3 minute read
Preaching to the converted
from GOODWOOD | ISSUE 22
by Uncommonly
Hardtop convertibles are a remarkable feat of engineering, but their enduring appeal can be summed up in three words – sun, speed and sex. Stephen Bayley picks his favourites
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1948 VOLKSWAGEN HITLER USED A CONVERTIBLE VERSION OF DR PORSCHE’S 1936 KRAFT-DURCHFREUDE-WAGEN (“STRENGTH THROUGH JOY CAR”) IN NAZI MILITARY PARADES. IT WAS KARMANN, A COACHBUILDER IN OSNABRÜCK, THAT BEGAN MANUFACTURING A CIVILIAN VERSION IN 1948.
To make a convertible, you need a hacksaw, leathertex, complicated folding mechanisms and Dzus fasteners.
To use a convertible, you need an appetite for fresh air and the happy conviction that driving is not a soul-destroying chore, but a life-enhancing treat for the senses. You also need a hat. Either that or an insouciant attitude to hair management.
From the beginning in 1886, cars were open to the elements. Soon, hoods appeared on horseless carriages to manage the weather. But a convertible is something different. The lovely red Alfa Romeo Dustin Hoffmann drove across the Bay Bridge in The Graduate was not a convertible: most two-seater sports cars originally came with soft tops.
A convertible is a conventional car that has been converted. It’s almost a metaphysical proposition. It’s an indoor parlour altered to an outdoor playground. There is no functional rationale: convertibles are expensive to manufacture and very heavy, because the roof of a conventional car has a stiffening function. Take it away and the vehicle falls apart, so extra structure is required.
Instead, convertibles are about pleasure. And the performance factor is not dynamic but theatrical – sun, speed and sex. Yet, despite that compelling proposition, convertible sales were declining even before US safety legislation of 1971 required cars to pass a rollover text. Convertibles were bound to fail. The underlying reason for this decline in popularity? The new availability of factoryfitted air-con.
But in the 1990s there was a new demand, as manufacturers rediscovered the ingenious folding hardtop, conceived by Ben P. Ellerbeck in 1919. The 1996 Mercedes SLK was the best application of the Ellerbeck principles: passers-by would fall off the pavement as they boggled at the subtle mechanical ballet of whirring this and folding that.
The cult of the convertible was a glorious demonstration of the perversity of human desire. Avid for vitamin D, the British have always been the biggest market. But there are no great Italian convertibles because, in Portofino or Rome, the smart people do not go out in the midday sun.
1948 VOLKSWAGEN, left “Hitler used a convertible version of Dr Porsche’s 1936 Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagen (‘Strength through joy car’) in Nazi military parades. Karmann, a coachbuilder in Osnabrück, began manufacturing a civilian version in 1948”
1956 FORD FAIRLINE SKYLINER, right “The first popular folding hardtop required 610ft of electrical cable, 10 power relays, 10 limit switches, four lock motors, three drive motors and eight circuit-breakers. The result was a car almost twice as heavy and twice as expensive as the original”
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1959 CADILLAC ELDORADO, left and opening spread “The ultimate Detroit kitsch. This was the car Aretha Franklin enjoyed in Freeway of Love. The lyrics go: ‘So drop the top baby/And let’s cruise into/”It’s better than ever” street.’ More than 100 pink Cadillac convertibles attended the singer’s funeral in 2018”
1961 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL, right “America’s most glamorous car was designed by Elwood Engel. A convertible with four ‘kissing doors’ (the backward ones being rear-hinged) is unique. The fabric hood disappears beneath the vast boot lid, emphasising the Continental’s exceptionally clean lines. This was the car in which JFK was assassinated”
ALAMY
1996 ROLLS-ROYCE CORNICHE, below “Nominative determinism means this Rolls-Royce feels most at home on the Riviera. An added advantage of this magnificent absurdity is that liveried flunkies at the Hôtel du Cap will rush from their stupor to park it for you”
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