Comments on: Convertible owners: Enjoy it year-round! https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/home/convertible-owners-enjoy-it-year-round/ News and views about cars in Australia Fri, 19 Jun 2020 15:38:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.5 By: Arty https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/home/convertible-owners-enjoy-it-year-round/#comment-4084 Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:09:38 +0000 http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/?p=2591#comment-4084 Smart car Roadster 🙂 cool days are the better ones – roof down, heater on, heated seats on – Way to Go

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By: Garry https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/home/convertible-owners-enjoy-it-year-round/#comment-4083 Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:32:19 +0000 http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/?p=2591#comment-4083 As a now daily motorcycle commuter the time I spend in my 14 yo S2000 is restricted to weekends, but it still get driven weekly (every Saturday afternoon for 4 hours) and ALWAYS with the top down even if it is raining (you just need to drive faster, once you hit 90km/h the rain doesn’t land inside). Albeit you may get a few strange stares in such conditions from other drivers, but as far as I’m concerned I’m a lot snugger and dryer in my convertible than I would be on my bike in the same conditions.

… and David, I also owned a Sierra in the mid ’80s and it was definitely worth the trouble of unclipping its roof and frame to drive open topped, I even unbolted the roll bar, removed the doors and laid the windscreen flat on mine for the complete alfresco experience. 🙂

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By: david https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/home/convertible-owners-enjoy-it-year-round/#comment-4080 Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:16:18 +0000 http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/?p=2591#comment-4080 My lust for topless motoring started early in my driving life a few decades ago, when one day at lunch in the city I spotted a Ford Landau parked outside an art gallery, top down. Whats that you say? Landaus didnt come in a convertible. Correct, they didnt, unless you made one yourself! This one was made properly, unlike the multitudes of Valiant 2 doors around those days with dodgy alloy roof frames and gaps betwen the roof fabric and windows that you could put your head through. (Hate to see them in the rain). No, this one was made properly by a place called Choptops, with a modified Mustang power top, proper chassis stiffening and quality llined roof fabric. I used to see it every lunch time in Castlereagh Street and resolved to get myself a Landau and do the same. I eventually did get a Landau but sadly, my example never got its top off dut to hidden rust in the body and a dearth of finances. Fast forward to the present though and I have owned my fair share of convertibles since then, including Datsun Sports 2000’s, Clubsport Capris, and even got the wind in the hair offroad with Suzuki Sierras and Vitaras. Nothing was a good as a crisp morning pressing on through a gorge topless, with the sounds of the exhaust reverberating back from cliffs and giving you such a feeling of connection with your car, so that your gearchanges were never smoother and the connnection between man and machine never keener. Great too where those warm evening drives, and drives to nowhere with my wife in the country with no particulalr destination, save somewhere nice to lay the picnic blanket and the picnic basket on it.
None of of my convertibles had power tops, and as I got older ans lazier I sometimes I found it all too hard to put the top down as it was all too much trouble to put the roof down and back up, (especially the Sierra), and as a result I didnt get my top off as much as I wanted. I swore then in the those times that if I ever got a convertible with a power top, I would go topless everywhere at the press of a button. Now my wife has had her Eos (a very popular choice it seems) for a few years and I am sad to say my time in the car has been most commonly roof up, until now. Convertible drivers I now declare, do as I now resolve to do- live life like the puppy who has found the front gate open and go topless anywhere and everywhere you can!

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By: Peter https://www.privatefleet.com.au/blog/home/convertible-owners-enjoy-it-year-round/#comment-4079 Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:50:10 +0000 http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/?p=2591#comment-4079 I have fond memories of driving my 1962 MGA MkII Winter Summer and Spring and Autumn…only really putting the roof up when it rained! In winter I fashioned a warm blanket with a hole cut in the middle, so it acted like an over-sized poncho that extended to the leather gloved hands (this model did not come standard with a heater!!) and wore a bright red beret on top. Loved the wind in my long hair (well, it was the 70’s).

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