>Last, I grew up calling any car that the top could be removed as
>a 'convertible'. However, I often hear such terms as drop-head-coupe,
>roadster, etc used to refer to our beloved LBCs. Can someone provide
>a run down on what makes a car a roadster, DHC, etc?
Just as they have different terms for tools and car parts,
British and American English have different terms for body
styles. I read a British magazine that had a review of a
1955 Chevy Bel Air two-door hard top, and they thought that
the hard top was popular because "it allowed the drivers to
experience open-air motoring with the comfort and security
of a solid roof when desired." (Of course, that's dating
myself; how many people here remember US two-door hard tops?)
Anyway, British terminology goes about like this:
- Roadster: Minimal weather gear. Hood should be removable
easily and stow in the boot or the garage, on a frame that
disassembles. Side curtains, not roll-up windows, are
the order of the day. Examples: TR-3, MGA, Frogeye Sprite
and Sprite Mk II/Midget Mk I, Healey Hundred (BN-1 and BN-2),
100-6 (BN-4?), and some 3000s (BT-7 and BN-7 but not BJ series).
Early MGBs and Spitfires (both dating from about 1963) split
the difference by having removable roofs and roll-up windows.
All Real Sports Cars (TM) start out as roadsters and have
weather gear added to them as the product "matures"; Fake
Sports Cars start out with tin hats and have them lopped off
in an effort to bolster sales.
- Tourer: More like what we in the States would call a
convertible. This is a car with weather gear designed
to be stowed but not removed. Later MGBs are correctly
tourers, because the hood folds but remains attached in
normal use, and of course the windows roll down into the
doors. I'm not sure about TR-4s and 4As, I've never
seen Sarah with her hood up (and quite correct that, I might
add). But TR6s and all later TRs (except for the hardtop
TR-7s, of course) are tourers by this definition. There
were also some delightful MG tourers made in the early
Fifties and late Forties, based on the Y series cars
which were saloons built on the T series chassis. An
MG YA Tourer is high on the list of cars I'd like to have,
if only so the family could all go whizzing through the hills
with the top down (in the same car, of course).
- Drop-head Coupe' (accent aigu over the e): Best understood
in comparison to the fixed-head coupe' (such as the MGA Coupe
and various FHC Jaguars of the 140-150 line). These are
cars with the general appointments of the coupe but with
permanently attached folding hoods. Usually these cars are
more luxuriously finished, often with lined hoods and glass
backlights. Best examples are the Jaguar XK-150 drop-head
coupe, the Austin-Healey BJ-8, and the Jensen Interceptor.
Continental enthusiasts would say that the Porsche Speedster
is a roadster, while the Porsche 356 Cabriolet is a drop-
head coupe'.
Along about the middle of the 1960s, these terms ceased to have
much meaning outside of the sales brochure, so you often find
people who grew up since then using them interchangeably or
in some other random manner. Originally, the terms were fairly
specific because they defined what you would expect to get from
your coachbuilder. Nowadays they're basically fun trivia to
swap around a game of darts in the local.
--Scott "Anyone for 301, double-on double-off?" Fisher
|