I'm sorry if I'm asking a question that has already been asked, but I searched the forums and only found unrelated topics. I was wondering, what happens to the hardtop when you go into convertible mode? I thought that you take the entire thing off and just store it in your house or something, but my friend is telling me that it folds away just like the softop and hangs out in the back of your S. Can somebody please tell me what happens?

 

- take off soft top, put on hardtop

 

Thank you, but that's confusing. I mean, this is what I'm thinking of. If I have an S with a hard top, the hard top stays on all the time. Now, I want to go out with the top down because it's beautiful out. What do I do with the hard top? Does it fold away where the soft top would normally go, or do I remove it completely and put in my garage until I get home?

 

That thing isn't folding anywhere. It's gotta be removed. Tell your friend to quit sniffing glue

 

Does your friend ride the "special bus" to school? J/K. Take a look at the hardtops - there are no creases anywhere for it to fold right? It has to be removed.

 

ITS a s2000 not a SL55

 

Nero, your friend just doesn't know his cars too well. He's thinking about a retractable hardtop (like on the Mercedes SL55, among others) which works just like a ragtop but it's made of hard segments unstead of soft material. With a retractable hardtop you get the best of both worlds as it's a solid roof when up, but drops down for open air motoring. They do have their drawbacks though in that they weigh more than just a soft top and take up more space when retracted. The S2000 is a regular ragtop convertible that you can also buy a removable hardtop for, which clamps down to the car over the retracted soft top. Removable hardtops are typically either left on most of the time (for people that like the car but don't really care for convertibles), or are installed and left on for the winter months when the soft top would stay up anyway, and then removed and stored for the top down months.

ron

 

the hard top is one piece of alumminum that must removed from the car and put in the garage or house. You cannot carry the hardtop with you while you drive.

 

and if you buy one without first having the installation kit...you have no way of getting it home

 

Does the soft top have to be completely removed, frame and all, to install the hard top?