Hardtop

Hardtop (literally: Hard roof) is the English name for a solid roof on vehicles. A distinction is made between the detachable additional roofs for convertibles, just (also known as attachment) such for pick- ups. This hardtop can if necessary mounted on the vehicle when not in use and stored at a suitable location. In U.S. parlance, the term usually defines a non- removable roof on passenger cars without a B- pillar.

Hardtops for convertibles

In European usage defines the term " hardtop " usually a removable, fixed roof for open cars or those with a soft top. These hardtops are usually made ​​of steel, aluminum or fiberglass.

Precursors of these hardtops are vehicles with summer and winter body, which were used until the 1910s. Such most luxurious automobiles were delivered, each with an open structure for the summer and closed for the winter. In spring and autumn the body was exchanged each; larger missions offered to the storage of unneeded construction and also carried out maintenance and remodeling. A rare representatives of these vehicles is the Sage 24CV 1906 in the National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse ( Schlumpf Collection )

A hard-top convertibles used in a substitute for the sensitive and flexible top is mainly mounted in the winter. Hardtops for convertibles available today almost exclusively as an accessory. On older vehicles, the upmarket like the Mercedes- Benz R129 they were part of the standard specification.

A special form or further development is the so-called retractable hardtop dar. This is fixed to the vehicle and folded in several parts.

Hardtops for Pickups

When installing a hardtop on the back of a pickup, a closed storage space. Hardtops for Pickups are therefore equipped in most cases with an additional tailgate.

Hardtops for sedans, coupes and station wagons

Especially in the U.S. and Japan serves hardtop as a term for coupes, sedans and in some cases also for station wagons without a B- pillar ( hardtop coupe, hardtop sedan and hardtop station wagon ). The roof is not removable with these models. The idea can be traced back to the late 1910s. One of the pioneers was the JB Judkins Company in Sterling Diners and Merrimac (Massachusetts ) which in 1917 a " Transformable " sat -called seven-seater body with a fixed roof on the chassis of a Packard Twin Six Model 3-35. The side windows were retractable, and the two central roof supports on each side could be removed and stowed under the rear seat. 1918 was followed by a three-door version ( with an average door on the driver's side, on the right) on the shorter chassis 3-25. Packard took this type even in the special catalog for Spezialkarosserien on ( body No. 532, base price U.S. $ 5,050 ). A two-door version, called " Touring Sedan " had even single seats forward. It cost U.S. $ 4080th The Ford Model T was Coupelet as one of the first production car with such a roof. It was introduced in late 1916 (the predecessor had a soft top ). The roof was not removable; are not retractable side windows were hung and stowed in a compartment under the floor. The vehicle cost $ 505

In Europe, next to the label Faux Cabriolet hardtop was also common. For example, there was the Ford P7 in addition to the model variant available as a coupe and with modified roof form as a hardtop coupe. When the hardtop versions came towards the end of the seventies out of fashion - new security requirements were difficult to meet without a B- pillar - and the models again received B-pillars, marketing talked for a while like the so-called Pillared Hardtop, ie from Hardtop model B-pillar.

In Japan, so-called Hardtoplimousinen be marketed as a sporty offshoot of conventional middle-class sedans. This feature frameless side windows, a concealed B-pillar and a generally flatter roofline than the regular sedan.

The origin of the name goes back to the late forties when General Motors, this body variant, first as a coupe, brought to market. The visual impression of this first hardtop models corresponded in fact to a convertible with attached fixed roof.

Hardtop sedan ( Mercury Marquis, 1969)

Hardtop Station Wagon ( AMC Ambassador, 1958)

Ford P7, an example from Europe

No hardtop sedan in the traditional sense: a marketed as Pillared Hardtop Ford LTD with fixed B-pillar.

Mitsubishi Diamante ( hardtop sedan )

Mitsubishi Magna ( conventional sedan same series )