Suddenly a heavy rain started as I was driving between 65mph -75mph on the highway... Rain was over in 5 minutes.

The rain did not get in from the top... And the center of the car was still dry. My head and right shoulder were completely dry. Only my left shoulder and left arm got wet; but not soaked...

The rain water rushed to the side windows from the windshield (and hood?), and with the side windows up, the water traveled up in a slant line and dripped inside the cabin from the upper rear part of the side windows.

Tried side windows up - down : Water got in either way. Turned wipers on and off, did not matter...

Any ideas/experiences to eliminate water getting in under heavy rain (with the top down)?

 

Drive faster?

 

no matter what i try, rain comes over my side windows into the cabin.

 

geez man! everyone knows: more gas, less wet! wheres that icon on people's sigs?!?!

 

describe heavy rain. i drove through heavy ass rain, barely visibility, yeah that bad. there is no way to prevent rain from getting in. i drove through some pretty bad weather, i would not personally call it heavy ran but it was pretty hard and in no way was it light. i rolled up the windows, floor it to 80 mph and did not use the windshield wipers. but the former, there wasnt a way, i has to pull over under an over pass and put the top up. that was the first time i put it up in a rain. once the top it down and i am on the freeway, if it rains it stays down.

 

drove in hard rain form UCLA once, cockpit and head was dry at 70 mph

 

Yep - more gas = less wet.

 

From a purely scientific perspective, that is not entirely true. I watched a segment on truthbusters about something similar. They tested the theory about running in the rain vs walking in the rain. After their own tests, they found that running in the rain made you more wet. You will actually pick up more rain by moving forward at a faster pace than you would by moving at a lesser velocity.

This is something that has been argued back and forth for years really. I also found an interesting calculator that allows you to estimate just how much rain will fall on you if you are walking or running. Who knows, you may be able to plug in the dimensions for an S2000 in there and see your optimal travel speed to get the least wet.

I have driven through a fair number of rain storms and found that no matter wet, there will always be some water that gets into the cabin of the car.

Here is the link to the calculator: how wet will you get?

 

Thats pretty irrelevant.....they're talking about keeping rain out of the cabin....not off the car itself.

 

The problem with driving in the rain with the top down is that you have to drive with the windows up or the water comes around the windshield and drips onto the door and then the dealer bitches about replacing the window control switches (but he did replace them).

If you have to drive with the windows up, you might as well have the stupid top up.

I don't know why it is so hard to design a car that the water does not sneak around the windshield and into the car on during the rain, my 1973 Fiat did not for 34 years I owned it and my 1967 Dino does not, I can drive it and stay dry, but the S you will get some water around the windshield.