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the american era
from the beginning of the forties the retractable hardtop became fashionable in the usa / the 1941 chrysler thunderbolt
dream car was the first of that era, but the retractable hardtop was only a feature among others (full-ponton shape, concealable headlights) /
then a handful of dream cars or specials had a retractable hardtop, the most remarkable one being the extravagant gaylord gladiator /
the system came into mass production only in 1957, when ford unveiled its fairlane 500 skyliner /
the blue oval even claimed that it was a world premiere, ignoring the 20-year older peugeots éclipse
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the skyliner wasn't a huge commercial success anyway, as the retractable hardtop's drawbacks (weight, complexity, price and questionable reliability) overcame its convenience / the skyliner was dropped after model year 1959, but ford kept on working on the concept / a retractable hardtop thunderbird project was initiated and dropped immediately, but in 1966 a retractable hardtop mustang was built / it never came into production, but recently two mustangs have been converted according to the work of ben j smith / it is important in history as it is the first car with a retractable hardtop which is articulated on the top of the rear window / as the top is folded when retracted, it takes less room in the trunk and prevents from stretching too much the rear overhang / this system will only become a standard from early nineties
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in early seventies, there haven't been any available retractable hardtop car in the market for ten years and this situation was set to last a while / during the tough times of economic and energetic crisis and strengthening of safety regulations, regular soft-top convertibles were almost doomed themselves / no carmaker would have taken the risk to develop a retractable hardtop car which is supposed to be more expensive and even more futile / however, new convertible solid roof systems were developed, as the retractable t-top (citroën sm espace by heuliez, oldsmobile toronado xsr by asc, cadillac eldorado biarritz power t-top by asc) or the retractable targa (ferrari rainbow by bertone) / these systems did not go into production, but it proved that the idea of a retractable hardtop hadn't been dropped completely
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chrysler photo : rétroviseur / issue 50 / october 1992
1957 ford skyliner photo : rétroviseur / issue 84 / august 1995
1958 ford skyliner photo : les fabuleuses voitures américaines / alberto martinez, jean-loup nory / epa / 1983
1964 and 1966 ford mustang photos : from the site mustangs plus
ford restro-mod photo : supplied by daniel astle
citroën photo : citropolis / issue 15 / may-june 1999
oldsmobile photo : doug kitchener et don ross / supplied by chuck noppe
cadillac photo : jim richardson
ferrari photo : bertone / luciano greggio / giorgio nada editore / 1992
last updated 13/01/2002