image: wikipedia
The Eagle wasn’t exactly an easy car to outdo, especially as a two door with a landau vinyl roof. But Griffith Industries, which also built the similar Toyota Celica Sunchaser, had a solution. The price wasn’t exactly cheap ($3,750)–or about a 50% increase over the donor car–which may help explain why only some 500 were sold. But if you wanted sun and views to go with your luxurious off-roading–back when that concept was pretty much unheard of–the Eagle Sundancer was hard to top.
The Sundancer was also available on the Concord. ≠
Both were offered during the 1981 and 1982 model years. Now who’s going to find one on the streets?
I think that one of these was mentioned here awhile back, but before that, I do not believe I had ever heard of one of these. Wow.
That said, I always thought that this body sort of lent itself to a convertible, but this version with the rollbar doesn’t really do it for me. Why not a removable roof on the wagon version? Someone has probably done this with a Sawzall by now.
The 80s, wait a great time for silly convertibles.
Don’t forget about the ultra-rare convertible Mercury Lynx Turbo, only offered in Canada in MY1982.
Yeah, the 80’s were a silly time for convertibles…
Nissan Crosscabriolet
Only the gifted could drive this with a straight face.
Never heard of them. Whats with the nose high stance is that all the strengthening weight cominig into play
Could be, on those side shots it certainly looks like there’s an extra 2-3″ of steel framing underneath compared to the standard sedan. To need all that plus the targa bar probably doesn’t say much about the original car’s structural integrity.
Well, not necessarily. With unitized bodies, it really depends very much on the way the body is stressed. Cars like the early unitized Jaguars or the Tipo 105 Alfa Romeos carried a lot of their structural loads in the floor and sills, which meant that they could be converted to hardtops or open cars without falling completely to pieces. (Alfa did that on purpose because they wanted to be able to supply a base unit to third-party coachbuilders for special bodies.)
On the other hand, if you distribute the load throughout the whole structure — which is better for weight and packaging — that puts enough of the load into the pillars and roof that cutting off the roof or even cutting a big hole in it really plays hell with your torsional strength. That doesn’t mean the basic car is weak, just that it was not designed to be a convertible and the body wasn’t engineered for that.
I like the ad:
“a genuine alternative to conventional cars”
Yes, that is one way to look at it I guess. And Susan Boyle is a genuine alternative to Beyonce.
I’m generally an Eagle fan, but that is awful.
ahead of their time? Murano convertible.
Look at that freakin’ beam hanging below the rockers on that Concord! No wonder the ass is sagging!
The bottom (black and white) photo is interesting in that it clearly shows the much closer fitting bumpers that were able to be used on the Eagle (vs. the Concord) due to it being classified as a light truck.
I can remember when I first saw pix of the Griffin Concord convertibles, I thought it was a crass attempt at trying to keep the car relevant, as they were rather ancient cars by that time. 30 years later, I think I’d go for one of the Griffin Concords. Just for the weirdness factor, all by itself.
Now, the Griffin Eagle, that really was a WTF? moment…
That is the biggest, ugliest rollbar I’ve ever seen. It makes the Jaguar XJ-SC targa/kinda convertible look positively chic and well-integrated.
Was it made by the Red Green Convertible Corporation? No, of course not; no duct tape. Well, no visible duct tape…