As an enthusiastic Z car guy, the word on Z car roadsters is "Be careful,"
for exactly the reasons noted below. Removing the roof on a Z unit-body
kills half the structural ridgidity. The Z body/chassis isn't all that
rigid to begin with--I know, I've stressed the rear C pillar joints (where
the top of the C pillar meets the rear of the roof) on several Z cars with
spirited driving. The filler on the joint bulges out very noticeably when
that happens, becuase it's right at eye level when you get out of the car.
("Oops! Uh, sorry Dude, I didn't know THAT was going to happen"). That
tells you how much stress those joints take under hard driving and a clue
that the roof in a Z car is an integral component of the chassis.
You could always install a roll cage to restore the chassis rigidity, but
then again, that defeats the purpose of a roadster. I've never driven one,
but knowing how hard I push my Z car, I'm not inclined to break out the
Sawz-All and have at my Z car's roof.
Alex Avery
At 03:53 PM 10/26/00 -0400, Andrew Jacobs wrote:
>i actually drove a 240 with a similar conversion about 10 years ago.
>i had a great service guy in virginia who sold me my 240 and i
>happened to be there when a convertible 240 was in for service. the
>conversion was well done and the car looked great--i asked who ran the
>shop about possibly doing the same to my car, he told me to take a
>ride in the car that was there first--when i did, it was almost
>scary--the cowl moved all over the place, and when you would turn into
>parking lots, etc., the whole chassis would twist and make creaking
>noises when you passed over a dip or a rain gutter between the road
>and the parking lot. i decided to keep the roof on my car after that.
>andy
>71 240z
>69 2000
>
|