(first posted 7/25/2014) The hardtop was one of pillars of American automotive design. It originated in the heady post-war years, an extravagance that reflected America’s breezy optimism and one of the first key steps towards the dominance of style over function that soon swept the automotive landscape. Like so much else of that airy era, it died in the stuffy seventies, a victim of threatened regulation, air conditioning, and a desire by Americans to hide in massive vinyl-topped rolling bunkers with gun slit windows rather than to be seen (and see) from every direction.
As with so many other facets of American culture, it was the Europeans and Japanese who embraced it and kept the windows wide open. Mercedes started early, and have offered pillarless coupes from 1960 through today — at a price. The Japanese discovered the joys of hardtops in the mid-late 60s, only shortly before Americans started erecting B Pillars with a vengeance, and a number of affordable Japanese hardtop coupes made it to the US. Subaru, better known for its rustic four-wheel drive wagons, was the final keeper of the flame, offering this coupe in 1984, the last affordable hardtop in America.
The first regular production hardtops were the GM C-Body coupes, which arrived sometime after the start of the 1949 model year. The Cadillac version was given the lyrical name Coupe de Ville, the start of a long and glorious tradition. Of course, it wasn’t exactly affordable.
It should be pointed out that at the time, convertibles were commonly called “convertible coupes”, and the “hardtop coupe” was essentially a new variation of the convertible style. Ads often made reference to the hardtop being for those that wanted “the sporty convertible look” but with a fixed roof.
But a mere one-year wait took care of the “affordable” equation. The 1950 Chevrolet Bel Air ushered in the hot new style in the low-priced segment, although not surprisingly, it was the most expensive ($1,721) in the line, next to the convertible. Still, in inflation adjusted terms, that’s a pretty reasonable $16,628.
In lieu of some time-consuming research, I’m going to guess that the 1965 Corvair 500 was probably the most affordable American hardtop ever, and that applies to both two-door ($2066) and four-door ($2142) versions. One would need to do some inflation adjustments to other compact hardtops to confirm that, but that ’65 500 adjusts to about $15,000 in today’s greenbacks.
American hardtop production collapsed during the early ’70s under the weight of threatened roll-over regulations and changing priorities. Air conditioning was ultimately the biggest one, as folks took to driving with the windows up, making hardtops increasingly irrelevant. The last big Chevy hardtops were built in ’75 for the two-doors, and ’76 for the four doors. Chrysler built the very last hardtops in America, the 1978 New Yorker and Newport Custom; the end of the road for an American invention and tradition. Which makes it rather ironic that this little Subaru carried that on, at least through 1984.
Outside of the realm of “affordable”, Mercedes has been the true carrier of the hardtop flame. The W111 was first sold in 1960, the elegant Mercedes W126 S-Class coupe was available through 1992, and the sleek W124 coupe continued to be available in the US through the 1996 model year. And there have been Mercedes hardtop coupes (CL-Class) ever since.
And the rather rare BMW 8 Series lasted through 1999.
And Mercedes will still sell you one today; starting at $52,200.
I’m not sure which Japanese was the very first hardtop, but this Corona coupe, which I shot in Portland, was first built in 1965. And Toyota was a big exponent of the style, offering hardtops across its various lines. But that ended a few years before 1984, for the US market. And there were hardtops from the other Japanese makers too, of course.
In Japan, hardtops continued to also be available into the 1990s. They had developed a major love for them there; someone here will tell us which as the very last (true) hardtop sold in Japan. Of course their later four door “hardtops” actually had a thin B pillar, like this Honda/Acura Vigor. Looks can be deceiving.
Subaru jumped into the hardtop era in 1977, just as the Americans were bailing. The GF coupe was more than a bit ungainly, sitting on the narrow and high-beltline platform of the gen1 Leone. It worked rather better as a four-wheel drive wagon than a stylish hardtop, and sold better that way too.
The second generation Leone was significantly wider, which made its proportions much more palatable, at least to American eyes. And the added interior width was a boon too. Subarus are often castigated for poor styling, but this generation was actually quite a good effort, hardtop or not. Still, these coupes were never very common.
The four wheel drive wagon of this generation was the most desirable, and one of the most prolific older cars here a few years back, the one that really made Eugene a Subaru town. But they’re starting to become a bit sparse now too, probably due to the hard use they’ve almost inevitably seen. Endless numbers of dark green Foresters have seemingly replaced them all as the older Subie of choice.
Subaru was already getting a bit adventuresome with their dashboards and controls, mounting a number of them on two projecting stalks. Looks almost Citroenesque. Subaru’s quirky side would soon come to fruition with their XT coupe, which essentially replaced this hardtop coupe. Those stalks developed into comprehensive controls on the XT.
Here’s how Subaru dealt with the shoulder belt. That alone was probably a significant reason genuine hardtops went bye-bye, until the integrated seats Mercedes pioneered came along in more recent years.
Sadly, four wheel drive was not available on the Subaru hardtop coupes; now that would have made for a unique vehicle: the only four-wheel drive hardtop ever? Or am I missing someone? These Subarus were powered by the 1781 cc EA-81 OHV boxer four, an engine that gained a rep for being very reliable and long-lived, and didn’t eat head gaskets like the more recent Subaru OHC boxers. Folks swear by them, instead of at them.
The 1980 DL version of this Coupe (I’m not exactly what year this one actually is) listed for $5,099, which adjusts to a bit over $14k today. That made it even cheaper than the that ’65 Corvair 500 coupe, and it was undoubtedly better equipped. And they both had boxer engines, of about the same horsepower.
This GL coupe likes to hang around with some equally-tough companions. Hard bodies and hard tops; makes for good company. And new conventional-cab pickups have become almost as rare as hardtops. Are they on the endangered list too?
Related reading:
1977 Subaru Leone Four Wheel Drive Wagon
Subaru XT Coupe: Back To The Future in 1985
That was my first car! Albeit an earlier iteration from 1981. It had 180,000 km on the clock, and the registration was on hold. It had been sitting unloved in a carport for years and its iron was decidedly more oxide than otherwise. But it had alloy wheels, power steering, a sunroof and four electric windows – all important features for a 17 year old with a shiny new driver’s licence. With a new battery it started right up and everything worked! I gave it hell for a year or so, and it never let me down. The EA81 was no power house, but the 5 speed trans allowed it to move along adequately. All I needed to do to the car was replace the frost plugs when the oil got milky. My brother also had one of these that had a twin carb EA71 transplanted from an earlier model, and it was surprisingly quick for what it was. Once the rust started to show through my bodged repairs, it was time to move onto something more modern (an R32 Nissan Skyline as it happens). But I definitely still have a soft spot for these. There’s even one 1981 like mine still driving around Auckland.
hi
this boxer is still runing
Nice find, Paul! My first car was a pillarless coupe as well, a ’79 Mazda 626 to be exact. Built through 1982, wonderful with the windows open.
When I saw the article, the RWD 626 immediately came to mind. A really nice car for the time, clean styling and a nice interior. Too bad it got a thrashy engine from a truck.
I am fascinated by the standing these cars had in the US. In Israel they (and previous models, starting in the early 70s) represented the first affordable everyday cars which did not require the buyer to compensate; they were also the first Japanese cars to be imported directly to Israel (Hinos were assembled there for a short period only) at a time when all the other Japanese manufacturers stayed away to not wanting to lose the Arab markets. Most were NOT 4X4s and sold on the combination of price, unbeatable reliability and equipment when compared with the competitors. At one time, Subarus were the best selling cars in Israel, I believe they sold more than 25,000 per year (and, per capita, sold better than anywhere else). However, this came to an end once other Japanese car makers arrived on the scene; these days Subaru is a pale shadow of what it used to be. The older models are starting to develop a cult status though…
I love that Corona hardtop. Never really cared for the sedan version but in profile that two-door has an admirable brevity. As to Subaru, wagons and Brumby utes dominated sales here in oz, I can’t remember when or if I ever saw a hardtop.
Don- in Australia there were a few slant nosed Corona utes.They didn’t have a large load space but were well proportioned and ultra reliable.
I’ve seen the Crown utes from this period, a mate had one and loved it. But I’ve never seen, let alone heard of, the slant nose ute. Cheers, Roderick.
A friend in Tasmania has a shovel nose Corona ute yeah its rare even there she also has a CA Bedford Dormobile and a 3 ton Bedford truck plus a MK3 Zephyr, Shovel nose Coronas are quite common in southwest Tassie wagons sedans hardtops all exist in going order and even utes.
Corona utes (didn’t we get off-topic quick!) were never common, even when new. Think I’ve only seen two, maybe three. Crown utes were quite mainstream, by comparison!
A pillar of Americana indeed…
On the Japanese hardtops, you’re correct that the RT50 Corona was the first. (I don’t think the earlier Michelotti-style Prince Skyline Sport Coupe was pillarless.) It wasn’t until the mid-sixties when any Japanese buyers had the money for that sort of thing. (The RT50 hardtop cost close to 20 percent more than a Corona Deluxe sedan.)
A small clarification: Some of the latter-day Japanese four-door hardtops were indeed pillarless hardtops, notably the Toyota Carina ED and Corona EXiV. The hidden-pillar variety was considerably more common, though, and some were executed artfully enough to make it hard to tell short of opening the doors.
It would appear the final generation of the Carina ED and Corona EXiV, introduced in ’93, weren’t pillarless:
http://www.japantradecar.com/CarDetail.aspx?SN=3484
I’ll check later there are heaps of those things here.
Yeah, I think the T200 version was not, but the T160 and T180 were. (The earlier versions, which are pillarless, suspend the shoulder harnesses from the headliner, so if you just glance at one from the side with the windows up, you could mistakenly conclude that it had a B-pillar.)
Oddly, the brochures for these cars don’t show them with the windows down or the doors open — you would have thought Toyota would want to show it off.
The brochures almost always were showcasing the frameless design in every single interior shot possible?
We’re looking at different brochures.
Being the last affordable hardtop, at least one company – American Custom Coachworks – did convertible conversions of the GL hardtop. It allowed for rear windows that opened, which most of the convertible conversions of the ’80s lacked.
A Subaru convertible…never would have thought of that. It actually looks good though!
I’d actually completely forgotten these hardtops ever existed, though on seeing the photos, my memory was jogged. I haven’t seen one in eons–actually have only seen one Subie of this generation in the past probably 5 years. That one was a rough 3-door, but it was still on the road. The treatment of the hardtop and the large additional window set into the C-pillar (does that make it an opera window??) have a very nice airy look.
My parents had a 1970 Toyota Corona 2dr coupe when I was a kid. It was the coolest looking car in the neighborhood. It was deep navy blue with a light blue interior. The exterior proportions made the car stand out. The unique feature of this hardtop was the way the rear windows retracted in the body as your opened them. If I recall, they pivoted down into the body. The car was not fast, had some faults, but it was a beautiful little car that turned heads no matter where it went.
I had a 72 Corona hardtop in Bronze 2.2L 6 with 5speed total rustbucket I wrecked it for parts for my 74 Sedan.
If I remember correctly, a Subaru ad stated: “A hardtop that’s really a hardtop”. I miss them all, for the hardtop was the pinnacle of design in that era, as is plain to see when you saw a hardtop next to a sedan in the same OEM in either 2- or 4-door arrangement.
My biggest beef, however, is why the sealed rear glass in coupes? Was that a by-product of A/C as well, or the fact that most owners of coupes only drive themselves or with one other passenger? Probably both are true.
Funny, for all of all my hardtop love, I’ve never owned one! Only convertibles and pillared coupes and sedans. Go figure…
If you’re referring to sealed rear glass in non-hardtop coupes, it’s likely cost, and perhaps (I’m not an engineer, nor do I pretend to be) the space needed for the regulator and roll-down mechanism makes it difficult and expensive to allow for enough body structure to meet side impact standards.
I also suspect, as Paul mentioned in the article, that mounting points for lap-and-shoulder belt combinations were a factor, especially before the common usage of seat-mounted belts. Not saying it wasn’t possible, but it was a dragon that was slayed on the altar of cost.
I’m sure it was and is a cost-cutting measure, but on higher-end cars, it’s inexcusable to me. Thing is, almost everyone else but me doesn’t seem to care!
With retro being in for a long time now it’s surprising that no American maker has resurrected the hardtop. I don’t expect a two door and four door hardtop Malibu but on a niche, high-style model like the CTS coupe it would be a great way to recall the golden age of American automotive design. The Challenger has a hint of the styling with a vestigal window behind the front. If they had gone all the way it would differentiate it from the competition.
We had one that was very close to that Subaru, although ours was blue and it was a 2 door post as I recall, don’t think it was a HT.
I must disagree that it was sad that you couldn’t get 4WD on the coupes, our Subie was 2WD and it was quite adequate in the snow (sort of the VW Beetle effect in reverse).
A new Subaru wagon would be a more compelling proposition to me if I could buy a brand new 2WD Legacy wagon. You can only get the 4WD Outback these days.
Count me as another who misses the hardtop. I always liked the Japanese efforts to keep them alive. I had forgotten abouththis Subie, but always remember the Mitsu built Challenger/Sapporo.
I agree that the 78 Chrysler C body was the last 4 door hardtop in the US, but would argue that the 79 Continental Mark V might have been the last 2 door model, unless Lincoln had fixed rear side windows by then.
I forget the year, JP, but there was a model year(s) that the quarter glass did not roll down on the huge Lincoln coupes, it slid back into the C-pillar – not all the way – to give the rare back seat passenger(s) some air!
Might have been before 1979 models, though – a co-worker back in the 80s had one.
The Mark had fixed windows with the ’77 update.
Fixed windows yes, but does that disqualify it as a true hardtop? Looking at photos I can’t tell if the chrome strip at the front of the fixed glass is actually structural (i.e. a B-pillar, albeit a thin one) or if it is merely a trim piece, in which case it might still qualify as a hardtop. At least to me.
It’s not a true hardtop in my book unless the side windows all open without obstruction.
I’m with Paul on the general definition. But, the murkiness that is body style nomentclature / popular usage, probably says the ’77 Mark coupe is a hardtop – a disappointing high priced one that still had stampings inside the quarters for mounting moving widow gears but Ford thought they could get away with it, and they did – hardtop.
My copy of the Standard Catalog of American cars is at home, but I think they tended to call the Gazillion two door frameless glass colonnade that GM were sold “hardtops.”
Were any of the 1977-79 Ford intermediate coupes (LTD II, Thunderbird, Cougar) also “fixed-glass hardtops”?
A qualified yes, MCT. The T-Bird had that basket handle roof, so did’t have glass immediately following the door window. The others did.
The reason I know the mountings were still in place for the window gears is my brother owned a ’78 Cougar XR-7 and we took the back seat area apart to install a stereo. Cost cutting that the marketplace accepted with few complaints.
I’d call those hardtops, but with a dumb cost-cutting design flaw.
I think the GM E-bodies (Eldo/Toro/Riv) were the last American hardtops with fixed quarter windows, yes?
When speaking of not-really-hardtops, the ’78 generation Chevy Malibu and Pontiac LeMans should get an honorable mention.They have fully structural B-pillars, but with the windows up they look like the real thing.
The facelifted Challenger and Sapporo were rather nice-looking; they were last sold in the U.S. in 1983, nearly as recently as this Subie.
The Sapporo or Scorpion in Australia lasted until 1985, a year longer than the Subaru coupe. I can’t think of a later ‘proper’ cheap hardtop but stand to be corrected.
Amazing how elegant or sporty a car looks as a hardtop. I really miss the full roll down window deal, but at least the current Challenger sort of teases us.
I’m pretty sure the full size Chevy had a full roll down window two door hardtop through at least ’75, and possibly ’76 in Impala trim. A red ’75 was part of a car show post on CC in the last several weeks. Chevy had two coupe rooflines – the fixed rear quarter window with the concave backglass, and the more conventional hardtop with operating rear quarter windows.
Olds 88 and Buick LeSabre were true hardops through ’76. I think the Pontiac Catalina was also through ’76, or at least ’75. One of GM’s better tricks in the mid / late ’70s transition to sedans was the promotion of fixed rear quarter windows in its senior cars and trickling it downward. The ’71 Eldorado was the beginning of the end – and a fashion statement, of course.
The Impala “Sport Coupe” two-door hardtop bodystyle was available through 1975. the ’74-’76 Catalina, 88 and LeSabre had a fixed Colonnade-style rear side window as well as a small roll down behind the door glass. The GM B and C cars had a plethora of different roofs from ’71-’76.
Yes. Interestingly, the Subie in the lead photo on this is very much in the character of the ’74 – ’76 Catalina, 88 and LeSabre coupes 20 years later. The addition of the glass in the C pillar is a nod to making the cars seem less conservative. Take the glass out of the Subie’s C, and it would look rather like a 3/4 scale of the roof on the Mercedes S Class coupe pictured in the write up.
IINM, the “Custom Coupe” (which was the only way Caprice coupes came; Impala coupes came both ways) lost its pillarless hardtop status the year before the Sport Coupe did — although without looking it up, I would have guessed that the last CC hardtop was ’73 and the last SC hardtop was ’74.
Thanks; I will fix the dates on the Chevy.
I just re-read the first line of this article.
It is well done.
I have owned two Japanese hardtops. This was my ’74 Mazda RX-4; it was a very dark green with white vinyl interior. The only pics I have of it are bad 38 year old Polaroids.
Very nice
The other was my ’81 626. Loved both of them.
I’ve always thought those 626 coupes really got the design “just right”. That would be a fun car to find today and do some tasteful upgrades to!
Probably nicer to drive than the Subarus, which lifted their inside FRONT wheels when cornering hard.
Beautiful car! I shopped the ’81 626 coupe when I first went Japanese after two disasters with American cars (78 Trans Am turbo and ’80 Mustang), but ultimately I went with the Corolla Sports Roof coupe which was just introduced.
That generation 626 was beautifully designed, topped only by the under appreciated 1993 MX6.
“Sadly, four wheel drive was not available on the Subaru hardtop coupes; now that would have made for a unique vehicle: the only four-wheel drive hardtop ever? Or am I missing someone?”
Paul, you can buy one of those today, this minute, actually. It may even be the first ever. For the low, low price of $116,600, a Mercedes CL550 4MATIC can be yours. True pillarless design and AWD. A princely sum, but man, those are some beautiful cars.
I agree; just about the only Benzes that still talk to me. I should have limited that question to cars of the past. I was trying to remember if the W124 coupe came with 4-matic. Does the current E Class coupe?
Nope. That’s actually what I was suspecting so I checked the web site, and there isn’t a 4MATIC E-class coupe. Just that one particular model of CL-class.
I don’t *think* it was availble on the W124 coupe either, but I’m not 100% sure as I don’t know if those were actually separate models or if it was a particularly expensive option in those days.
I’m pretty sure the W124 coupe wasn’t available with the 4Matic.
Sorry if someone already mentioned this, but… Mercedes has offered hard-top coupes non-stop since the w126 (well, C126). All of the S-class models since then have been available in this configuration, including fully-retracting rear windows.
Actually, since 1960, with the W111 coupe. And you’re right, I should have emphasized that they never stopped making one.
In the 50s, MB also made a four door hardtop 300.
Does that have THREE retracting windows on each side? (Plus vent windows!)
My Grandad had one of the 4×4 wagons. I believe it had a 3rd headlight that was under the Subaru emblem on the grill. I believe it was a passing light… the grill emblem would roll up back into the grill on command. Anybody???? He really liked that car. That dash and controls would light up the car red at night with the headlights on. He really liked that car, my step-grandmother however did not so away it went… replaced by a Chrysler Cordoba that was a piece of garbage.
I had a buddy in high school that had a coupe similar to the one shown. His older brother drove the hell out of it, then passed it down. The younger brother had to avoid a dump truck on a country road by quitting the road and opting for the woods. He survived… the car did not.
I love the company the subject car keeps… the 72 F-250 Camper Special!! I have a 71 like it and a 72 F100. Great trucks!
Yes the 82?-84 Subaru’s had that 3rd light under the emblem as an option. It basically acted as a passing light. It was called the cyclops
So if a hard top is simply just a car that is missing the B pillar, then would that have made the 1993-2002 Camaro and Firebird coupe the last affordable hard top car? True it is a hatchback but there is no B pillar on them. You got the A pillar and the C pillar(where the seatbelts are attached) Unlike the Mustang of the same era, the F-body does not have the rear quarter window(aka the fixed rear side windows)
The language used to describe body styles is nebulous. But, GM ushered in the “hardtop” word in a big way in 1949. It became generally accepted that a car, in two door, wagon or four door with front and rear roll down windows and no B pillar between the windows was a hardtop.
From that point, the terminology can get murky pretty fast. So, your point that a two door car with frameless door glass is a hardtop is valid. Heck, somebody, perhaps Mercedes, pulled “four door coupe” out of something a few years ago. Positively ridiculous, but ridiculous has never stopped a marketing department.
Nebulous, indeed. As a kid reading C&D, R&T, MT, etc. the terminology confused me to no end. I don’t know how many years it was before I realized what the writers meant by “hardtop.” To my thinking, any car with a metal roof was a hardtop… in fact, wasn’t the term “hardtop” originally coined to distinguish any metal-roofed car from one with a fabric roof?
” I don’t know how many years it was before I realized what the writers meant by hardtop.”
As a preteen kid in the early ’80s, I remember being puzzled by the same thing, and finally understanding after studying the photos in an auto encyclopedia and realizing that all of the cars in the photos labelled “hardtop” lacked center pillars.
The origin of the term comes from the fact that convertibles were sometimes/commonly called a “convertible coupe”. Thus the “hardtop coupe” was essentially a convertible with a hardtop, which was also technically the origin of the early hardtops: they used the convertible body (and IIRC, the reinforced convertible frame) and literally “added” the hardtop to it. In that context, it rather makes more sense, eh?
Later hardtop bodies were designed from scratch, and not built quite that way, although they often still used some of the same window mechanisms and such (assuming there was a convertible version). Maybe that also helps explain the demise of the hardtop: the death of convertibles.
I had understood that very early on, they were often called “hardtop convertibles” for the very reasons you mention, and that the term was later shortened to just “hardtop”.
Historically, convertibles weren’t actually “converted” from a regular car, right? In other words, didn’t ragtops precede metal tops? And if my memory is right (from reading, not from living through the era), when metal roofs were introduced they were often or perhaps always removable. So from the beginning there was an implication that a hardtop lacks a center pillar, because the attachment points for an old-fashioned removable metal top would have been front and rear, with no B-pillar to impede open-air touring with the roof off.
It makes sense now, but as a kid it didn’t. And I’ll bet the average adult today doesn’t know what “hardtop” really means.
Yes, open cars came first. But no, the early sedans generally did not have removable roofs. Enclosed bodies required substantially different construction techniques from open bodies, which were very light and rather …insubstantial. The switch to enclosed bodies was a big deal, and they also weighed a whole lot more, with all that glass and the top. But the weren’t just added to the open body. The open bodies didn’t have the strength for that; they were just a cowl, some low-cut doors, and a little back section.
In fact, the very rapid switch to enclosed bodies in around 1925-196 or so was a real problem for Ford, because the T was never envisioned to carry one. It made the T rather overweight, and it looked like a rolling telephone booth. The switch to enclosed bodies hasted the demise if the T, and the Model A was designed for enclosed bodies from the beginning, and wore them much better.
Here’s the Model T with enclosed sedan body:
If there is no window between the door and the C-pillar it doesn’t qualify. There’s a particular look that defines a hardtop and those definitely don’t fit. It’s not particularly that they’re hatchbacks, it’s the lack of another window back there. In fact there have been hatches that might also be sort-of hardtops–the E70 Corolla Sport Coupe and Liftback come to mind as having had a pillarless window aft of the door but before the B-pillar. Don’t know if those little windows opened though.
Also, blame Rover for the abuse of the coupe terminology. The P5B Coupe had 4 doors (and a B-pillar), just a lower roofline and a faster C-pillar.
So would the Pontiac G6 Convertible qualify? Sure it is a convertible BUT it is fashioned with a hard top that retracts instead of the cloth top in a conventional convertible so with the top up it appears it is simply a coupe. Like all convertibles, the side side windows do go down even with the top up.
Hmm, now metal-roofed retractables like that are a good question. I don’t know. If you can retract the rear windows without dropping the top, they might qualify. Or, being a convertible at the end of the day, they might not. Hmmm.
Those are becoming common enough that they might deserve their very own category though…BMW Z4 (current) and 3-series (E90), Mercedes SLK and past couple generations of SL, VW Eos, most recent Volvo C70, Lexus SC430…
Hmm, now metal-roofed retractables like that are a good question.
Yup. I’d call them a hardtop, vs a ragtop. I remember the 57 Fords being called a “convertible hardtop”.
Big difference between what we usually think of as a hardtop, and the pillared hardtops of the 70s and anything with frameless door windows vs doors with window frames is wind noise. Even in older cars with frames on the windows, the slipstream at highway speed can suck the top edge of the glass, or a weak frame, away from the weather stripping and let a lot of wind roar in. A car with a rigid window frame and multiple layers of weather stripping is a lot quieter.
As for the roof strength standards that have given us such thick, vision blocking pillars, obviously convertibles are exempt. I recall a lawsuit back in the 70s contending that such a roof strengh standard was “discriminatory” if it eliminated an entire class of body style, so apparently the court agreed. If ragtops can be exempt, then hardtops should be exempt as well.
Actually, the last-generation Cavalier and Sunbird factory convertibles did not have rear quarter windows that went down independently – they only retracted when the roof was folded.
The Dodge Shadow convertible also had fixed quarter glass attached to the convertible frame. The glass went down only when the top was lowered.
Are you talking about the E70 three-door coupe, the Liftback, or the actual two-door hardtop body style? The E70 Corolla and Sprinter offered all three.
I did realize that; during a discussion over on Flickr it was once theorized that the E70 Corolla offered the most body styles ever for a single model of car in a single generation. (2-door sedan, 4-door sedan, wagon, 2-door hardtop coupe, “sport coupe” hatchback, liftback.) However Leon’s original question about the Firebird/Camaro pertained to hatchback, which is why I brought up the sport coupe and the liftback (both with hatches) but not the two-door hardtop (with a trunk).
What a find! Amazing to see any Subaru body of that era that’s not held together with a combination of duct tape, Bondo and political stickers. Even the later ’90s models were rather prodigious rusters compared to other Japanese manufacturers.
Thankfully FHI finally got with the program. On my recent trip to northern Wisconsin I noticed that the most of the numerous Foresters and Outbacks of early-mid 2000s vintage in the area were showing only minor rust, if any. This is an area where I saw a lot of cars not particularly known for rust (early ’00s Camrys, Accords, Impalas, Altimas etc) that were quite eaten up.
On the other hand I also saw (and wish I had photographed) an early ’90s USPS-spec RHD Legacy wagon that was still out delivering the mail in the rural areas around Woodruff and Minocqua. It was by far the rustiest running vehicle I have ever seen!
As a young kid my folks had a ’67 and later a ’72 LTD 2-door hardtop. When they traded the ’72 for the ’78 Malibu coupe that would one day become my first car. I remember asking why the back windows didn’t roll down. GM at the time claimed it was to save weight in order to improve fuel efficiency.
The demise of the low-priced, domestic hardtop, ironically, coincides with the great downward spiral of the rest of American styling in the early seventies. Everyone remembers how high horsepower engines and convertibles all disappeared, along with the advent of 5mph bumpers and shoulders belts, all at about the same time, but the hardtops all went away, too.
It’s a shame because after convertibles, pillarless hardtops were the best looking cars in any model’s lineup. And it’s kind of sleazy how the manufacturers kept the hardtop ‘look’ without actually installing the mechanisms which allowed the rear quarter windows to roll down. A great example was the 1971-1974 Chrysler B-body intermediates. At first, the quarter windows rolled down but, after a few years, they became fixed.
Even today, the new Challenger and Camaro do the same thing. They black-out the quarter windows so it looks like they’re pillarless, but they’re not. I can see it with the Challenger but there’s a convertible in the Camaro lineup where the quarter windows ‘have’ to retract. How hard would it have been to install the same mechanisms in the coupes?
In fact, I wonder if the 1970 Challenger ‘Deputy’ was one of the first vehicles where one of the manufacturers figured out that they could get away with fixed quarter windows.
The Dodge and Plymouth intermediate coupes (Charger and Satellite/GTX/Road Runner) each offered a least-expensive version with fixed rear quarter windows as early as the first year of the design, 1971; I learned this only recently.
Yeah, I guess I can’t begrudge Chrysler too much on the fixed quarter windows for the base 1971 musclecars. After all, the original Road Runner weren’t all hardtops, either. Unfortunately, the quarter windows on the 1968-70 coupes ‘did’ have flipper-style quarter windows so at least they opened a little.
These used to be everywhere here. My grandparents had 2 hatchbacks, one which they gave to my brother, I also remember my cousins having a hardtop like this in the early 90s. Haven’t seen one in over a decade, though.
“The hardtop was one of pillars of American automotive design.” Hah!
I was beginning to think I was the only one who caught that…
I had too, but you beat me to commenting on it.
I always thought the end of the hardtop was mainly due to rollover standards, not that a hardtop could not meet the standard, but it was cheaper to put B pillars in. The fixed rear windows (on coupes) was probably justified by increased A/C, but was a cost saving feature. I also always thought that the 1959 GM hardtops, with the wrap around front and rear windows, looked like nothing much held up the roofs. GM’s A pillars look weak up to the 1963 model year, when the design looks better, but probably is not much better.
Pillarless no, affordable yes….
Ford Australia built hardtop coupes in the XA,XB XC series but they became impossible to off load culminating in the numbered Cobra paint job limited edition model to get rid of the last 500 bodyshells, Very popular with collectors today they feartured rear glass that dropped into the body for the purist, However they also featured seatbelts which anchored in the roof above the B pillar which when worn in the prescribed manner tried to carve a trench in the wearers neck, probably not the reason they became unsaleable new that was down to price and impracticality but it was one of the hazards of ownership nobody in the collector cult even knows about, they tend to be the kids who drooled over their dads mates coupe not the poor sod with nylon rash on his shoulder who drove one.
“Subarus are often castigated for poor styling, but this generation was actually quite a good effort, hardtop or not…”
I completely agree. I especially like the versions with the twin round headlights, but as a child, I found that the 1985-1994ish generation was my favorite; at least at the beginning, they were sharp looking. The hardtop design was by then largely a Subaru quirk, and as a child, I noticed right away. It was so strange to me that they made such horrible engine noise, though; I didn’t understand the way exhaust pulses travel. They were everywhere in the Adirondacks.
Future Legacyies and Imprezas were also criticized, but I don’t know why. They’re pretty conservative efforts and the 89-94 and 05-09 versions are particularly handsome. Now as for today’s Subarus, especially the Legacy and Outback, there’s plenty about the styling which merits complaining.
There was no threat of regulations the regulations were real, the NHSTA did enact roof crush standards. See Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 216, “Roof Crush Resistance,” became effective on September 1, 1973. An exemption was made for convertibles.
Yes, although FMVSS 216 did not outlaw pillarless hardtops as is popularly assumed. (Various hardtops continued to be sold for at least a little while after the standard was enacted.)
The updated standard, which is now phasing in, is likely to make them more difficult. The original standard required that a car’s roof not crush more than 5 inches under a pressure of either 1.5 times the car’s curb weight or 5,000 pounds, whichever is less. Under the new rule, the force is increased to 2.5 times curb weight and rather than having to deform no more than 5 inches, the stipulation now is that the roof can’t contact the head of a crash dummy. That’s tricky if you also have to take that load through a pillarless roof, although I imagine the Germans will continue to do it anyway just to show off.
Also, there is an exemption still for convertibles and for cars that meet the optional rollover protection standards in §571.208, so there are ways around it.
They probably shouldn’t count, but the 79-85 GM E bodies had the hardtop look with fixed rear windows. I think that is one reason those cars look so good.
Since the thread has wandered off of Subies a bit….check out the window action in this hardtop.
And why the Groucho Marx doll in the back seat? Groucho’s TV show was sponsored by DeSoto
Wow – I’m not sure I have ever seen a 1956 Mopar 4 door hardtop in the metal, and certainly have never seen the action of those rear windows. What an incredibly complicated solution to the problem, especially on a body that would be in production for a single year.
Someone in my neighborhood had one of these when I was a kid and I think I’ve only ever seen about 3-4 others besides it. Always thought it was really cool looking, although theirs was a terrible color – hearing aid beige. Didn’t actually know they were proper hardtops, which only makes them cooler.
I’m kinda surprised that Subaru didn’t offer 4WD on them. I always assumed it was available on everything back then, since even the DL/GL hatches could be equipped as such:
Subaru never offered their original “On Demand” part-time 4wd on the Hardtop, but when they offered full time AWD, at first on turbo automatic models only (it was a package deal on ’84s, “Turbo-Traction” w/mandatory AT, the only component that could be unbundled was the slushbox which remained an option for 2wd NA cars) it could be had on the hardtop coupe, wagon or BRAT making an AWD Subaru hardtop a one-year-only car.
http://importarchive.com/subaru/dlgl/1980-1989/specs
Pop had a few hardtops in the fifties, but then shied away from them, as he’d has issues with failing seals between the glass panes, leading to draftiness.
Widened B-pillars on American cars seem to arrive shortly after wide ties arrived.
Only six years ago we were concerned about side-window options on coupes. Now there are virtually no affordable cars with two doors. Using Cars.com to search inventories, the cheapest ‘new’ coupe within 20 miles of me is a leftover 2019 Camaro for $20,840, which is seven grand off. I was almost tempted to test drive, and then it turned out to be a four-cylinder attached to an automatic. Might as well get a Civic, except the closest two-door Civic is 54 miles away and four thousand dollars more expensive. Even that one is a leftover 2019 with a CVT.
The first person I remember talking to about their Subaru ownership had one of these hardtops. He was the teenage son of a family whose other cars were an XJ6 and a 533i. I think there was still a bit of anti-Japanese bias among opinionated fourteen-year-olds at the time, and he was defending his new car vociferously on the grounds that Subaru had the highest customer satisfaction rating. I recall saying that it was because their customers weren’t a discerning bunch, but these were probably the most durable cars Subaru ever made. Five years later I was working for a Subaru dealer selling cars that were giant disappointments to people who traded in this generation for a Loyale, Legacy or Justy. We were still selling the two-door 4WD hatches from this generation, and we had two in stock, but I don’t remember anyone ever buying one.
Thread Resurrection!
The ONLY year you could get a 4WD hardtop was in 1984. The turbo hardtops were all 4WD but were expensive and didn’t sell well. I love mine, it always draws many many questions.
Was there a turbo EA81 OHV made for the coupe ?