Ford Motor Company spent an estimated US$2 million (US$18,728,856 in 2018 dollars^[8]) to engineer a Continental Mark II with a servo-operated retractable roof. The project was headed by Ben Smith, a 30-year-old draftsman.^[9] The concept was rejected for cost and marketing reasons.^[3] Engineering work was recycled to the Ford Division which used the retractable mechanism in their 1957-1959 flagship Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner after an estimated US$18 million (US$160,571,090 in 2018 dollars^[8]) more was spent.^[10]

1955 Brothers Ed and Jim Gaylord showed their first prototype at the 1955 Paris motor show,^[11] but the car failed to reach production.

1957 Ford introduced the Fairlane 500 Skyliner in the United States. A total of 48,394 were built from 1957 to 1959.^[3] The retractable top was noted for its complexity and usually decent reliability^[12][13] in the pre-transistor era. Its mechanism contained 10 power relays, 10 limit switches, four lock motors, three drive motors, eight circuit breakers, as well as 610 feet (190 m) of electrical wire,^[3] and could raise or lower the top in about 40 seconds. The Skyliner was a halo car with little luggage space (i.e., practicality), and cost twice that of a baseline Ford sedan.

1989 Toyota introduced a modern retractable hardtop, the MZ20 Soarer Aerocabin. The car featured an electric folding hardtop and was marketed as a 2-seater with a cargo area behind the front seats. Production was 500 units.

1995 The Mitsubishi GTO Spyder by ASC was marketed in the U.S.^[4] The design was further popularized by such cars as the 1996 Mercedes-Benz SLK.^[1] and 2001 Peugeot 206 CC.

2006 Peugeot presented a concept four-door retractable hardtop convertible, the Peugeot 407 Macarena.^[14] Produced by French coachbuilding specialist Heuliez, the Macarena's top can be folded in about 30 seconds.^[14] It has a reinforcing beam behind the front seats which incorporates LCD screens into the crossmember for the rear passengers.^[14]

Construction

Retractable hardtops are commonly made from between two and five sections of metal or plastic and often rely on complex dual-hinged trunk/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. The trunk also often includes a divider mechanism to prevent loading of luggage that would conflict with the operation of the hardtop.

Variations

• The Volkswagen Eos features a five-segment retractable roof where one section is itself an independently sliding transparent sunroof.^[2]
• The Mercedes SL hardtop features a glass section that rotates during retraction to provide a more compact "stack."
• The Mazda MX-5 has been available since the 2006 model year with an optional power retractable hardtop, in lieu of the standard folding-textile soft-top. Compared to the regular soft-top, the hardtop weighs 77 lb (35 kg) more yet has no reduction in cargo capacity.^[15] The MX-5 is one of the few cars offering both hardtop and soft-top convertible choices. The hardtop roof is constructed of polycarbonate and manufactured by the German firm Webasto.^[16]
• The Chrysler Sebring's (and its successor the Chrysler 200's) retractable hardtop also is marketed alongside a soft-top. According to development engineer Dave Lauzun, during construction, the Karmann-made tops are dropped into a body that is largely identical: both soft-top and retractable feature the same automatic tonneau cover, luggage divider and luggage space.^[17] The retractable does feature an underbody cross-brace not included in the softtop.

Comparison with soft tops

The retractable hardtop's advantages include:

• More weatherly when roof is raised
• More secure than fabric tops^[2][18]
• Increased structural rigidity
• 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.

The retractable hardtop's disadvantages include:

• Higher initial cost
• Increased mechanical complexity
• Potentially diminished passenger and trunk space compared to a soft-top convertible.^[19][20]
• Higher weight and center of gravity than soft-top convertibles, potentially reducing handling.^[21][19][20]
• Potential need for more than minimum clearance while operating the hardtop. For example, the Volvo C70 requires 6.5 feet (2 m) of vertical clearance during operation^[22], the Cadillac XLR requires 6 ft 10 ¹⁄₂ in (2 m) of vertical clearance and the Mercedes SLK's trunk lid extends rearward while lowering or lifting the top.

List of retractable hardtop models

Gallery

• Mazda Miata Power Retractable Hard Top (PRHT) c. 2007, with 77 lb (35 kg) polycarbonate hardtop and identical cargo capacity to the soft top version^[15]

• Cadillac XLR c. 2007, with fully retracted aluminum (i.e., lightweight) hardtop concealed by self-storing tonneau cover, the hardtop manufactured by a supplier joint venture of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche^[23]

• Daihatsu Copen c. 2001 with retracted hardtop, qualifying for the ultra-compact Japanese Kei class

• Ford Focus CC c. 2006 with its roof retracted, its final assembly performed by Pininfarina

• Chevrolet SSR c. 2004, a retractable hardtop convertible pickup truck, its top engineered by ASC

• Volkswagen Eos c. 2007, the five-segment top features an independently sliding sunroof, made by OASys

• Opel Astra Twintop with a three-part folding metal roof which sits in the upper half of the boot space, leaving considerable luggage space below it. Sold from 2005-2012.