Some photos have come up in an Israeli cars’ forum, specifically this thread. I thought it was funny enough to share with you.
As you can see, what started as a regular, quite unassuming Suzuki Swift GA 3-door hatchback, was turned into a Chevy Blazer-type convertible roof, opening the rear passengers and the boot, for that matter, to the elements. By not cutting the entire roof, the engineer responsible for this creation, wisely chose to maintain some of the body-shell’s rigidity:
Needless to say, this conversion is not legal in Israel, and I have no idea how this car is actually moving on a public road, without being stopped instantly. Maybe that’s why it has been disguised by a bogus license plate. The sharped-eyed among you will notice that it’s a combination of several countries and\or nationalities.
Now let me see if I can find a suitable removable hardtop…
Why is it not legal? Does it fail inspection for a particular reason or is modifying your car to that degree just not allowed?
Obviously I can’t tell from the photo if it has been strengthened properly or not.
In Israel, there’s a prohibition on what the law describes “contractual change”. You simply cannot cut off parts of the body / chassis and pass the annual MOT test.
That doesn’t mean people don’t try, and some might even succeed, if the change is subtle and the tester is clueless.
That’s somewhat depressing, to me. While our federal government has gone haywire trying to usurp the rights of the States, we still have a number of liberties and a LOT of freedom to do what we da**ed well feel like doing.
Go out to the Peoples’ Republic of California, and you can see some wild customized vehicles. No government permission necessary. 🙂
Skoda had a factory “semi convertible”, based on a pickup model. It was called the Skoda Felicia Fun (Not Only In The Sun).
That looks pretty fun!
Was it available in anything other than yellow? Every one I see is yellow.
As far as I know yellow was the only Fun color available.
Holy cow. I just Found a unicorn.
Suzuki had a factory convertible swift. It did nothing well except have good fuel economy. Non the less a cool car
This reminds me of a Sidekick, the Suzuki version of the Geo Tracker, but with the soft top removed.
Every once in awhile, I see some amateur ‘convertible’ job. The last was a ’68 Mercedes 280S labeled a ‘parade-car’, for sale at a Pennsylvania car show. (That was painfull!)
Typically, they don’t bother to add a covertible top, or any body reinforcement.
At least that Suzuki still has part of the roof structure left.
Happy Motoring, Mark
At first I thought it was a Suzuki X90 with no trunk lid; a vehicle I thought of as an Escape Pod to be carried in the back of your 4×4 in case you broke a transfer case deep in the outback somewhere
while these cars excel at getting great fuel economy cutting any structural steel out is a bad idea, especially since these cars are a death trap fully intact. ever hear of a “Field” car?
That means you’d probably just be ‘more dead’ in this one!
Though I once saw a woman survive her ’80s Suzuki-built Chevy Sprint after it got run over by a dump-truck. Turned out the part of the passenger cabin that wasn’t squashed was the driver’s seat.
Happy Motoring, Mark
This is on Craigslist now, in Portland, Oregon
https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/6017959666.html
And here’s a screenshot for posterity, as I’m sure it will sell immediately and the ad will be taken down.