If Honda wanted to, how easily could they redesign the top to eliminate the manual boot cover? In other words, make it work like the Boxster or the MR Spyder. Could this be done with the current design or with this be a major overhaul?

 

It would take a major redesign to element the manual boot. First the roof well is way to shallow and the roof sticks up to far when retracted. Almost as bad as a VW Beetle. To lower the roof well, the rear would have to have redesign and the added weight of a auto boot (Boxster style) would upset the 50 50 weight.

 

I am not sure I understand what you mean by the added weight. From my understanding the top for an autoboot simply folds itself over to become the boot. In other words, there are no other devices necessary.

 

Have you ever owned a Beetle convertible, or for that matter a Rabbit convertible (now known as a Cabriolet)? The roof stack is far higher on these designs than on the S2000! To me, the Honda roof stack is more reminiscent to that on the Karmann Ghia convertible.

My convertible legasy (via spouses until the S2000 )
1971 Karmann Ghia
1976 Type I (Beetle) (We shook hands on the purchase, and then the poor thing burned to the ground the next day before money changed hands )
1981 Rabbit
1996 Mustang GT

 

I think perhaps there's a little too much attention being paid to the top. I mean the car was designed as a convertable, in other words, top down. The top, to me, is just there when it starts to rain down cats and dogs. I really don't care that the rear window is plastic, or that the top stores with "inside out". I clean the top and window because i don't like things dirty and want to be able to see, but i am not all that worried about it.

Probably just me though... I'll go back to my corner now.

-Shing

 

Consider where you live before deciding that this idea is overblown. If you live in a place of fairly consistent weather (especially warm and dry), I would not expect you to think this is a big deal. For those that live in climates where putting the top up and down is part of daily living, this is a relevant question. Additionally, it was apparently thought of and addressed in other roadsters. Anyway....

I am really hoping not to get off topic with this question and into a debate about the merits of the top or what other convertibles people have. All good questions and queries, but this topic was more aimed at the engineering question.

 

I feel it is more of a packaging and performance issue. If you look all around the car, there isn't much space left anywhere. The top well can't be any deeper since the fuel tank is right below it. If the fuel tank were aft of the rear axle, the fuel level would affect handling more than is does now. The tank would be more likely to fail in a rear end collision and the trunk would be even smaller. If the wheelbase was lengthened to try to accommodate every little convenience, weight goes up, performance goes down and so on.

 

To keep the same profile of the roof and trunk lines it would be impossible. The profile of the top near the rear window will have to come down practically straight down just behind the roll bars. Picture the profile with the boot in place and the profile of the top up, they cross. To be able to have an automatic hard boot, the boot profile whould have to be completely outside of the profile of the top. To top could fold down farther back, but would cut into the trunk space.

 

There are layout details in rear-engine roadsters like the Boxster and MR Spyder that make it easier to utilize the type of top design that ScottB is talking about.