I was SO close to buying one of these 20 years ago. Living in SE FL I LOVED the idea of the t-tops and IIRC they even fit in the trunk!Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's
In the end it was between this, the Lightning, an M3, or keeping my Harley, and in the end the Harley won out.
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I was SO close to buying one of these 20 years ago. Living in SE FL I LOVED the idea of the t-tops and IIRC they even fit in the trunk!
In the end it was between this, the Lightning, an M3, or keeping my Harley, and in the end the Harley won out.
Yes, the 4th Gen F-bodies had a special place in the hatch for the tops. The parcel shelf had a big drop off in the back to make a slot deep enough for them and there were attachment points on the walls so they locked in place like they did when they were on the car. My '97 Z28 was the last t-top equipped car I had, and the fastest car I owned until I bought my 2011 SS/RS.
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Right, but they aren't as rigid as a design incorporating a normal roof would have been. Normal roof design is most rigid, then t-tops , then convertibles.
IIRC, side impact airbags and crash standards killed off the t-top design, but I always liked them better than "real" convertibles. Lighter weight, no cloth to wear out, trunk space isn't as compromised with "top down", etc.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Speaking of, when I was shopping fast cars back then (2001-2002 era), if I could have found one of these somewhere, the Harley would have lost out…
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What is it? Obviously a BMW, but I'm out of my depth quickly with imports.Speaking of, when I was shopping fast cars back then (2001-2002 era), if I could have found one of these somewhere, the Harley would have lost out…
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...ake-road-test/
Short-ish version…
2001 was a pretty banner year for various go-fast cars, but particularly certain imports. The US M cars and the US WRX had been either neutered or not available prior to 2001. In ‘01 the “real” M cars came to the US with the 300+ hp motor. IIRC that was the M3, M Roadster (convertible) and the M Coupe (hard top, hatchback, version of the Roadster).
So basically it was a hard top M Roadster, making it stiffer and also potentially more liveable with the hatch space for (in my mind at the time) guns.
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A friend had one. Parents bought it for him for a graduation present. It was great fun to drive. Until it started to have the bmw cost of maintenance in mileage.Speaking of, when I was shopping fast cars back then (2001-2002 era), if I could have found one of these somewhere, the Harley would have lost out…
I think you gotta factor that in.
It seems like a lot of folks somehow get surprised by that, which is itself surprising to me…
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Well, if you have experience with a wide variety of Japanese and even American cars, then try a German car, it's not surprising that one would be surprised by it.
ETA: It's not just "more maintenance." It's not just a little worse. It's a level of awful that a person has no basis for imagining if they haven't experienced it.
I didn't work on Z3 coupes much, but I remember deciding whether to do a suspension installation. You basically have to remove the entire interior behind the seats to get at the four nuts that hold the top of the rear shocks in, because it's layered in there like shingles on a roof. It wasn't just that model. E39 5 Series required the rear interior to be removed to get at the upper shock mounts, too. Suspension on one of those cars was a 15 hour book rate job. Two days to do something that should be two hours.
I think it was C&D that said the Z3 coupe looked like a "nerd's shoe." So of course that was what we called it, even as we enjoyed driving it sideways. The MZ4 coupe is a vastly better machine.
Last edited by OlongJohnson; 11-25-2021 at 09:21 AM.
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Not another dime.
Maybe if you also live in a bubble.
It’s not like this isn’t common “knowledge”.
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